And then you have this:
The Senate Intelligence Committee, which is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential race, has asked President Trump’s political organization to gather and produce all Russia-related documents, emails and phone records going back to his campaign’s launch in June 2015, according to two people briefed on the request.
The letter from the Senate arrived at Trump’s campaign committee last week and was addressed to the group’s treasurer. Since then, some former staffers have been notified and asked to cooperate, the people said. They were not authorized to speak publicly.
The demand follows a Senate request months earlier for the campaign committee to preserve documents.
I’m warning you right now, when they get in deep shit because they can’t find their emails or they used sketchy servers (because you just know the fucking clueless numpties have no idea where any of this shit is- if they haven’t been destroyed already) I am going to become physically aroused.
Patricia Kayden
I don’t see how Trump can survive all of these shoe drops. It’s overwhelming for me to keep up.
Roger Moore
But her emails!
TenguPhule
Don’t forget, Bush, Cheney and Rove destroyed millions of emails and nothing happened to them.
Let’s not make the same mistake this time.
Consequences, let’s have some!
Baud
Have you told ABC what turns you on? Maybe she can dress up as Mueller for you?
Citizen Alan
@Roger Moore:
Exactly. Everyone knows exactly where her emails were, and if she needed to produce every single one of them she could, and in fact did! And when Shitgibbon cannot do the same, everyone who bitched and moaned about Hillary’s emails will suddenly have excuses for why he shouldn’t be expected to the same.
Emma
And I’ll be at Defcon 1, ready to nuke the fuckers.
jacy
@Baud:
Gosh, but that’s disturbing. People have to sleep, you know!
Baud
Is it me, or has the Senate started picking up the pace of their investigation recently?
Jeffro
I’m waiting for someone – a reporter, a politician with a gift for narrative, a “Tweeter” with the mother of all tweet-storms – to put it all together into one relatively coherent story for the American people. Hell, I follow this stuff pretty closely and I’m having trouble keeping it all straight!
Start with Don the Con’s first pro-Russia op-eds and forays into thinking that he knew shit about politics and government…follow up with his bankruptcies and how no one would lend to him…and then suddenly, he finds some ‘angels’ in the form of Russian oil barons and shadier characters to launder their dough through his condos…
Actually, have Morgan Freeman narrate and walk us through it a la Ken Burns-style slide show for an hour. He’ll be below 27% support by the next morning.
Baud
Jared needs to be gone ASAP. Mideast peace can wait.
Corner Stone
Malcolm Nance is about to start Gianforte’ing some motherfuckers he is so stoked about this J Kush shit.
TenguPhule
@Jeffro:
Trump is a Russian Traitor. The best traitor money could buy. And the rest of the Republicans signed on with open eyes and spread legs.
Spanky
@Baud: It’s not just you.
For once.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
♫♫♫It’s beginning to look a lot like treason….everywhere you go♪♪♪
Corner Stone
@Baud:
Comey. That way she can spank him and claim righteously, “I’m only doing this for your own good! This is for the best!”
Patricia Kayden
@Jeffro: We need charts to keep all these scandals and their many players straight. Perhaps Mueller’s investigation will be detailed enough for Americans as a whole to understand.
Spanky
@TenguPhule: Man, I can deal with your execution porn, but that is just over the top.
Baud
@Corner Stone:
“You’ve been an extremely careless boy.”
TenguPhule
@Spanky: I note you’re not denying its accurate.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Dressed in a uniform. Does the FBI have a uniform?
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
TenguPhule
@Corner Stone:
Oh thank you, I can’t unsee that.
BCHS Class of 1980
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: You just earwormed me. ?
amk
this senate intelligence committee to whom even that lowest lackey mikey flynn said fu to?
jacy
@TenguPhule:
You know, I have a huge deadly nightshade growing in my office dooryard. It keeps blooming, like god is sending me a message. We should talk.
dexwood
Traitor Trump and his ass kissers. Over and over again. His voters? Enablers, asskissers, dumb asses.
