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We are aware of all internet traditions.

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

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

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President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / Late Night Russiagate Open Thread: Lawyers, Lawyers Everywhere

Late Night Russiagate Open Thread: Lawyers, Lawyers Everywhere

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This poor, degraded, copycat generation… How long before we get to H.R. Haldeman’s “modified limited hang-out“ option?

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65Comments

  1. 1.

    Aleta

    Trump has appointed longtime loyalist Lynne Patton — who has zero housing experience and claims a law degree the school says she never earned — to run the office that oversees federal housing programs in New York.

    Patton was appointed Wednesday to head up the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Region II, which includes New York and New Jersey, where she’ll oversee distribution of billions of taxpayer dollars.

    “Responsible for organizing, executing and assisting with upscale events and celebrity golf tournaments,” her LinkedIn profile says. “Handle celebrity talent acquisition for various marketing projects, philanthropic events and golf tournaments.”

    From 2011 through January, she also helped run the Eric Trump Foundation, a charity that’s now under investigation by state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

    She also claims on her LinkedIn page to have obtained a juris doctorate degree in 2000 from Quinnipiac University School of Law in Connecticut. Next to the J.D. notation is written (N/A) without explanation. On Thursday school registrar Jim Benson said Patton attended for two semesters but did not graduate.

    She also listed Yale University but HUD officials couldn’t explain why that was there. Patton, who begins her Region II job July 5, did not return calls seeking comment.

    As head of the biggest HUD regional office in the U.S., Patton will oversee distribution of billions in cash to public housing authorities — including NYCHA — as well tens of thousands of rental vouchers and block grants that fund housing inspections and senior citizen programs.

    Patton is one of the handful of African Americans within Trump’s inner circle and a passionate Trump promoter. Last year she made a video entitled “I’m proof Donald Trump isn’t a bigot.” Trump first placed her as a White House liaison at HUD in February.

  4. 4.

    amk

    @Aleta: yup. at this point, this has become united states of russia. how could they afford so many lawyers, lobbyists, shills beats me.

  5. 5.

    RepubAnon

    Who needs leaks as long as Trump can log into Twitter?

    Trump is every lawyer’s worst nightmare: a client who keeps doing really stupid things to undermine his case, then blames the lawyer when things go wrong.

  6. 6.

    randy khan

    The Byron York comment might be accurate, but it assumes that, in fact, there won’t be anything to find.

    I mean, what they’re trying to do is shut down the investigation before it gets going, and that’s no doubt the best tactic they have, but anybody with a brain can see that’s what they’re doing, and even the reporters in the Village would be upset to miss out on a nice juicy criminal investigation. (They all wish they were Woodward and Bernstein, well, maybe just Woodward, and this is their best chance.)

  8. 8.

    burnspbesq

    Any lawyer who has ever seen Bill Gates’ videotaped deposition probably thought that was the worst day any lawyer could ever possibly have. Trump is going to go so far beyond that in terms of self-immolation that I can’t even.

  9. 9.

    burnspbesq

    I wonder which multi-gazillionaire Republican is going to secretly pay Pence’s fees, thereby creating a huge ethical problem for McGuireWoods when it leaks, as it inevitably will. Pence doesn’t have that kind of money.

  10. 10.

    randal sexton

    How to know when you should lawyer up:
    1. Your Big Big Boss(BBB) hires a Super Shady Lawyer (SSL)
    2. The Lying Fake News Media reports that the FBI is investigating your boss, and everyone who has ever come into contact with him, and his dog, but he hates dogs.
    3. Your BBB’s SSL lawyer tells YOU and all your co-workers that they do not need a Lawyer
    4. Your BBB’s SSL asks you if you like the underside of a BUS
    Note: 4. Won’t actually happen. You have to figure it out by 3. Good Luck.

    Also , if the BBB’s Number Two, whose elevator may go a scant few floors higher than the BBB hires a more competent Lawyer, that is also a rather LARGE clue.

  12. 12.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    I despise Sessions. Sure are a damn lotta southern white dudes taking turns at the mic to represent the GOP.

  13. 13.

    jeffreyw

    I’m afraid the investigations will suffer from lack of manpower. A lot of juicy stuff will get passed over for the want of resources. Maybe they could do a GoFundMe?

  15. 15.

    burnspbesq

    @Face:

    It was classic CEO behavior on steroids. He was underprepared, contemptuous of the process, thought he was the smartest guy in the room, and refused to give his lawyers any opportunity to shape the record. He said whatever he wanted instead of answering the question that was actually asked.

    He did all the things you spend hours telling people not to do.

  19. 19.

    efgoldman

    @jeffreyw:

    I’m afraid the investigations will suffer from lack of manpower.

