Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

We still have time to mess this up!

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Infrastructure week. at last.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

T R E 4 5 O N

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

This fight is for everything.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / The Maskirovka Slips IX: KOMPROMAT!!!! (Updated)

The Maskirovka Slips IX: KOMPROMAT!!!! (Updated)

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CNN has reported that a two page synopsis was appended to the classified briefing given to the President, the President-elect, and the Gang of Eight (The Speaker of the House, the House Minority Leader, Senate Majority and Minority Leaders, and the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees) stating that a retired MI6 officer had reported to the FBI in Rome that the Russians had been trying to and had compromised the President-elect. CNN’s reporting confirms and advances David Corn’s, which I first highlighted in an earlier Maskirovka post.

Classified documents presented last week to President Obama and President-elect Trump included allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump, multiple US officials with direct knowledge of the briefings tell CNN.

The allegations were presented in a two-page synopsis that was appended to a report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. The allegations came, in part, from memos compiled by a former British intelligence operative, whose past work US intelligence officials consider credible. The FBI is investigating the credibility and accuracy of these allegations, which are based primarily on information from Russian sources, but has not confirmed many essential details in the memos about Mr. Trump.

There is video of Jake Tapper covering the story at the link.

Rick Wilson, a GOP communications and campaign strategist who ran former CIA officer Evan McMullin’s independent campaign for President, and who tried to get this information out during the primaries, believes the personal kompromat has to do with:

CNN’s reporting includes:

One reason the nation’s intelligence chiefs took the extraordinary step of including the synopsis in the briefing documents was to make the President-elect aware that such allegations involving him are circulating among intelligence agencies, senior members of Congress and other government officials in Washington, multiple sources tell CNN.
These senior intelligence officials also included the synopsis to demonstrate that Russia had compiled information potentially harmful to both political parties, but only released information damaging to Hillary Clinton and Democrats. This synopsis was not an official part of the report from the intelligence community case about Russian hacks, but some officials said it augmented the evidence that Moscow intended to harm Clinton’s candidacy and help Trump’s, several officials with knowledge of the briefings tell CNN.
The two-page synopsis also included allegations that there was a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trump surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government, according to two national security officials.
And:
CNN has confirmed that the synopsis was included in the documents that were presented to Mr. Trump but cannot confirm if it was discussed in his meeting with the intelligence chiefs.
The Trump transition team declined repeated requests for comment.
CNN has reviewed a 35-page compilation of the memos, from which the two-page synopsis was drawn. The memos originated as opposition research, first commissioned by anti-Trump Republicans, and later by Democrats. At this point, CNN is not reporting on details of the memos, as it has not independently corroborated the specific allegations. But, in preparing this story, CNN has spoken to multiple high ranking intelligence, administration, congressional and law enforcement officials, as well as foreign officials and others in the private sector with direct knowledge of the memos.
Some of the memos were circulating as far back as last summer. What has changed since then is that US intelligence agencies have now checked out the former British intelligence operative and his vast network throughout Europe and find him and his sources to be credible enough to include some of the information in the presentations to the President and President-elect a few days ago.
And:
The two-page summary was written without the detailed specifics and information about sources and methods included in the memos by the former British intelligence official. That said, the synopsis was considered so sensitive it was not included in the classified report about Russian hacking that was more widely distributed, but rather in an annex only shared at the most senior levels of the government: President Obama, the President-elect, and the eight Congressional leaders.
CNN has also learned that on December 9, Senator John McCain gave a full copy of the memos — dated from June through December, 2016 — to FBI Director James Comey. McCain became aware of the memos from a former British diplomat who had been posted in Moscow. But the FBI had already been given a set of the memos compiled up to August 2016, when the former MI6 agent presented them to an FBI official in Rome, according to national security officials.
The raw memos on which the synopsis is based were prepared by the former MI6 agent, who was posted in Russia in the 1990s and now runs a private intelligence gathering firm. His investigations related to Mr. Trump were initially funded by groups and donors supporting Republican opponents of Mr. Trump during the GOP primaries, multiple sources confirmed to CNN. Those sources also said that once Mr. Trump became the nominee, further investigation was funded by groups and donors supporting Hillary Clinton.
Spokespeople for the FBI and the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment. Officials who spoke to CNN declined to do so on the record given the classified nature of the material.
Some of the allegations were first reported publicly in Mother Jones one week before the election.
One high level administration official told CNN, “I have a sense the outgoing administration and intelligence community is setting down the pieces so this must be investigated seriously and run down. I think [the] concern was to be sure that whatever information was out there is put into the system so it is evaluated as it should be and acted upon as necessary.”
The story has some additional corroboration from British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson:

Vladimir Putin was behind the hacks of the Democratic National Committee during the US presidential election campaign, Boris Johnson has said, accusing Putin’s Moscow of being “up to all sorts of tricks”.

It is the first time the UK has confirmed US intelligence reports linking the hacks to Russia, although UK intelligence agencies are understood to have been the first to alert their US counterparts to the evidence.

Speaking in the Commons, the UK’s foreign secretary told MPs it was “pretty clear” the hacking attack had come from Russia. He said he had told the incoming US administration “we do think the Russian state – the Putin Kremlin – is up to all sorts of very dirty tricks, but it would be folly further to demonise Russia or to push Russia into a corner.”

NPR’s Russia Correspondent is reporting:

At this point I am not sure what this means. I know what it should mean politically and criminally and in terms of counterintelligence. But given what we’ve seen so far, I’m not sure what it should mean. I suppose we should start with the traditional questions: what did the President-elect, his campaign leadership and senior staff, the Vice President-elect, and the senior GOP leadership in Congress and at the RNC know and when did they know it?

Update at 6:50 PM

Buzzfeed (h/t: lamh in comments) is reporting that it has the dossier and it has published it.

A dossier making explosive — but unverified — allegations that the Russian government has been “cultivating, supporting and assisting” President-elect Donald Trump for years and gained compromising information about him has been circulating among elected officials, intelligence agents, and journalists for weeks.

The dossier, which is a collection of memos written over a period of months, includes specific, unverified and potentially unverifiable allegations of contact between Trump aides and Russian operatives, and graphic claims of sexual acts documented by the Russians. CNN reported Tuesday that a two-page synopsis of the report was given to President Barack Obama and Trump.

Now BuzzFeed News is publishing the full document so that Americans can make up their own minds about allegations about the president-elect that have circulated at the highest levels of the US government.

The link to the dossier can be found at Buzzfeed.

Reader Interactions

446Comments

  1. 1.

    Adam L Silverman

    I’m going to go grab a bite to eat before the 8 PM cable news coverage blows up over this and the the President’s farewell address. Back in an hour or so.

  4. 4.

    Adam L Silverman

    I will say that Russia’s ability to do this can be directly tied to Snowden. And that’s all I’ll say on that.

  13. 13.

    chopper

    @lamh36:

    @justinjm1 18m18 minutes ago
    Russians supposedly have Trump on tape with prostitutes performing golden showers

    GREEN BALLOONS

  14. 14.

    lamh36

    @zhena gogolia:

    @sunnysingh_n6 Citizen of Nowhere Retweeted #StayWaking
    Likely that Kremlin has far worse tapes than him engaged in golden showers with sex workers. That’s way too tame

  15. 15.

    D58826

    Well since the intelligence chiefs are pretty much all Obama appointees, it will be dismissed as sour grapes by the Trumpers and the GOP. ‘

  16. 16.

    Cacti

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I will say that Russia’s ability to do this can be directly tied to Snowden. And that’s all I’ll say on that.

    Curious about your opinion.

    Do you think Snowden to be a useful idiot of Putin, or a Russian intelligence asset from the start?

  17. 17.

    SP

    Raindrops keep falling on the bed,
    But that doesn’t mean my boss will be a Russian Red,
    Lying’s good for me, ’cause,
    I’m never gonna stop the Russians by tweeting
    Just watch them peeeeee,
    Comey covers for meeeeee.

  18. 18.