Corner Stone
@TenguPhule: We haven’t even gotten to the strap on and the “careless handling” accusations & punishment yet.
Corner Stone
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: “GOOD GRIEF” ?? What? Is he trying to kick a football held by a sadistic little dark haired girl?
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Patricia Kayden: Imelda Marcos didn’t have this many shoes.
Adam L Silverman
@schrodingers_cat: Dark suit. White shirt. Conservative tie. Dark socks. Dark shoes. Pancake holster. SIG P226. Two additional magazines. Badge and credentials.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@schrodingers_cat: Yeah, they look like Gillian Anderson
p.a.
This is the opposite of Yukon Cornelius or Yosemite Sam: every spade of dirt turned over, every hole the pickaxe makes, produces a nugget. It’s like the *ahem* Russian in a US supermarket: too much stuff.
Baud
@Adam L Silverman: You done this before.
Gian
@Baud:
Probably Sculley
Baud
@Gian: Good call.
SiubhanDuinne
I think I just released an egg.
Spanky
@Adam L Silverman: You forgot the trench coat. Which is probably more cogent to the real question.
Adam L Silverman
@Baud: You don’t need to know that information.
Cheryl Rofer
@Jeffro: I think there are still some big holes, but I’m starting to see some continuities.
Adam L Silverman
@Spanky: That’s specially issued cold weather gear.
Roger Moore
@Jeffro:
I don’t think there’s one relatively coherent story to be told. I think there are at least two or three different stories that have some overlap but had fundamentally different origins. Different people in trump’s orbit came into contact with Russia in different ways, though the Russian connections may have contributed to them getting involved with him.
dmsilev
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
I’m told it’s terribly gauche to wear prison orange until after Memorial Day.
I’m happy to give them until Monday.
Keith P.
@SiubhanDuinne: Oh, man, it is going to be BEAUTIFUL when they claim they can’t find emails. It’ll be even better if WikiLeaks releases them.
Corner Stone
I am always worried when I see adult persons discussing relatively benign items related to human sexuality on TV and they seem so damn squeamish. You are a full grown adult. Has no one ever touched your sexy bits?
Roger Moore
@schrodingers_cat:
A dark suit and tie.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Heh! Even Kislyak thought it was nutz
Roger Moore
@Keith P.:
What on earth makes you think Russia would give Wikileaks the emails? They aren’t going to give up on trump any time soon.
dmsilev
@Keith P.:
Wikileaks has proven itself many times over to have quite the political agenda. Even if they got Trump’s emails, I kind of doubt they’d release them.
rikyrah
CHRIS HAYES: Should the President have a press conference?
MAXINE WATERS: OF COURSE.But, you can’t believe anything he says.
BWA HA HA H AH HA HA HA HA
dmsilev
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Probably more because it was bad tradecraft rather than an intrinsic objection to the idea of a back channel.
JPL
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: haha Kushner is the deputy president.
What will happen to us with him gone?
jl
” I am going to become physically aroused. ”
Aroused to do what? We talking gag, vomit, flee up the local holler? Hate fuck CNN?
schrodingers_cat
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Or Priyanka Chopra! I will turn in my hetero card for either of those two.
Corner Stone
@rikyrah: She dropped the truth that whole interview. It was more like “in sorrow rather than anger” but she was knifing the fucker. It was glorious.
I CAN’T WAIT FOR AMJOY TOMORROW! GIMMIE! GIMMIE!!
schrodingers_cat
@Roger Moore: Dark blue to blend in with the drapes in the WH?
manyakitty
@SiubhanDuinne: That quote and your answer win the Internet today. Crying!!!!!
Adam L Silverman
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: I just put this downstairs, but I think it is appropriate here too.
This is a very accurate take by Josh Marshall that this really is not a backchannel. Rather it is the attempt to use a foreign adversary’s secure communications systems to communicate in a way that is completely compartmented from everyone and everything.
p.a.