    Mueller is staffing up like crazy, and getting lots of financial crime experts to follow the money.
    Meanwhile the NY AG has his own grand jury going, very quietly. As the financial center for most of the world, NY has very strict financial crimes laws of their own.
    Might take a while, but it’s all coming out, like draining an infection but more fun (for the rest of us).

  20. 20.

    Mary G

    @burnspbesq: I remember good old Windows 3.1 or whatever it was. Every time you typed “dear” Clippy would pop up and say “It looks like you’re writing a letter, how can I help?”

  21. 21.

    Adria McDowell (formerly Lurker Extraordinaire

    @burnspbesq: This is the type of violent rhetoric against computer animation that needs to be toned down.

    #JeSuisClippy

  22. 22.

    jeffreyw

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Why?

    I guess I’m just a worry wart, but I do wonder about the logistics – office space, the IT demands, paralegals, just the basic nuts and bolts of what is proving to be an enormous enterprise.

  23. 23.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    I just want to screech in Joan Cusack’s voice(a la In & Out where she says “Is anybody here not gay?”)
    “Is there anybody in this administration who is not connected to the Russians?”

  24. 24.

    Kent

    @randy khan:

    The Byron York comment might be accurate, but it assumes that, in fact, there won’t be anything to find.

    I mean, what they’re trying to do is shut down the investigation before it gets going, and that’s no doubt the best tactic they have, but anybody with a brain can see that’s what they’re doing, and even the reporters in the Village would be upset to miss out on a nice juicy criminal investigation. (They all wish they were Woodward and Bernstein, well, maybe just Woodward, and this is their best chance.)

    Based on what we have seen of Trump and his circle over the past 6 months, do we honestly think he is clever enough to have hidden or disguised every single thread of corruption in the hundreds or thousands of entities with which he has ownership or financial ties? I suspect not.

  26. 26.

    MomSense

    @Aleta:

    Sorry to go off topic but were you saying you have a brother in Maine who might be interested in a black cat with green eyes?

    Here is the link to Aslan. His eyes are a much more vibrant green in person and he is a total sweetheart– a gentle giant. My dog wanting to hunt him all the time would be too stressful. Otherwise he would be mine. Wonderful cat.

    Aslan

    Ok, fuck fucking trump, sessions, pence et al. I hope they all go down.

  27. 27.

    burnspbesq

    @jeffreyw:

    If the Republicans want to cut Mueller off at the knees on October 1, they can. Just slip a provision into the fiscal 18 appropriations bill for DOJ prohibiting the spending of appropriated funds on special counsel investigations.The same stunt they pulled to keep Obama from closing Guantanamo.

    Do they have the balls to do something that outrageous? Merrick Garland may have an opinion on that subject.

  29. 29.

    Kent

    Honestly I think the best case scenario from a Dem perspective is to bleed Trump dry with scandal for the next 3 years until we are 6 months out from the next election and then wash it all away.

    Worst case scenario is he resigns and the we get the Pence honeymoon with some young fresh smiling face as the new VP and future leading presidential candidate. And then they roll into a new honeymoon period, the main stream media starts getting woodies, and then they start cranking through really horrific legislation.

  30. 30.

    efgoldman

    John Mitchell obit: only AG to be imprisoned, serving 19 mos. for conspiracy, obstruction of justice &lying under oath

    Per Wiki, his successor as AG, Richard Kleindienst

    In 1974, he pleaded guilty to failing to testify fully to the Senate in a pre-Watergate investigation, involving alleged favoritism shown to International Telephone & Telegraph Corp, during his testimony in his Senate confirmation hearings

    He was sentenced to a month in jail, although the charges were not directly related to Watergate.

  31. 31.

    efgoldman

    @jeffreyw:

    I do wonder about the logistics – office space, the IT demands, paralegals

    DC is absolutely drowning in all of that stuff.

  32. 32.

    frosty

    @Mary G:

    “It looks like you’re writing a letter, how can I help?”

    Lots of jokes flew around about Clippy. My favorite was:

    “It looks like you’re writing a suicide note. Would you like help with that?”

  34. 34.

    efgoldman

    @Adam L Silverman:

    we actually ride alligators to work.

    Bet they keep ’em VERY will fed! All the chicken and ribs they can eat, and then some.
    Do they have ‘gator seating at Waffle House (Gainesville doesn’t count!)

  35. 35.

    sigaba

    Byron York’s argument sounds a lot like “Trump’s doing great with people who aren’t informed or paying attention, or are actively looking for pretexts to ignore what’s going on.”

    That’s what “beyond the beltway” means — it’s code for “people who don’t care about the country.”

  36. 36.

    Mary G

    Homeland Security has suspended DAPA (not deporting parents of minors who are US citizens.) Fuckers.