    Cacti

    @lamh36:

    Likely that Kremlin has far worse tapes than him engaged in golden showers with sex workers. That’s way too tame

    Given the Donald’s well documented lecherous tendencies, I would guess there are tapes involving underage sex workers.

  19. 19.

    chopper

    have no idea if this stuff is verified or not, but it fits with long-running rumors of the last few months regarding trump’s earlier trips to russia.

  20. 20.

    JustRuss

    So Comey knew this was brewing but he still threw the election to Trump. Wonder what the Russians have on him?

  21. 21.

    Spanky (ex P-man)

    @Cacti My guess is that he’s been a very useful idiot, and that’s all I’ll say about that.

    About the golden showers, etc… There’s nothing there that we haven’t speculated on before. I am not. at. all. surprised, except there don’t seem to be any dead boys.

    Yet.

  24. 24.

    lamh36

    @ezlusztig
    Golden showers yes eww gross – I don’t even want to know. The point is: Trump worked with Putin to bring down Clinton. That’s TREASON.

  25. 25.

    randy khan

    This is genuinely terrible. I really am hoping it turns out to be wrong, not that I have much hope of that.

  27. 27.

    HeleninEire

    Who wants to move to Dublin? For real. All this shit is freaking me out. And I am 3000 miles away. I can accommodate a few Balloon Juice regulars. It’s nice here. As long as you like cities. Nobody knows we’re here and they don’t care. YAY for us. Ireland is like Sweden. They are officially a “neutral” country.

    Come join us. We have Starbucks! Oh wait; that’s a negative, right?

  29. 29.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    Hey, Jackass Julian, why hasn’t Wikileaks been all over this, hmm?

  30. 30.

    Spanky (ex P-man)

    Now I’m really sorry I don’t have a TV to watch Obama tonight. I hope he goes Full Luther.

  31. 31.

    mike in dc

    Pretty sure Team Trump trying desperately to think of a way out of holding that presser tomorrow. Do they really want their guy to get asked, “Mr. Trump, is there any truth to the allegation that you rented the Obamas’ suite at the Ritz Carlton in Russia to hold perverted sex acts with prostitutes?”

  38. 38.

    lamh36

    @kenvogel
    We chased Ritz-Carlton story in Sept. But we were skeptical about the golden showers bit, which seemed too icky for a germophobe like Trump.

    @pearlshorts 10m10 minutes ago
    @kenvogel nothing survives in pee, germophobes love it

    @Kersti2016 2m2 minutes ago
    @kenvogel performing golden shower “in front of him” (versus on him), sounds exactly like what a germaphobe would do. my opinion.

  41. 41.

    Kathleen

    I kept seeing tweets from a couple of reporters (I think) who kept hinting that something about Trump would drop the Friday before the election. I guess this is it? I’m sure glad that government officials didn’t want to influence the election by publishing anything about Trump or Clinton – oh, wait.

  42. 42.

    Spanky

    I am just tickled by this whole thing, which is kind of weirding me out. OTOH, I totally expected it. Somewhere in the archives from the last week or 2 is me speculating that Trump is such a domineering bully that it’s likely he has dominance sexual issues. And here they are. And I have a weird sense of humor along with anti-authoritarian drives, so that’s really working for me tonight.

  43. 43.

    mellowjohn

    since il Douche has shown himself to be beyond shame or embarrassment – and his acolytes beyond reason – this will go nowhere.

  44. 44.

    dmsilev

    So, uh, now what? I mean, if we had a Republican Congress that actually cared about governance rather than raw power we might be thinking impeachment, but with _this_ Congress? Are we actually stuck with a President who can be blackmailed by a foreign power?

  45. 45.

    cosima

    @HeleninEire: I’m begging my daughter & her s.o. to move to Scotland. And nagging them. And cajoling them. The s.o. is in the process of applying to the PhD in law programme at one of the universities here.

    I could almost feel guilty about moving back here, but it took us so long, and we made a lot of sacrifices to do it, for many many reasons. One was that even from our fairly posh US neighbourhood I saw all of this telegraphed loud & clear. Two was that we still had one daughter to get through primary & secondary school.

    But even living here doesn’t insulate me/us. This is still something that is usually the last thing that I think about when I go to bed, and the first thing that I think about when I wake up. I’d hoped that it would have changed since Nov 8, but no, it is still crippling. Inescapable.

  49. 49.

    Wag

    @lamh36:

    But we were skeptical about the golden showers bit, which seemed too icky for a germophobe like Trump.

    From a medical standpoint, urine is sterile unless you have a urinary tract infection.

    Now coprophagia, on the other hand, that might be too far for the Donald…

  52. 52.

    SP

    Anyone old enough to remember the “What about the children” concerns on TV about explaining pubic hair, sexual harassment, etc during the Thomas hearings? Wait till junior asks about golden showers.

  55. 55.

    rk

    Either it’s sex/rape of an underage girl or his criminal financial activities. His supporters will not care. I got into a FB argument with an idiot Trump supporter yesterday and was essentially told that a}every news source is “liberal” and therefore untrustworthy b) All else is fake news c} locker room talk and d) Russia did not hack anything and supposing that it did, all that they revealed was crooked democrats and evil Hillary. Trump is not the problem. Sixty million morons are.

  56. 56.

    scottinnj

    @lamh36:
    Yuck, but I think for many Trump voters being rich enough to hire prostitutes to pee on each other is a goal, not a negative.

  59. 59.

    Martha

    @HeleninEire: I’m about to come over. We spent 2 weeks in Ireland in the fall, one in Dublin and we loved it. But how to stay longer than 3 months? Sigh.

  61. 61.

    lamh36

    @maxjrosenthal 9m9 minutes ago
    Question is basically was this leaked bc intel agencies are super pissed or bc it’s the leading edge of something huge and real.

  64. 64.

    lamh36

    Ok…so the pissing is no big deal…but what about if it WAS underage prostitutes!!

    @TrueFactsStated
    What CNN is not telling you is that the “compromising information” the Russians have on Trump is video of him with two underage hookers.

  67. 67.

    The Dangerman

    It’s not sex acts; if The Donald was boning underage girls, he’d want the video in Times Square on a billboard.

    It’s gotta be something really embarassing; I’m going with what his “hair” really is.

    ETA: Let this be a lesson to you, Donald. Don’t fuck with the CIA.

  71. 71.

    Baud

    By the time 2020 rolls around, the American voter isn’t going to care about my skeletons at all.

  72. 72.

    Trentrunner

    I said here weeks ago I would bet my pension that Trump has had sex numerous times with underage girls.

    Looks like I will have a comfortable retirement.

  73. 73.

    Adam L Silverman

    @debbie: Rita Carlton Moscow. Notice that Rick Wilson tweeted that out before Buzzfeed posted the dossier.

    ETA: Rick Wilson has stated that Buzzfeed did not get the dossier from him.

  74. 74.

    Brachiator

    Russians supposedly have Trump on tape with prostitutes performing golden showers

    Well, with Trump, of course it would be “golden.”

    But my cynical side says, this is 2016. The salacious events talked about so far wouldn’t even amount to a tame party in San Francisco. And this stuff will immediately be discounted by most Trump supporters as being sour grapes and probably talked about with hints of envy and admiration by others.

  75. 75.

    Trentrunner

    Good God, tomorrow’s Trump press conference is going to be off. the. hook.

    I bet he cancels.

  80. 80.

    Lurking Canadian

    @dmsilev: Seriously. They probably STILL won’t impeach him, but WHY though. If they impeach him, they get Pence. They can still have their Koch-fueled de-regulation and tax cut bonanza, AND they’d get to look like principled patriots who manfully blah, blah, blah for the sake of the country.

  81. 81.

    lamh36

    @woodhouseb 3m3 minutes ago
    The hypocrisy of reporters bemoaning the Trump dossier as unverified after hyping stolen and unverified Podesta email is breathtaking.

  86. 86.

    JMG

    Buzzfeed knows sex drives clicks. But Trump’s been about money all his life. The real info is what financial hold Moscow has on him. As for his supporters, yeah, they’re unreachable. But he had an approval rating below 40 in two polls taken before this. He got a lot of votes from people who didn’t care for him. They made a wrong choice, but they are perfectly capable of turning on him.