Just as a tangental moment of zen I would like some reporter with balls to get in that vermin McConnell’s face and corner him about this.
efgoldman
@JPL:
We’ll have less to point and laugh at
debbie
@Baud:
Despite all that talk about Mueller’s appointment slowing things down!
Baud
Time for the Senate to subpoena Jared and make him take the Fifth.
Corner Stone
How was Kushner planning to monetize the backchannel to Russia? Didn’t he already have funding in place from their sources? This can’t be about state treason all by itself without a profit motive, can it?
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Baud
Isn’t there a March for Truth coming up? I might go wearing prison stripes with a blazer.
TenguPhule
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
Oh those poor sweet deluded naive souls.
p.a.
sorry, format didn’t translate well
Countries with No U.S. Extradition Treaty
Afghanistan Ethiopia Nepal
Algeria Gabon Niger
Andorra Guinea North Korea
Angola Guinea-Bissau Oman
Armenia Indonesia Qatar
Bahrain Iran Russia
Bangladesh Kazakhstan Rwanda
Belarus Kosovo Samoa
Bhutan Kuwait São Tomé & Príncipe
Bosnia and Herzegovina Laos Saudi Arabia
Brunei Lebanon Senegal
Burkina Faso Libya Serbia
Burundi Macedonia Somalia
Cambodia Madagascar Sudan
Cameroon the Maldives Syria
Cape Verde Mali Taiwan
the Central African Republic the Marshall Islands Togo
Chad Mauritania Tunisia
China Micronesia Uganda
Comoros Moldova Ukraine
Dem. Republic of the Congo Mongolia United Arab Emirates
Cote d’ Ivoire Montenegro Uzbekistan
Cuba Morocco Vanuatu
Djibouti Mozambique the Vatican
Equatorial Guinea Myanmar Vietnam
Eritrea Namibia Yemen
The following countries have been known to refuse U.S. extradition requests, despite having treaties: Bolivia, Ecuador, Iceland, Nicaragua, Switzerland, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
Escaping to a non-extradition-treaty country does not mean you are home free. It simply puts you at the mercy of your new hosts. You could become a pawn in a larger game and might be traded away for concessions. The political sands are always shifting, and tomorrow’s government may be more accommodating to the U.S.
Adam L Silverman
The Simpsons for the win!
TenguPhule
@Corner Stone:
“I demand a super secure secret way to sell NY real estate to Russian Mobsters!”
PatrickG
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
You gave me the best, most bigliest earworm. I could have done without the giggling, though.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
jl
@Baud: @debbie: I think a number of people and organizations, domestic and foreign, have decided that they need to provide an ever increasing rate of big bomb leaks to the press to stop the malicious and dangerous fool Trump.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Adam L Silverman
@Corner Stone: The speculation is that part of the meeting with Gorkov was to secure funding opportunities to bail him and his family out on their underwater financing on 666 5th AVE. Which is why Kislyak recommended it. Basic tradecraft. Highly placed potential source/asset who has significant financial problems and can be compromised as a result.
debbie
@Adam L Silverman:
Put that way, it seems like it would be the next logical step after Bush-Cheney’s use of RNC servers to avoid access to their communications.
Spanky
@p.a.:
If only for the hilarious video of Turtleman trying to body slam someone.
Iowa Old Lady
Just dropping in to say my FBI friend says the news about Kushner is “extraordinary.”
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Adam L Silverman
@debbie: No, there is an intermediate step: privately sourced encrypted communication equipment. That stuff is likely penetratable via SIGINT collection (this is not my area of expertise, so I’m speculating), but that would be the next step before something like this.
Baud
@Adam L Silverman: Right. Why couldn’t Jared just downloaded the Signal app?
ET
I would feel sorry for all those staffers because Trump is going to expect loyalty and silence no matter the peril to themselves, and is going to leave them out there to swing except for the fact that they willingly signed up for that despite all the warnings. Their deal with the devil is coming to fruition.
ihop
this, here:
https://img.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2014/04/DOONESBURY-1973-strip.gif
(i hope it works, my head replaces the word guilty with the word treason)
Spanky
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: That should be totally expected by the Russians, as we should expect our comms to be.
jl
After the mess Trump made of the European part of his trip, I think likely the daily explosive leaks will go into high gear. I wonder if Five Eyes, NATO, and European neutrals will start coordinating their intelligence leaks, so as not step on each other’s scoops.