  92. 92.

    Trentrunner

    LOL Hillary in the debate:

    “This is Trumped-up, trickle-down policy.”

    Woman knew what was what.

  95. 95.

    The Pale Scot

    Well Fuck Me Dead.

    I hereby propose that white people’s vote count as 3/5. For say seventy two years or so, It’s only fair.

    I’ll need to use my fingers;

    Nixon colluded with the N Vietcong

    Reagan colluded with Iran when they were holding Americans hostage, before he was elected and continued after.

    Then he colluded with cocaine cartels, allowing dirt cheap blow to land on US streets,

    Bushies colluded with themselves to make a false case for war, destroying millions of lives, many of them literally

    The last four elected Reich Party presidents are dirty, it’s a hat trick plus one!

  96. 96.

    Adam L Silverman

    @debbie: who do you think bailed him
    Out from his bankruptcies and who he was laundering money for through his AC casinos? The Bratva. It’s all connected.

  97. 97.

    goblue72

    @Adam L Silverman: On this, we agree. I’ve never understood the fascination on the libertarian left with Snowden. Always considered him to be guilty of treason and should be punished accordingly. But I’ve also never understood the libertarian left’s fascination with Julian Assange either, who gives of the scent of a sexual predator and pervert from a 1,000 miles away – which should be first clue as to why he shouldn’t be trusted. Course, I have never liked Glenn Greenwald either, who whatever modestly productive things he may have done (and that’s debatable), has clearly been working his own angle & grift which doesn’t necessarily fully align with the interests of the nation, or the interests of progressive politics.

  98. 98.

    chris

    “Fornication? But that was in another country, and besides, the wench is dead.”
    Christopher Marlowe

    Been stuck in my head for years. Not going to get my hopes up.

  100. 100.

    Trentrunner

    @NoraLenderbee: Well, for one thing, it humiliates the fuck out of him, which will make him crazier & weaker.

    It also humiliates the voters who voted for him, which they could use a big fucking dose of right about now because I’ve never seen such a bunch of sore winners.

  102. 102.

    Lstrom

    Okay, so another thing to be outraged about. And what? What am I supposed to do with this information. Call my representative and senator to complain and hope they care? The election has been certified. The man is taking the oath of office on Jan 20th. Unless it involves sex with a girl, a boy, a horse and a dead body, it won’t matter.

  103. 103.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    Leaks upon leaks… who leaked this story about Trump participating or viewing one partyvtaking a leak on another? And why isn’t Wikileaks leaking the story about leaking?

  104. 104.

    NotMax

    What? No footage of him cavorting with a 400-pound guy on his bed?

    Also too, someone’s gotta say it: Spritz Carlton.

  106. 106.

    Roger Moore

    @NoraLenderbee:

    What f**ing difference does it make now.

    It has the potential to weaken Trump. The weaker he is, the easier it will be for Democrats to resist his bad ideas, and the less Republicans will fear his voters for refusing to go along.

  107. 107.

    Bobbo

    It’s like the end of Sixth Sense where Bruce Willis realizes he’s dead and we see everything in reverse and it all makes sense. Oh sorry spoiler

  108. 108.

    scottinnj

    First question – is this a legitimate dossier on Buzzfeed – not sure we know the answer to that. I don’t want to jump instantly into the “Fake News” bandwagon but, well, just as crappy (pun intended) was posted about Hillary (Satan worship) so what is to say this isn’t of similar ilk?

  111. 111.

    JMG

    @Trentrunner: I agree. It’ll make them crazier, but a lot of Trumpkins are going to get a lot of shit at their workplaces tomorrow. I thought Bill Clinton’s status as the President who inspired more and better dirty jokes than any other was untouchable. Trump’s gonna beat him before he puts his hand on the Bible, which if Christianity had any sense of humor, his hand would be melted by.

  112. 112.

    Emma

    Color me skeptical that this will change anything. Sorry but until it all comes down in flames and the morons burn there won’t be any change. They only respond to personal pain.

  116. 116.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @HeleninEire:

    I’m renewing my passport soon (actually doing the paperwork on January 20 as a symbolic gesture) and hope to use it for a trip to the UK later this year. Have never been to Ireland and would adore to. So you may expect a “heads-up-here-I-come” message at some point in the next 12 months.

  118. 118.

    lamh36

    @jmartNYT
    “McCain gave a full copy of the memos — dated from June through December, 2016 — to FBI Director James Comey”

  123. 123.

    danielx

    @dm:

    I’ll bet Trump’s Twitter stream will be fun tonight.

    Eh?

    I see what you did there..well played.

  124. 124.

    Yarrow

    Golden showers? That can’t be all. Sex with underage girls for sure.

    @JustRuss:

    So Comey knew this was brSo Comey knew this was brewing but he still threw the election to Trump. Wonder what the Russians have on him?

    Been saying this for awhile. They have to have something on him. They have to.

  125. 125.

    Mike in DC

    Now we know why Trump looked shell shocked after the first meeting with Obama.

    “You’re a sick fuck, you know that, right?”

  127. 127.

    lamh36

    ‏@owillis 42s43 seconds ago
    those reports about “possible” problems at the clinton foundation weren’t “verified.” they were nonstop on cable news + print. nonstop.

  128. 128.

    Facebones

    @Cacti:

    Given the Donald’s well documented lecherous tendencies, I would guess there are tapes involving underage sex workers.

    Ding! Ding! Ding!

  130. 130.

    Trentrunner

    I suppose we should have expected it, but Trump’s Russia story is going to piss all over Obama’s farewell speech.

    Perfect.

  132. 132.

    Calouste

    @JMG: Like the shitgibbon is going to get sworn in with his hand on the bible. He’ll use the only book that has any meaning to him, The Art of the Deal.

  134. 134.

    JPL

    @Emma: If nothing else, it enlightened me. I had never heard of golden showers, and then made the mistake of asking the adult son, if he had.

  135. 135.

    The Pale Scot

    @HeleninEire:
    I’m thinking the foothills of the Chilean Andes myself, far away from the fallout zone and most likely will still be getting rainfall twenty years from now

  136. 136.

    AMinNC

    @Adam L Silverman: Thanks for your posts on this, Adam. Would have been nice if this had come out and been covered adequately, oh say, three months ago. Do you think that there will be an investigation into whether/when Pence and GOP leaders in Congress knew about any of this and stayed quiet – or is that dependent upon having modern-day Sam Ervin and Howard Baker? Interesting times.

  138. 138.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Baud:

    Very much hope one of the early morning regulars will watch tomorrow morning and give a full report on Joe’n’Mika’s take.

  139. 139.

    lamh36

    @JMG: exactly, after Trump’s election…a coworker at my job, a guy of course, was trying to tie HRC to BC infidelity and saying Trump wasn’t like BC…he got shot down quick.

    Too bad I’m off tomorrow, or I’d be LMBAO as his quietness…cause I just KNOW he won’t have shit to say…

  141. 141.

    Trentrunner

    @AMinNC: But it’s not like we’ve never heard a drop about this before 11/8: Hillary said it in the debates, Reid said it in a letter, it was out there.

    But the NYTimes said the FBI found no connection between Russia and Trump. So, well done again, NYTimes!

  146. 146.

    p.a.

    I don’t know if ‘his’ followers are unreachable, but the fundies certainly turned out for him, even tho IIRC the media characterized them as being lukewarm to him. Think they would happily use their influence on the R party (or as the word is pronounced here in RI, and is now I guess a double-entendre: potty) to annoint Pence Pres somehow.

  148. 148.

    Yoda Dog Democrat

    @Baud: Maaaannnn, as a white person, can I just say?… fuck white people. White people are the fucking worst.

    ETA: Not you though. You’re alright. I could get on board with a Baud ticket in the future..

  152. 152.

    TriassicSands

    Are we one step closer to being able to refer to Trump as the “disgraced ex-president?”

  153. 153.

    The Lodger

    @dm: You used “Trump” and “stream” in the same sentence.

    (Don’t mind me; as my British acquaintances would say, I’m just taking the piss.)

  157. 157.

    Ian

    @lamh36:
    For all of his many, many faults i cannot hold his sexual preferences against him. I have much bigger problems with his underage and unconsentual relationships to give concern to this.

  158. 158.

    HeleninEire

    @SiubhanDuinne: Please do. You are one of my favorite posters here. Come here. Ireland is great. This is how I describe to newcomers. “when you buy something in a catalog, it’s never what you wanted” Ireland is MORE THAN YOU THOUGHT IT WAS GONNA BE,

    All that green? Yup. All those friendly people? Yup. That Pretty accent? Yup. It is all here. Also too the pubs.

  161. 161.

    Dave

    @JMG: Right my mother is one. Voted as such because of Pro-Life. Already dislikes him this sort of thing will go over like a lead balloon with her.

  162. 162.

    JPL

    There are mistakes in the document, which could cause the entire document to be tossed. What I find interesting, is the document could be a plant with errors, in order to dismiss the entire story. Ask Dan Rather how that works.

  165. 165.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: Curious whether you type that out each time, getting some satisfaction and you type it, or if you go for the cut & paste. Either way, I support your statement.

  166. 166.

    goblue72

    @TriassicSands: Granted, polling doesnt really extend back past the 20th century, but I’m having a hard time thinking of incoming President who is going to be this un-popular, this much a seditious autocrat and this much of a reviled joke as Trump.

    Woodrow Wilson was a segregationist arse and absolutely horrifying in terms of civil liberties, but Trump could even be worse. Andrew Johnson maybe?

  169. 169.

    Spanky

    @Roger Moore:

    @NoraLenderbee:

    What f**ing difference does it make now.

    It has the potential to weaken Trump. The weaker he is, the easier it will be for Democrats to resist his bad ideas, and the less Republicans will fear his voters for refusing to go along.

    It shows that he has some pretty big skeletons in his closet. What else do they have on him, and how can he be leveraged?

  174. 174.

    Schlemazel

    @JPL:
    Many years ago at a hockey game where one of the players was named Sanchez the crowd started a chant “dirty sanchez” since the player was not a dirty player I said I didn’t get it. My teenaged daughter, sitting next to me, explained it. I could have live without that knowledge and more with not hearing it from my kid.

  175. 175.

    patroclus

    @Emma: I agree. I’m neither giddy nor particularly interested in Trump’s sex life. We already know he’s a pervert and this merely confirms that. It happened before he was President and isn’t impeachable; nor necessarily violative of any laws. It just makes him more of a laughing stock, which might weaken his political sway when he otherwise would be getting a honeymoon. His nominations are still gonna be confirmed and the Republicans’ legislative agenda is still gonna be moved forward. It should have come out earlier, but the Russians wanted him to win, so it didn’t. We’re still screwed.

  176. 176.

    AMinNC

    @Trentrunner: I know – there were a couple of mentions that the Russians might have info on the GOP and Trump specifically, but it got almost no traction. Comey specifically denied any real connection between Trump and Russia, and most media was too busy with Emails. It was insane.

  181. 181.

    ET

    The Internet is loving this. Wee the people, PEEOTUS, Obama is out but Trump urine…. also with variations of leak and stream… Even saw a Trump your our Number One. Call me petty but this is going to be hilarious.

  186. 186.

    Schlemazel

    Given the tangerine tantrum’s predilection for young girls how much you want to bet that the golden shower is only the opening act and young girls, early teen maybe, were the main course?

    It would be irresponsible not to speculate!

  187. 187.

    dm

    @patroclus: “impeachable” in the Constitution is deliberately vague: “high crimes and misdemeanors” — basically, whatever gets the House and the Senate to agree to remove someone from office. Being too obviously in the pocket of a foreign power (bring on the emoluments clause!) probably counts.

  188. 188.

    Mike in DC

    The first real belly laugh I’ve had since the election. Even if this goes nowhere, this feels cathartic.

  189. 189.

    lamh36

    @JPL: like I said before…even if the entire thing is bullshit…I enjoy the thought of Cheetos POTUS being so pissed and not being allowed to tweet about how pissed he is

    (yes I said pissed 3x…lol)

  190. 190.

    goblue72

    @dm: I believe Congress has established a precedent that lying about a blowjob is a high crime and misdemeanor. So, the bar is pretty low.

  192. 192.

    Yarrow

    Well, he’s not in office yet. Can he be impeached?

    From Adam at top:

    I suppose we should start with the traditional questions: what did the President-elect, his campaign leadership and senior staff, the Vice President-elect, and the senior GOP leadership in Congress and at the RNC know and when did they know it?

    Yes. Let’s have lots of investigations. Lengthy ones. Find out just how many people knew what. Take out all the GOP leadership.

  193. 193.

    goblue72

    @scottinnj: Who cares if its true? I’d hope Democrats would have learned by now that fighting by the Marquess of Queensbury rules went out the window when the GOP impeached Bill Clinton for a blowjob.

  196. 196.

    lamh36

    @cjcmichel 52m52 minutes ago
    Dossier also alleges Trump’s lawyer had “secret meeting/s with Kremlin officials in August”:

  197. 197.

    Mary G

    They will never impeach him. Trump ran almost as much against the Republican establishment as Hillary. One hint of them cutting him loose and he will rile up his millions of “they’re only repealing Obamacare, I get to keep my great ACA insurance” maroons by calling for a Reichtag fire for realz and the wusses who let him hijack their party will hide under their desks saying “I saw notzing, notzing,”

  199. 199.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh36:

    Hey, now, all the trolls here have been telling me that I was crazy to say that. Looney tunes. Just. Didn’t. Happen.

    Who’s laughing now, assholes?

    (Well, okay, none of us, but it’s nice to be proved fucking right once in a while.)

  208. 208.

    WaterGirl

    The best part is that even if this doesn’t take him down right away, it might just send him over the edge.

  209. 209.

    lamh36

    Emmy Bengtson
    ‏@EmmyA2
    If you’re concerned the Trump/Russia report isn’t verified, remember that the wall-to-wall coverage of Comey’s letter was based on nothing.

  214. 214.

    Suzanne

    I am hearing that the room that he was in at the Ritz-Carlton was the same one the Obamas slept in previously, and he hired the hookers to piss on the bed as a way of denigrating POTUS and FLOTUS.

    If this is true, he is so so so unbearably disgusting.

  217. 217.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @HeleninEire:

    All that green? Yup.

    One of my favourite descriptions of Ireland is “We have more greens than you have names for them.” Applies equally well to the west coast of Scotland, but I’d love to see it in Ireland too.

    Okay, it’s on.

  220. 220.

    p.a.

    I take no solace in this stain of scandal on the Presidency. It seems the occasional drip drip drip of rumors has become a steady stream of leaks and innuendo. Let us hope to avoid an outbreak of national self-flagellation of the body politic over this particular issue.

  225. 225.

    Spanky

    @lamh36: Yeah, peegate is just the tip of the iceberg. More substantive compromising material will come out.

    Urine trouble, Donald!

  228. 228.

    Gvg

    Given Adam has explained how Russia has a history of putting out fake stories with some truth in order to undermine our faith in are governmental processes….I wonder why this story is coming out now and if it is totally true. He is crooked and not actually that business smart, clueless about international relations especially the spying. I believe things about money on him. Not sure about this. It just seems like why is Russia letting it out now. It’s pretty easy to boast. The result is more turmoil more of us saying our institutional safeguards didn’t save us. The Clinton is a bad candidate stuff had about run it’s course and we were getting ready for resisting Trump in an organized fashion. Past the false hopes of electoral college saving us or vote recounts….and now, now this. Going to upset a whole bunch more people. Some more will talk of leaving the US. Seems to fit what Adam said was the Russian interests. So maybe they leaked it on purpose now. Doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Nor that it is.
    Trump is stupid enough not to have heard of this…or thought they wouldn’t do it to an important guy like him. As if that wasn’t their favorite kind of target. He should be impeached for being too stupid.