Trump thought he was making his bed on that part of the trip, but he may have just shitted it up for good. What ally does not have stuff on him, and what ally does not want him gone (edit: or at least severely politically crippled and constrained) asap?
TenguPhule
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
We’re rapidly running out of sewage to dive in, Captain!
/Seriously, there’s WORSE shit from Trump to come?! Maybe he has already started ordering people be actually killed.
Keith P.
@Spanky: McConnell usually does it like this.
Baud
@jl: Don’t forget Israel!
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
I just don’t know what the fuck is going on any longer. Do we even have a real government any longer, or is every Republican working for Putin now? I can’t help wondering which Republican is going to be the first off this fucking leaky-ass boat. I can’t believe none of them understand how much they would profit by being the first one off. To riff on John Kerry, why would anybody want to be the last loser to die politically for a mistake?
JPL
@efgoldman: Oh no.. Kushner and Ivanka were the moderating force.
Adam L Silverman
@Baud: I do not know. I have never been to Jared’s. Advantage of being single – I don’t have to buy jewelry for anyone!
TenguPhule
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
The answer to that question is both no and yes.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@schrodingers_cat: Here’s a scene from last year: Scully rips off her uniform and seduces a nerd (video)
jl
@TenguPhule: They start releasing info on the paper trail that leads to Trump’s bribe money and where it’s stashed, and who helped him. I don’t know if that is what happened and I kind of doubt even Trump could be that stupid, but given what we know, something like that could have happened.
Adam L Silverman
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Penetration at all levels. I’ve been saying it for months.
JPL
ATTORNEY FOR TRUMP SON-IN-LAW KUSHNER SAYS HAS NO RECOLLECTION OF CALLS WITH RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR KISLYAK AS REPORTED BY REUTERS
hmmm
Adam L Silverman
@ihop: fixed your link for you so it wouldn’t capture the reply button
TenguPhule
@JPL:
Dementia defense already?
TenguPhule
@jl:
We already know that because the shameless thieves aren’t even trying to hide it.
dm
@Adam L Silverman: It’s kind-of amazing to me that airs on Fox.
Baud
@TenguPhule: No, just lying.
p.a.
@TenguPhule:
Schrodinger’s President
Schrodinger’s Senate
Schrodinger’s House
Schrodinger’s SCUSA
JPL
@TenguPhule: It is contagious, didn’t you know.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@Adam L Silverman: I truly cannot say this evening that the president is not a Russian agent. I can’t believe I’m even writing this, but as of tonight, I can’t rule out that Trump might be working for Putin. This is the weirdest fucking thing I ever saw. Nobody could dream this shit up. I can’t believe this.
jl
@dm: I don’t think Simpsons is in the Fox News division. Maybe it is the parent, 21st Century Fox?
Baud
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): You’re the puppet.
Adam L Silverman
@dm: Some part of Fox has to bring in advertising dollars!
Adam L Silverman
The Russians open up a new line of effort in their active measures campaign.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
Uh huh
Uh huh
Phuck Outta Here
(Channeling my Inner Rikyrah)
BCHS Class of 1980
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
My wife expanded on your ditty:
?It’s beginning to look a lot like treason
Soon you’ll need to go.
You’re lookin’ at 5 to 10
In the Federal pen
For Russian ties and crimes that we now know. It’s beginning to look a lot like treason.
Bugs and leaks and more.
But the prettiest sight we’ll see
When we throw away the key
You’ll be seen no more! ?
Adam L Silverman
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): At this point, especially based on what we saw with his NATO speech and the reported statements about the EU, he is either a useful idiot, an unwitting asset, or a witting asset.