  230. 230.

    Yoda Dog Democrat

    @Yoda Dog Democrat: @HeleninEire: Well I have two children under two and my wife owns a business here in Raleigh so we are pretty rooted. But I really just want to hit the eject button since 11/9. Ireland sounds lovely. So does Mars, suddenly…

  231. 231.

    Gravenstone

    @Ian: The golden showers is the conversation starter. It leads to details such as the (likely) underage participants. And you shouldn’t underestimate the *ICK* factor for most people.

  232. 232.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Gvg: Russia didn’t. The US Intel Community did. They vetted and included the former MI6 officer’s research and analysis and decided it was credible enough to include in the classified report. This is not Russia’s doing. It actually reverses Putin’s leverage.

  238. 238.

    MomSense

    @Suzanne:

    He really is the most disgusting human being. We are all trying to find the humor in all of this but Inhobestly find it stomach churning.

  239. 239.

    Yarrow

    All the talk of young girls and I just saw this in Rick Wilson’s Twitter feed. First this tweet, then his response. The discussion was about the vaccine meeting with RFK Jr.:

    @TheRickWilson Is it possible DT is really just doing this to get into Jenny McCarthy's pants? Honest question. Wouldn't put it past him.— Jimmy's Incorrigible (@jneutron1969) January 10, 2017

    She's over the age line. https://t.co/DhLWXDbqnW— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) January 10, 2017

    Uh huh.

  243. 243.

    Mnemosyne

    My boss has two kindergarteners, so I just advised her to not leave the news on ahead of President Obama’s speech tonight. In fact, she may want to make sure to watch it on C-Span.

    I never in a million years imagined myself saying the words “golden showers” to my boss.

  245. 245.

    Spanky

    @Adam L Silverman: Right, the IC is trying to pry the next POTUS out of Russian leverage, but Jeezus HMS Chirist on a cracker (Ritz), what else is out there that no one on our side knows about?

    Therein lies the danger.

  247. 247.

    Mike in DC

    The alt right is now trying to claim that they made it all up to troll the never Trump people.

  250. 250.

    Yarrow

    Also, too:

    Official Washington is having a lot of trouble processing this.— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) January 11, 2017

    No kidding. “Official Washington” desperately wants all of this to be normal, normal, normal. The press is busy trying to normalize him. Congress is proceeding with confirmation hearings. Inauguration planning goes ahead. No one can process that this is happening. It’s real.

  251. 251.

    WJS

    “When you pay someone to pee in front of you, as opposed to on you, it’s different. That’s what makes it a show, you see? That’s what makes it classy.”

    Kellyanne Conway, tomorrow at some point

  255. 255.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @zhena gogolia: OT, I want the translation of the nym you were commenting on earlier. Perhaps it’s almost not OT, with Russian overtones?

  256. 256.

    A Ghost to Most

    Yertle the Tertle has been exceptionally compliant to Colonel Tinkles, and in a real hurry to confirm – I wonder if Vlad has something on him as well?

  258. 258.

    Calouste

    @HeleninEire: You must have me confused with someone else. This is the first comment I have made about Ireland, where I have been a couple of times, and where I have heard locals made very similar comments about the local weather.

  260. 260.

    Mnemosyne

    I have to go to a dance class tonight, so if Obama announces martial law during his speech, y’all will tell me, right?
    /wishful thinking

  261. 261.

    HeleninEire

    @SiubhanDuinne: I haven’t been to Scotland. But my mother’s best friend was from there. They met in America in the 1960’s. I want to see Scotland. Of course Isabella, Mom’s best friend says “yes. it is beautiful, but you can’t eat the beautiful green hills.

  266. 266.

    delk

    It’s been pissing down rain all day in Chicago if Obama wants to mention the weather tonight.

  270. 270.

    NickM

    Never thought I’d be rooting for the deep state, but … is there any chance the CIA is telling Trump that he isn’t going to be President and he now can choose how that happens?

  273. 273.

    Mike J

    Speaking in the Commons, the UK’s foreign secretary told MPs it was “pretty clear” the hacking attack had come from Russia.

    Wonder how Republicans are going to feel about a Churchill bust now.

  278. 278.

    tobie

    @lamh36:

    @woodhouseb 3m3 minutes ago
    The hypocrisy of reporters bemoaning the Trump dossier as unverified after hyping stolen and unverified Podesta email is breathtaking.

    Listening to Andrea Mitchell cautioning us not to lend too much credence to these reports until they were verified was the final straw for me. I just wrote NBC a comment on the appalling double standard. You should too. We need to be writing and calling the media as much as our Congress critters till they take note that the majority of this country is not Republican.

    The address for NBC is: http://www.nbc.com/contact-us.

  280. 280.

    Cacti

    @Adam L Silverman:

    They vetted and included the former MI6 officer’s research and analysis and decided it was credible enough to include in the classified report. This is not Russia’s doing. It actually reverses Putin’s leverage.

    Seems as though the Brits are also concerned at the thought of a POTUS held hostage by Moscow.

  281. 281.

    BethanyAnne

    This. This is what Twitter is for. And as much fun as Trump paying women to pee is fun to joke about, I’m calling it false right now. No way Trump paid someone.

  282. 282.

    PPCLI

    @Davey C: I’ve been thinking the same thing. There was something oddly panicked about his tone when he made that bizarre response.

  283. 283.

    sigaba

    As we were talking about last week, Cesar Ritz’s great contribution to civilization was the maxim, “The Customer is Always Right.”

    Also, really, fuck buzzfeed. “We’ll let the American people decide,” is just a fancy way of saying “we’d rather muddy the waters with gossip than assert boring old facts.”

  287. 287.

    Mnemosyne

    I wish I could get in on the pee jokes, but my brain is just too hornswaggled right now. Did this really just happen?

  288. 288.

    scottinnj

    Nixon: Hey Trump, there is no way you will have a more scandalous Presidency than mine.
    Trump: Wait, hold my beer
    Nixon: Wait, that’s not beer

  289. 289.

    Zelma

    I love this place. Only you folks could make me laugh in the middle of this mess. I’m sure a clever person could make a pun out of this but I’m terrible at puns.

  292. 292.

    JPL

    @lamh36: Won’t that cause his followers to google the fake news and then to google what a golden shower is? I don’t see how that helps.

  297. 297.

    lamh36

    @JPL: right…which means it’s driving him crazy…fake news or not and I’m imagining them wrestling the phone from him and him clawing out that tweet anyway…

  300. 300.

    Mnemosyne

    Wait, I may finally have a pun:

    Little did Donald know that his Moscow leaks would come back to haunt him …

  304. 304.

    chris

    Any one else reading the dossier?

    See page 12. The Russians were not going to use the Trump material they had “given how helpful he and his team had been over several years and especially of late.”

  305. 305.

    WaterGirl

    @Suzanne: We all knew he was a total fucking pig, but that really pisses me off. No pun intended. What a despicable human being. And even if he didn’t actually do that in this instance, fuck him for being the kind of person who would do it if he thought of it.

    It’s like every Oliver Stone movie I’ve ever seen – I come out thinking that I don’t KNOW if that’s what happened, but I totally believe that it could have.

  306. 306.

    lamh36

    @20committee
    Forget all the other stuff in the dossier. Take the key one. If Trump’s lawyer met clandestinely w/RIS in Prague to coordinate, it’s over.

  308. 308.

    PPCLI

    The sexual stuff (“Goldwater Republican” … teehee) is entertaining, but it’s the financial allegations and especially the alleged contacts with Russian operatives about the DNC and Podesta hackings that should be front and centre.

    Maybe, just maybe we should ask Trump for some of that financial information he keeps refusing to disclose. And ask him to explain just *why* he decided to tell the Republican platform committee to drop the references to Soviet aggression in the Ukraine. That was, as I recall, the only, or almost the only, change the Trump people asked for in that platform. why ask for *that* in particular?

  311. 311.

    BethanyAnne

    I know, I know. Serious. Treason.

    Yep.

    On the other hand, lemme have a few minutes of joy first, dammit.

  322. 322.

    Yarrow

    @Mnemosyne: It could only happen to someone as pampered as Trump. Someone who luvs telling other people they should pull up themselves by their bootstraps.

  323. 323.

    dmsilev

    @chris: I’ve skimmed it. Here’s the bit that’s generating all the jokes, but it really should have people going ewwwwwwwww:

    According to Source D, where s/he had been present, (perverted) conduct in Moscow included hiring the presidential suite of the Ritz Carlton Hotel, where he knew President OBAMA {whom he hated] had stayed on one other official trips to Russia, and defiling the bed where they had slept by employing a number of prostitutes to perform a ‘golden showers’ (urination) show in front of him. The hotel was known to be under FSE control with microphones and concealed cameras in all the main rooms to record anything they wanted to.

    Besides the ewwwwwww factor, wouldn’t Obama have stayed at the US Embassy?

  325. 325.

    tobie

    @lamh36: The Guardian is reporting that the FBI went to the FISA court to get a warrant to eavesdrop on Trump advisers who they believed were in regular contact with the Russians and devising campaign strategies with them. The FISA court turned down the warrant request.

    Adam, my understanding is that FISA courts rarely turn down FBI warrant requests. Is this correct? Everything is so explosive it’s hard to know how to judge the tidbits of information coming down the ‘pike.

  328. 328.

    tobie

    @PPCLI:

    The sexual stuff (“Goldwater Republican” … teehee) is entertaining, but it’s the financial allegations and especially the alleged contacts with Russian operatives about the DNC and Podesta hackings that should be front and centre.

    Totally agree.

  329. 329.

    Jacel

    @lamh36: That is probably what Fox News will focus on in reporting on the dossiers…the shocking news that there were Russian communists in the Democratic Party.

  330. 330.

    trnc

    These senior intelligence officials also included the synopsis to demonstrate that Russia had compiled information potentially harmful to both political parties, but only released information damaging to Hillary Clinton and Democrats.

    Damaging information such as “Chelsea complained about something” and “Rissoto!” ZOMG!!!!!!!

  333. 333.

    BethanyAnne

    oh, man, I thought the mirror prank on /r/funny was going to be the best laugh of the day today. oh, haha

  334. 334.

    Wapiti

    @BethanyAnne: And that’s how the kompromat works. It doesn’t have to be a prostitute. Donald’s in Russia. One of the people he’s meeting with has a pretty aide. She happens to be around later and they end up in his room. Oh – she has an idea, “So Meester Tromp, have you ever done ____?” The cameras roll. She was working for Putin from the start.

  338. 338.

    dm

    Before you get too giddy, Lawfareblog recommends taking a deep breath: https://www.lawfareblog.com/about-explosive-trump-story-take-deep-breath (good background material on these documents, good commentary on the extent to which they provide a context for statements made in the past few weeks).

    Also, they cite the Guardian: they cite the Guardian:

    The Guardian has learned that the FBI applied for a warrant from the foreign intelligence surveillance (Fisa) court over the summer in order to monitor four members of the Trump team suspected of irregular contacts with Russian officials. The Fisa court turned down the application asking FBI counter-intelligence investigators to narrow its focus. According to one report, the FBI was finally granted a warrant in October, but that has not been confirmed, and it is not clear whether any warrant led to a full investigation.

  340. 340.

    chris

    @dmsilev: I don’t know the answer to that, but someone will.

    It was “over several years” that got me. If true, this is a giant nuclear fireball.

  346. 346.

    Miss Bianca

    @HeleninEire: Let me get my new worker trained, my house sold, and I maaayyyy just come for an extended visit. I hear the foxhunting in quite marvellous on on Erin’s shores…

  350. 350.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @zhena gogolia: I like it! If I weren’t so emotionally attached to the nym I stole from a Sarah Proud and Tall line, I’d want to use it in English.

  353. 353.

    резидент американской области Российской Федерации

    @lamh36:

    Leading edge. What Trump does with it is up to him, but these releases degrade their use as blackmail material. Once out, the info is now worthless and Trump won’t have the pressure to comport to Putin’s will out of shame.

  354. 354.

    ellie

    PEEOTUS tweeted that this is fake news. I tweeted back at him to release his tax returns and show us how wrong we all are.

  355. 355.

    Miss Bianca

    @chris: And here all these years I’ve had it stuck in my head that that quote was from John Webster! Oh, well – read “The Jew of Malta” and “The Duchess of Malfi” around the same time – I’ve probably got them thoroughly mixed up by now.

  357. 357.

    HinTN

    @HeleninEire: Send contact info, please. Have been considering Victoria, BC, but could be persuaded that my eye could learn to discern fifty shades of green.

  361. 361.

    mai naem mobile

    @efgoldman: I think Jared takey away cell phone privileges. I’m guessin Jared and Elektras kids have less discipline issues than Lumpy.

  363. 363.

    Dog Dawg Damn

    4chan /pol is swarming Rick Wilson’s twitter feed, all claiming they leaked this report to Rick, who gave it to CIA, and that’s how it ended up. That it is fake, and a hoax.

    Don’t see their evidence for it, but a random posting in November.

  364. 364.

    резидент американской области Российской Федерации

    @p.a.:
    Don’t look up Pittsburgh Platter or Cleveland Steamer…

  365. 365.

    Adam L Silverman

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): The accusation that his attorney met with the Russian Intel folks in Prague last summer is the big fish, so to speak. Cohen has already denied it stating there are no Czech Republic stamps in his passport. Two issues here: 1) All one has to do is enter the EU states party to the Schengen Accords and one can freely travel within the Schengen area. 2) He could have been given Alias documentation for his entry.

  366. 366.

    Timurid

    @Lurking Canadian:

    Because the penalty for any Republican Congressman/Senator who votes to impeach/convict is getting primaried at best and a polonium milkshake at worst…

  367. 367.

    Gin & Tonic

    @HinTN: I suspect you’re not wealthy enough to live in BC. I think most of us aren’t (real estate prices there are in-fucking-sane.)

  370. 370.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Dog Dawg Damn: And their claim if undercut by David Corn’s reporting of the it in October. He described learning the details from a former overseas intelligence operative with good contacts whose private company turned up details troubling enough to forward to the US IC. Not to mention Harry Reid’s request that Comey make public the information about Russian connections to the campaign.

    But 4chan gotta 4chan.

  371. 371.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Dog Dawg Damn: If all this was was a 4/Chan /pol/ leak to a political operative it would not be included in an official, classified IC report as an annex. Despite what you’re hearing on the TV news (cough, Andrea Mitchell, cough), if the IC did not have confidence in this raw HUMINT it would not be included – flat stop. Other than, perhaps, as a throw away line acknowledging that this file has been circulating, that despite best efforts it could not be verified, but the current President, the Gang of Eight, and the President-elect need to be aware that it might surface later in an attempt to influence the President-elect once he takes office. That would have been a forewarned is forearmed type of thing. That is not what they did.

  372. 372.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Gin & Tonic: Other than Britain and Germany I don’t have any stamps for anyplace I’ve been in Europe over the past decade at all. So tracking.

  373. 373.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Gin & Tonic says:
    @Adam L Silverman: I’ve been in Prague several times and don’t have a Czech stamp in my passport.

    I was pretty unimpressed with the “no stamp” defense, in part because it would seem the Russians could get him travel ID. And Cohen would seem to be the big fish, with Carter Page as a side dish. Not to mix metaphors.

  376. 376.

    резидент американской области Российской Федерации

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):

    We’re headed for a massive constitutional crisis before this asshole even gets sworn in. If he strokes out, blows his own dumbass brains out at a news conference or gets a dose of polonium from Putin’s thugs on his private security staff on Putin’s orders before Inauguration Day, does the country really wind up with a spineless idiot like Pence in that chair?

  377. 377.

    Kay Eye

    @Schlemazel: Well, thanks for that information. Our local and wildly popular taco chain offers a Dirty Sanchez taco. For years my grown sons, and their sons, have kept this tidbit from me.
    Then there’s Balloon Juice.
    I’m an antique.