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne: Good evening.
jl
Now that I think about it, the idea of a secure and supersecret hotline, using anybody’s secure facilities is really stupid. No such thing exists. Just taking meetings and whispering in some guy’s ear would be better.
It’s so dumb, it’s like they thought there was some Get Smart cone of silence or some other dumbshit gadget where they could just say anything and not worry.
So, I guess they were stupid enough to take some bribe money and stash it someplace.
zhena gogolia
@jl:
Even the Get Smart cone of silence didn’t work. They were always having to shout at each other.
efgoldman
@JPL:
The fact that they have high WH positions is still risible
Uncle Omar
@Adam L Silverman: Just a question…Has anyone told Trump that he doesn’t get to keep the Mr. T Starter Set that the Saudis draped around his neck?
Mary G
@SiubhanDuinne: You’re on fire today. I am so going to steal “I just released an egg” somewhere, sometime. It made me laugh out so loud the cats were concerned.
Uncle Cosmo
@Spanky: You mean the Oldage Mutilated Nutjob Turtle?
efgoldman
@JPL:
Kushkie has no recollection? Or the lawyer has no recollection (which is probably true)
TenguPhule
@BCHS Class of 1980: Thread won.
Bobby Thomson
OT, but Jesus Fucking Christ.
Adam L Silverman
@Uncle Omar: I do not know.
Gvg
Remember the scene where Kirk had 100’s of tribbles fall on him? I wish I could do it with Trump and 100’s of shoes.
I really can’t believe this.
TenguPhule
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
Its been clear for months now that Trump is Putin’s stooge.
Its merely confirming what most suspected and some knew in the depths of their bones.
Jeffro
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
WIN
I’m dyin’…
Central Planning
@Baud: Because he’s stupid. SATSQ.
TenguPhule
@Gvg:
Not anvils?
efgoldman
@Adam L Silverman:
I’m sure HE believes that they don’t control him in any way, shape, or form.
If you don’t count the rescue “loans” (spelled “m-o-n-e-y l-a-u-n-d-e-r-i-n-g”) from the Russian mob
Baud
@Central Planning: He should have read Treason for Dummies.
geg6
@jl:
Yes. This.
TenguPhule
@Baud:
Trump can’t read at a functional level, remember. And he doesn’t have the necessary attention span for an audio book.
Another Scott
Reuters:
C.R.E.A.M. They’re so obviously corrupt.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jeffro
@Roger Moore:
I hear you, but I don’t think it would be that hard for people to piece something decent together…I keep seeing a timeline progressing from the 80s to the present day, with multiple vectors gradually feeding into this perfect storm of treason and stupidity. A relatively slow-motion animation would help (would help slower minds like mine, anyway).
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Hey, I just got polled by Gallup.
hahahahahahh
I told them I’m a white working class church going Christian independent who hates trump.
They liked me so much, they asked if they could call me back and ask more. Hell, if Broder was alive, he would want to interview me and extrapolate my responses for the whole country.
p.a.
y’know what? I want my fucking country back!. *sigh*
Baud
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Win!
Corner Stone
J Kush is fucking toast. Can Ivanka be far behind?
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman: I’m sure there’s an innocent explanation.
JPL
@Another Scott: What is happening?
It’s like all the news agencies ate bran muffins and dumped at the same time.
sorry about the image, but how else do you explain this
Baud
@Corner Stone: That’s for June.
Redshift
@Uncle Omar:
Oh, you just know that whenever he’s booted out of the White House, it’ll be like Huckabee looting the governor’s mansion, but in steroids. No matter what the rules are, they’re going to take everything that isn’t nailed down, and there will be years of legal action to get it all back.
Adam L Silverman
@efgoldman: As I’ve written: follow the money.
Anne Laurie
@Jeffro:
There are multiple Pulitzers waiting to be won, but I’m afraid we won’t get the entire story publicly untangled in our lifetimes. (Dammit!)
Central Planning
@TenguPhule: Trump couldn’t comprehend a one-page summary of Cliffs Notes for Treason for Dummies.