  378. 378.

    Adam L Silverman

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): If the HUMINT about a meeting with Russian Intel is correct, they have the ability to create alias documents to get him in. Given the people involved with the campaign, at various times, and their connections back to different portions of the Russian government, this would not have been hard to coordinate.

  380. 380.

    резидент американской области Российской Федерации

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I’d like to examine his passport to check where he was in the weeks prior. The question would be “were you in Europe”?

  382. 382.

    Miss Bianca

    @Taylor: You know, before you presume to talk to someone who pursues the sport and probably knows a bit more about it than you do? Do some research on the subject. And do some research that isn’t driven by city-bred people and PETA types who – like you – have no idea what the fuck it is, or what it means, means, but sure love to make noise about it as a way to stick it to country folk and “toffs”.

  385. 385.

    Barbara

    @Adam L Silverman: I traveled to Sweden from Iceland, and I have stamps for Iceland only. Same thing on the way back. (Iceland is not technically part of all the elements of the EU but it has passport control for the EU.) You get stamps for the first place you come into and the last place from which you exit the EU. Otherwise, no stamps. While there we visited at least six different countries. So that’s a pretty lame thing for him to say.

  387. 387.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Dog Dawg Damn: My take is that because of who prepared this report (the former MI6 officer) and because of his reputation, as well as other raw Intel the IC has from other sources, that they are confident in this material even if they themselves have not been able to fully verify it. ETA: This is actually reported in the CNN reporting, that the US IC has been able to corroborate and confirm enough, combined with this former MI6 officer’s reputation, to have enough confidence in his material to include it.

    Also, it is important to remember what the IC considers to be acceptable verification versus the FBI. The latter is looking at it in terms of whether a US Attorney could make a successful case out of it in court, which is not the IC’s threshold. And the news media’s understanding of verified, and their threshold, is both contextual, based on who the information is about. If the clouds parted and the Deity itself reached down and handed this to Andrea Mitchell, because its favorable to Hillary Clinton, she would still discount it. I don’t care how senior/experienced these journalists and reporters are. If they’ve never held a TS/SCI clearance and they’ve never worked either consuming/using Intel or collecting it or both, they simply are not credible in explaining how the process works. Malcolm Nance, Naveed Jamali, John Schindler are all credible on this.

  391. 391.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Adam L Silverman: Given how easy – and likely – it would be for Russian Intel to supply alias documents, am I foolish to hope that some of the meetings HUMINT is verifiable?

  392. 392.

    dm

    @Adam L Silverman: Yes, but: there’s stuff that CNN reports on, material that was briefed to the President and Trump. Then there’s the thing that Buzzfeed posted. We don’t know that Buzzfeed’s report is complete, or completely accurate, or even the thing that was the subject of the intel briefing — rather like the Podesta emails.

  393. 393.

    sukabi

    @Adam L Silverman: regardless of how pissed drumpf was in Russia, I’m more interested in the ongoing flow of information between the drumpf camp and the Russians during the election….was that in addition to the special server in drumpf tower?

  394. 394.

    Vhh

    @lamh36: The GOPers put out even more unbelievable stuff about Hillary and Benghazi, incl a film, despite detailed documentary ebidence to the contrary. Then there was the 2 years of Fast snd Furious, a sting that started undet Bush. Then there was Ttump thr Birther. So let Trump bloody well prove these allegations wrong.

  395. 395.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Brachiator:

    But my cynical side says, this is 2016. The salacious events talked about so far wouldn’t even amount to a tame party in San Francisco. And this stuff will immediately be discounted by most Trump supporters as being sour grapes and probably talked about with hints of envy and admiration by others.

    At the very lest we have something to mock Trump’s obession with gold now.

  397. 397.

    chopper

    @Vhh:

    i figure the goopers did the whole ‘pizzagate’ thing and made it serious, and this has waaaaaay more of a believable basis than that dreck ever did.

  398. 398.

    Dog Dawg Damn

    Can someone tell me what the endgame / path forward is?

    Is IC goading him into a public meltdown to aide in bringing about swift impeachment?

  399. 399.

    Adam L Silverman

    @dm: Sure. But exactly who would have been able to cook up an independent HUMINT report between the time the news broke on CNN and the time Buzzfeed decided to post the report?

  401. 401.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @lamh36:

    the dossier also alleged communication between the Trump camp and Russia for a long time

    Suggesting there was flow of data there. so to say?

  402. 402.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Dog Dawg Damn: I think there are a couple of things: 1) undercutting Putin’s ability to leverage his asset. 2) Making it virtually impossible for the incoming administration and the GOP controlled Congress to just sweep it all under the rug.

  404. 404.

    Jeffro

    So very many things to explore here – for Congress, for reporters, for whomever, I don’t care.
    – Trump’s financial connections and dealings with Russia
    – now we see why those tax returns matter, eh?
    – Trump’s personal proclivities and how they leave him…and now us…vulnerable…
    – every time he defends Putin and Russia, it’ll be another nail in his coffin
    – every meeting his folks Manafort, Page, and Cohen ever had with Russians will get looked into
    SO
    MUCH
    WIN

  405. 405.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Mike in DC:

    Now we know why Trump looked shell shocked after the first meeting with Obama.

    “You’re a sick fuck, you know that, right?”

    Actually, considering how Trump is so needy and sensitive I can see this making his head spin. Just about anyone who wants to troll him can make some comment about “flow” “drip” and so on.

  407. 407.

    Jeffro

    @Dog Dawg Damn:

    Can someone tell me what the endgame / path forward is?

    Is IC goading him into a public meltdown to aide in bringing about swift impeachment?

    They’re not goading him…they’re presenting facts that an unbelievably vast majority of Americans (even most Dems) don’t know about.

    Every thing that comes out either weakens him or his ability to wreck the country. Every time he lashes out now and/or defends Putin & Russia, it’s more weight on the IC side of the scale.

    I cannot see him willingly resigning. But I can see the disclosures mounting to the point that even some GOP Congressmen and Senators feel the heat and either force him to go, or go along with impeachment + a vote to convict. After all, they have Pence as backup and can always try to claim that Trump was sui generis.

    And THEN it’ll be up to Dems to push on McConnell and Ryan and Comey: what did each of you know about these Russia leaks, and when did you know it, and what did you do (or more to the point, NOT do) about it?

  408. 408.

    albertZ

    @Adam L Silverman: I can tell he’s not someone I would care to follow regularly. But for this, it’s Gold! Jerry! Gold! All the more reason to wonder how far down the rabbit hole this will all take us.

  409. 409.

    JGabriel

    debbie:

    Hopefully, it humiliates [Trump] and reduces his bluster.

    For a few days maybe. Once Trump realizes he’s going to get away with it though, it’ll feed his ego like a shot of heroin combined with cocaine.

  410. 410.

    dm

    @Adam L Silverman: Oh, I don’t think the report needs to have been cooked up today — I don’t really doubt the various comments that this document Buzzfeed printed has been circulating in Washington for weeks, if not all the way back to the pre-election reports by David Corn. We just don’t know to what extent the thing Buzzfeed printed is the thing that the IC finds credible, nor do we know the extent to which the CNN report might be conflating the two in their description (just as we are tempted to do).

    The earlier warning about Dan Rather (and my allusions to “kerning”) is worth keeping in mind (“Dan Rather, George W Bush Vietnam-era service from the Texas Air National Guard, kerning” ought to turn up stuff on Google for those who don’t remember).

  411. 411.

    burnspbesq

    Great. Trump will be the first president whose antics will be posted to both YouTube and Tube8.

  412. 412.

    Pogonip

    @Adam L Silverman: Too late. The guy earlier (PA or something like that) managed to maintain a steady stream of tinkle jokes in an entire paragraph of flowing prose. He has reached the pee-nnacle of sophomoric Trump humor. There’s no point in you and me even trying. That guy would just effortlessly piss all over our best efforts.

  413. 413.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Gvg:

    I believe things about money on him. Not sure about this.