Sab
@Adam L Silverman: Except for the guns it’seems like LDS guys doing domestic missionary work.
Redshift
@jl:
That’s what I can’t wrap my head around. Did they think the Russians were their friends? That there wouldn’t be any price for providing a secret communications channel?
Adam L Silverman
@Another Scott: As I wrote in comment 74:
Jeffro
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
Everyone’s been having a hard time processing it, but all the other explanations have gone bye-bye.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@Baud: I even told him I had been in the Navy (which is a slight lie; first few years of my life was on a base). The interviewer just loved it – he responded as if he had found the salt of the earth.
Baud
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
TRUMP’S BASE IS ABANDONING HIM!!!
amk
@Adam L Silverman: Nice ding of honest comey too.
Bobby Thomson
@Adam L Silverman: Maybe you can explain something, Adam.
Josh defines a back channel as “secret and unofficial communication through trust intermediaries that goes around the national security and diplomatic bureaucracy and provides some plausible deniability.”
He then says this isn’t a back channel because it’s communication with Moscow “behind the back of the US government, state, intelligence apparatus, military, etc.”
Maybe I’m missing something, but that sounds like exactly the same thing.
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman:
By willing himself to not know things and ignore the numerous and obvious, that’s “witting” enough in my book.
But actually, he’s been against America since at least the 80s…and you almost have to wonder if that’s what’s going to end up in the history books…
Adam L Silverman
@Corner Stone: He’s cheating on Ivanka with some woman named Toast? This just gets stranger and stranger.//
Aleta
…they will be excused by some talky heads because they are ‘new to government’
Another Scott
@JPL: Lots of this stuff was reported in March. The Reuters piece is a good summary.
There’s so much that Donnie’s people are trying to break and loot, and Donnie’s White House is so incompetent and has angered so many people, it’s not a surprise that it seems like there’s a new revelation every day.
Lots and lots of people who work for the federal government take their oaths deadly seriously…
Cheers,
Scott.
JanieM
@Adam L Silverman quoting Josh Marshall:
Because you’re too fucking stupid to know how fucking stupid you are?
(Meta-reply, of course. I’m sure Jared thought he had a different reason.)
Adam L Silverman
@Sab: Some of the best folks in the intel world, including ops, are LDS. They have lots of experience working in foreign countries and interacting with foreign nationals, a significant number speak a second language, and they always pass their lifestyle polygraphs without breaking a sweat.
Adam L Silverman
@Redshift: The President and seemingly everyone around him have this bizarre attraction/affinity for the Russian government and Putin. This isn’t a cultural Russophilia, this is a political and business attraction/affinity. It is a significant indicator of a major problem.
Corner Stone
@Adam L Silverman: Yes, Avaca Toast. I have heard she is creamy, smooth and very rich.
Millard Filmore
@Adam L Silverman: Alfa Bank suing Buzzfeed. As the tweet comments say, discovery will be a hoot!
Adam L Silverman
@Bobby Thomson: The former is documented and done in order to advance American objectives (or those of any other country that uses a backchannel). So, for instance, Nixon established and worked three different backchannels to set up the opening to China before largely closing two down and settling on the Pakistani one (because the Pakistani’s treated him like royalty when he visited and he didn’t like Indira Ghandi – don’t ask, the dude was weird!) to work the significant planning. This was done to advance the strategic objective of opening up the PRC to the US and was done using a backchannel to prevent the Congress, the Intel Community, the DOD, US allies, partners, and in some cases competitors, as well as those of the PRC from throwing a wrench in the works.
What WaPo is reporting is not the above. It is an attempt to utilize a foreign adversary’s secure (as secure as anything is these days) communications systems in one of those adversary’s own facilities on US soil to communicate Deity knows what.
Anne Laurie
@Sab:
Lotsa Mormons in the intelligence community!
Ask Evan McMullins (ex-CIA) how they feel about the Trump crime cartel…
SFAW
@Bobby Thomson:
Aren’t back-channels sanctioned by the government? Or at least done with some level of awareness/approval by/from the government?
Whereas Traitor Junior was trying to avoid detection by the government.
Adam L Silverman
@Millard Filmore: Yep!
Peale
@Adam L Silverman: this doesn’t appear to be a back channel but a direct line. Did Kushner think he could just walk into the Russian embassy and use the phone three days a week and no one would know?
Peale
@SFAW: in December, they weren’t yet the government.
sdhays
@Adam L Silverman:
I don’t think you’re giving Trump enough credit. He could easily be all three!
He is an idiot, and that works to Russia’s advantage; this is an empirical fact. And as for the witting/unwitting – did I mention that he’s an idiot? I think it’s easily possible that he both knows that he’s selling out the country and simply doesn’t comprehend what that actually means since he can’t really comprehend much of anything beyond Trumpworld.
Steve in the ATL
@Iowa Old Lady:
Was he wearing his uniform?
Peale
So if this was December, wouldn’t Flynn have already known he was under investigation?
Peale
I do hope in their little game they manage to have ensnared Erik Prince somehow.
SFAW
@Peale:
Which is why the comms with Russia were not “back-channel,” but instead were, shall we say, “extracurricular”?
Redshift
@Peale: My impression is that he was asking for a non-public Russian facility. And probably had a sufficient inflated opinion of his own intelligence to think that US intelligence wouldn’t find out about it. Or, you know, just have him followed.
Sab
@Adam L Silverman: I didn’t mean it as a criticism of LDS people.
Steve in the ATL
@Adam L Silverman:
Apologies for killing your joke, but should you ever find yourself in this situation do not go to Jared or any of the other mall jewelry stores. High prices, low quality. Buzz me when you get to that point–I know a guy.
Adam L Silverman
@Peale: Apparently. They were able to smuggle Kislyak into Trump Tower several times during the transition without the news media finding out until someone leaked that info to them.
They also had a proposed disguise all lined up:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-R11T-SyII4k/VaOU3670IFI/AAAAAAAAOSc/V1G19MMJV58/s1600/Mercenary%2BGarage%2BDesign%2BDublin%2BIreland%2BCustom%2BMotorcycle%2BWorkshop%2BBloom%2BCounty%2BBerke%2BBreathed%2BX%2B17%2BStealth%2BBasselope.jpg
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman:
MOSTLY business and political activity, but – and maybe you consider this ‘political’ – there is a major affinity for the authoritarian way Putin has ruled over his own country and trampled his opponents. There’s certainly a desire amongst Trumpov and his supporters in the Tea Party fringe to do just that.
There is an affinity (mostly misguided) that because Putin is up against Chechen and other terrorists, that he somehow is ‘aligned’ with the far right in America and their anti-Islam rabidity (which I’m sure Putin & Co have gone to great lengths to encourage).
Another Scott
@Peale: Remember that “direct line” between a PC in Trump Tower and that bank in Russia:
(From March)
“…, the third time it’s enemy action.”
Cheers,
Scott.
Adam L Silverman
@sdhays: No arguments here.
Adam L Silverman
@Peale: There has been an ongoing CI investigation into Erik Prince, due to his business dealings/being bankrolled by the PRC, since 2015.
Adam L Silverman
@Sab: I never thought you did. I was just providing context.
Adam L Silverman
@Steve in the ATL: I was being a smartass – shocking, I know. I am aware of where to and not to go. But thanks for the offer of assistance.
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman: Bloom County references/links are almost an automatic win.
Rosebud…Milo…OPUS!…
“…this is L.H. Puttgrass, signing off and heading for the tub!…”
Adam L Silverman
@Jeffro: I once snuck this one into the backups of a briefing slide deck:
http://s22.photobucket.com/user/Bager1968/media/other%20stuff/X-15CruiseBasselope.gif.html
efgoldman
@Adam L Silverman:
Which was exactly the mantra for Watergate…
…which anybody who was around then should know (I know you weren’t, youngster)
Bobby Thomson
@Adam L Silverman:
That’s an ends distinction, not a means distinction. I have no doubt the ends here were corrupt as hell, but there’s as yet been no direct evidence of it.