    Eh, I believe it. I mean the guy hostes sex parties with underage girls. Golden showers isn’t that far to go.

  414. 414.

    albertZ

    @dm: Are you suggesting that this information is being released as a sort of false flag? The one thing that always bothered me about the Dan Rather debacle is that in essence the story was true even as the documents were discredited – which was the point of their release. If something like that is going on in this case, Trump may survive but is also far more compromised than anyone imagines.

  416. 416.

    cmorenc

    @Lstrom:

    Unless it involves sex with a girl, a boy, a horse and a dead body, it won’t matter.

    What if the horse is also underage?

  417. 417.

    резидент американской области Российской Федерации

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):

    Down the road from you, in the People’s Democratic Soc!alist Republic closeby. You know my scribblings well.

    I’d noticed something happening with regard to that nym that gave me the creeps.

  418. 418.

    Calouste

    @Dog Dawg Damn: Keep in mind that spooks are still folks with mortgages to pay and kids to put through school…. and a specialized skill set for which there is a somewhat limited market outside their current employer.

    Also, lot of coups and revolutions happened or succeeded because the officer corps was unhappy with their pay, conditions, or promotion prospects. IIRC one of the reasons Deep Throat leaked the Watergate info was because he was passed over by Nixon for the top job in the FBI.

  420. 420.

    dm

    @albertZ: No, I don’t think it’s a false flag. I am just suggesting that one be cautious about the details in the Buzzfeed document. We know the IC is worried that Trump is compromised, we just don’t know what they think the Russians have on him.

    It’s not too hard to imagine someone hearing rumors about the ex-MI6 person’s report (which, after all, was circulated to Republican opposition research people (presumably last Spring?) and Democrats (last Fall?)). Someone might then elaborate on them, counting on the IC rumors to give their story some legs and credibility.

    Of course, it’s also pretty easy to imagine the actual ex-MI6 person’s report getting widely enough circulated that Buzzfeed got a copy and has printed it (though, once again, we don’t know which details of this document the IC considers credible and corroborated).

  422. 422.

    Adam L Silverman

    @dm: I’m almost done reading the report, I’ll have more for you then. Your caution is appreciated.

  426. 426.

    dm

    @Adam L Silverman: “There are black sheep in Scotland!”
    “Well, there is at least one black sheep in Scotland.”
    “Well, actually, there is at least one sheep in Scotland that is black on at least one side.”

  427. 427.

    Gin & Tonic

    @zhena gogolia: I think it’s more like “state” or “province” in that it implies a political subdivision of a federation. “Region” is, to me, “район.”

  428. 428.

    Millard Filmore

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Even that could be finagled if he was provided with Alias documents. Or a tear out entry page for his passport.

    If he was working in concert with the highest levels of Russia’s government and their spooks, there is no need to wander down the path of “how could he have legitimately done this?”. I’m guessing the Russian spooks could provide him with a throwaway 100% genuine authentic fake passport complete with a nice history of his past travel for his use on this particular trip.

  431. 431.

    randy khan

    By the way, the sex stuff is fascinating in its own strange way, but the part that’s really significant is the financial leverage. Trump can laugh off the sexual claims, even deny them (although that’s dangerous with the possibility of video), but if they have him a financial squeeze, that’s a whole different situation.

  432. 432.

    Millard Filmore

    @randy khan:

    if they have him a financial squeeze, that’s a whole different situation.

    That depends on the type of financial squeeze he is in. Documented laundering dirty money, sure. But how quickly can he monetize the Presidency? I suspect he can pay debts off rather quickly, unless #PEEGATE wrecks his credit rating.

  435. 435.

    J R in WV

    @Taylor:

    I’m pretty sure Miss Bianca’s Hunt just hunts the foxes, without killing them at all. So you get all the pomp, the thrill of fence jumping, the brandy in the morning mist, horns blowing in the dawn, etc, and no dead foxes.

    Just lots of exercise for all concerned.

    I guess you could take exception to scaring the foxes, but I don’t think you ever actually scare a fox, they’re pretty stolidly foxy.

  437. 437.

    Timurid

    @Millard Filmore:

    I’m afraid he’s going to speed up the timetable on both kleptocracy and autocracy. He really has no choice. As wounded as he is now, if he tries to run a long con and pretend to honor rules and institutions for a while, he will slowly bleed to death. The first thing Trump unpacks in the White House on 1/20 is going to be a footlocker full of executive orders. What really worries me is his Russian friends unpacking a footlocker full of expendable Chechen stooges to provide Trump with the emergency he needs as cover…

  438. 438.

    Hitless

    @HeleninEire: Starbucks has gone from overrated to underrated in my book. I loved Ireland in my visit there 2 decades ago. I wish you great happiness in the land of Yeats and Joyce.

  442. 442.

    Suffragete City elftx

    Late to the party but the allegations of bribes and kickbacks to China really jumped out at me. So is this why he keeps harping on them? Because of where/who that money went to?

  443. 443.

    Applejinx

    @J R in WV: I don’t buy it. I find Bianca charming but then stuff like that will pop out and I’ll be reminded that Clinton Democrats are landed gentry, and I’ll be all ‘lol nope’. Do you really think she hunts foxes on horseback NOT to kill the foxes?

    I eat venison, mind you, when hunter friends get it. But my hunter friends are rednecks or liberal rednecks, and they’re not landed gentry. There’s a big cultural difference there. I’d rather sit in a tree stand with a Vermont hunter than go fox hunting with a Clinton upper class noble.

  444. 444.

    Ian

    @Miss Bianca:
    Hunting for sport is barbaric. It does not matter where you are from or where you live. Hunting for legitimate reasons, such as food, self defence, or animal population control, is a different story. It is hard to make an argument for fox hunting unless the fox is getting in your henhouse and killing the livestock.

  445. 445.

    Miss Bianca

    @Applejinx: You little dweeb. Landed gentry, ffs. I wish! You know nothing about me. I make a little over minimum wage and I live in rented digs. So, take your generalizations and stuff them.

    Let me get some of the basics of the modern foxhunt into your thick little skull, if you can handle it.
    For one thing, foxes aren’t even our quarry. So not only do I not kill foxes, I don’t even chase them. Can you handle that?

    We do chase coyotes. Which are considered vermin out here in the West. The ranchers around here would be quite happy to see us kill them. But that ain’t our game. Yeah…”chase” is pretty much it. They’re able to get away from us quite easily. And we like it like that.

    You’re not going to understand. Which is fine. Near as I can tell, what you don’t understand would fill entire galaxies. But Christ, how I wish you’d just SHUT UP about shit you don’t understand.

    @Ian: And that goes for you, too. Sick of sanctimonious little male pricks holding forth about shit they know nothing about.

  446. 446.

    Applejinx

    @Miss Bianca: Wait, you’re not a wealthy East Coaster? Damn if it isn’t hard to pin you down.

    Chase coyotes all you like, sounds like they are the Wild West equivalent of woods-rats (deer). Now I remember some vague inkling you were a Westerner: that makes the going-out-riding a little more contextualized. Still damn if I know how you afford animals worth thousands of dollars working for nearly minimum wage, but that’s your business: lord knows I am no counterexample as I’m broke as shit, but operate a working recording studio that’s a wild mixture of boutique, fancy stuff and pawnshop knickknacks :)

    Very weird that you call it fox hunting when you’re not hunting foxes, and I must admit I got totally confused by this. Up here keeping stables is more of a 1%er thing but the East Coast is NOT the West, and I don’t know the West.

    I figure what you don’t understand fills other, different galaxies. That’s more or less how the USA ended up run by a semi-sentient orange merkin cloaking a Russian dick. Go on chasing coyotes: it’d make more sense to me if you did eat ’em but I bet you venison is tastier.

    And I hope you do at least have the stability, space, and freedom of Clinton landed gentry, even if you don’t have the dough for it. Frankly, those aren’t bad things. I don’t like it when they’re too closely tied to wealth and power, which is normally the case. I’d have bet money you were wealthy, and I would’ve lost every penny.

    Or not. House sold, but you rent?

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