Oh, I’m sure this was documented. Again, it’s likely it was documented only by the Russians and not the Trump crime family, but again, no proof yet that the Trumps weren’t documenting it.
So in other words, in a way that the Intel Community wouldn’t know about. Is the difference that a back channel is supposed to be limited in duration and then you disclose things later? Because I’m really cynical there is ever full transparency.
Gravenstone
@Adam L Silverman: OMFG! I haven’t watched the Simpsons in ages, but that was wonderful. Sessions is the bit that got me. Had to pause the thing until I could get my laughing back under control.
Mnemosyne
@Bobby Thomson:
FWIW, my strong suspicion with that story is that Republicans and right-wing voters are highly motivated to vote against Sanders and his preferred candidates, not that Democrats are refusing to vote for them.
Makes one wonder exactly what Russia’s propaganda masters are pushing through Drudge and Breitbart about Sanders …
Amanda in the South Bay
@Adam L Silverman: I mean sure, that’s a positive spin on it. For those of us not (at least now) in the military that’s overly charitable.
efgoldman
@Redshift:
Assholes like the Mango Malignancy crime family always get it backwards: They think because (a) they have a fuckton of the Russians’ money and (2) they’re big and important enough that the lenders can’t touch them in any real way, (iii) they can just ignore any demands
Which is of course bullshit. They were always at risk of investigation and prosecution over here, and lenders of really big amounts of money ALWAYS have ways of foreclosing/collecting, some of which aren’t available to traditional banks.
Do you think the Russians will care about the legal niceties of another bankruptcy?
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman: Fear the Stealth Basselope! Nice pick.
Adam L Silverman
@efgoldman: I was a toddler.
efgoldman
@Millard Filmore:
Wouldn’t surprise me if their US lawyers have told them to let it drop.
Adam L Silverman
@Bobby Thomson: Yes, eventually things would be disclosed.
Adam L Silverman
@Amanda in the South Bay: I’m not sure I’m following.
efgoldman
@Steve in the ATL:
Also at the corporate level, a history of regular and egregious sexual harassment
sdhays
@JPL:
This is essentially an admission of guilt. At this point, whether “the calls” happened or not barely matters; he would know such calls didn’t happen if he didn’t have a desire to talk to contacts in the Russian government secretly from the Russian embassy. Even if he comes back with a stronger denial tomorrow (which I expect since what the hell more does he have to lose?), that this was the best he could muster when the news dropped is the tell.
The Trump Administration should be hounded everyday by the media and members of Congress to find out what, exactly, was so sensitive that the Trump Transition Team wanted to make secret calls from within a rival state’s embassy to contacts in that state. And after Trump’s inauguration, has there been a “back-channel” established that bypasses the standard government bureaucracy?
Steve in the ATL
@efgoldman:
Yeah, but for people in my field of work, that’s $$$!
J R in WV
@schrodingers_cat:
Yes, navy blue suit, white shirt, black tie, issue weapon, black wingtip shoes, short hair.
Millard Filmore
@Steve in the ATL: My cousin-in-law is a jeweler, and says the mall diamonds are very close to frozen spit. Stay away from the malls, find an expert.
Mnemosyne
@Bobby Thomson:
I am not the expert that Adam is, but my understanding is that most governments have some kind of “back channel” communications with governments that they are officially opposed to. It’s a good practice to be able to have some kind of way to communicate with, say, Iran in case there’s a natural disaster in the region.
For example, with Cuba, I guarantee you that the “back channels” were open for at least a decade, if not longer, to get to the diplomatic point we did under Obama. Back channels are a way to do diplomacy without any prying eyes throwing a monkey wrench in the works before the diplomats are able to announce an official breakthrough.
Jackie
@Keith P.: I lurk 99.9% of the time, but that just made me snort wine through my nose ?
Jonothan Cullinane
I (heart) John Cole.