  37. 37.

    Davebo

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Growing up around a lot of gators I can tell you the old myth is a myth. Rolling them over and rubbing their belly’s does not make them docile, it just freaks them out.

    They do however seem to enjoy Pink Floyd mmagumma.

  39. 39.

    Aleta

    @MomSense: (ETA I don’t see a link in your comment.).

    A cousin. A really good home, just two adults and one gentle dog, quiet street with trees, birds and squirrels out the windows.

    The dog can only access 1/2 the house, whereas their previous cat (he died a year ago, my cousin D. was heartbroken) had access everywhere and slept with D. Grandchildren, all gentle girls, come over a lot, but the cat has a lot of room to retreat to. Big house and big treed yard.

    He wants another big black cat. Thanks, I’ll let him know. He is special with cats. And I’ll let you know…

  41. 41.

    Morzer

    @Kent:

    some young fresh smiling face as the new VP

    Given that the average age of the Young Republicans is somewhere north of 70, young, fresh and smiling might not be on the menu.

  43. 43.

    Aleta

    I ran across this thread and don’t know enough to know what the argument against it might be. But here it is:

    Ezra Levin‏ @ezralevin 13h13 hours ago

    Reconciliation gives Republicans a HUGE benefit – they only need 50 votes to pass TrumpCare instead of the normal 60. 3/
    But it comes with a little talked about cost: vote-a-rama. Basically vote-a-rama means an unlimited number of amendments must be allowed. 4/
    So, in short: reconciliation means you only need 50 votes, but you have to accept votes on a ton of amendments. 5/
    Vote-a-rama is an annoyance for the party using reconciliation, but it’s accepted in order to lower the vote threshold to 50. 6/

    But “unlimited votes” means EXACTLY what it sounds like. There is no limit to the number of amendments. 7/
    Any senator can introduce dozens, hundreds, THOUSANDS. They just have to be on Senate Floor to introduce. 8/
    And here’s the thing about these amendments. They have to be introduced by a speech and voted on. AND THAT TAKES TIME. 9/

    Let’s say it takes about 10 minutes to introduce and then vote on an amendment, a conservative estimate. 10/
    If @SenateDems introduce 1,000 amendments, that’s 10,000 minutes. 10,000 minutes = 167 hours = 7 days. So 1,000 amendments = 1 week. 11/
    If @SenateDems introduce 40,000 amendments, that’s 40 weeks worth of amendments. That would take us through the 2018 midterms. 12/

    SO HERE’S THE TACTIC: Next week, @SenateDems should hold a press conference with a big ol stack of papers. 40,000 pages to be exact. 13/
    And @SenateDems should make a simple promise: If Republicans insist on this secretive undemocratic process for TrumpCare… 14/
    Then @SenateDems should promise to filibuster-by-amendment through the 2018 mid-terms. 15/

    Senate Rs want to pass this bill in darkness thru speed+secrecy. We can drag it into the daylight. We can defeat it. We can win this. 16/
    No public hearings? Then we bury TrumpCare in amendments. Don’t like it? Too bad. That’s the price for subverting the democratic process.17/

    But @SenateDems aren’t doing this. Instead, they introduced a bill calling for no vote until public hearings. “No Hearing, No Vote” Act 18/
    ARE YOU KIDDING ME, @SenateDems? What a joke. This has no teeth. This is not legislation. It’s basically just a whiny press release. 19/

    McConnell is destroying Senate procedure to negotiate TrumpCare in secret, and @SenateDems are issuing strongly worded letters 20/
    GET IN THE GAME @SenateDems. If you want to stop TrumpCare, stop being wimps and fight back. NOW is the time for hardball 21/

  44. 44.

    GregB

    Pence is prudent to get his own lawyer because this cigarette stained hairhead if Trump’s is going to end up like Bruce Cutler.

    Deep shit.

  46. 46.

    efgoldman

    @Morzer:

    young, fresh and smiling might not be on the menu.

    They can buy the smiles at any of the Cheap Mall Franchise Dentist LLC places owned by RWNJs.
    They mostly are, right?
    They can even get an Easy Payment Plan, doubling the cost or so.

  48. 48.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?

    @Aleta: Can they do that? If so that would be some major league trolling. Along with preventing a horrible law from getting past

    And the worst part of all this Trumpcare bs? McConnell and a number of Rs will either be retired or dead by the time phase out of Medicaid begins to happen. So he’ll face no real consequences for this more than likely.

    I promised no more eliminationist rhetoric, so I’d settle for Mitch and Blue Eyes getting beaten around a bit with a tire iron with a waterboarding bath afterwards. Gotta wash away that blood from that Armani suit

  49. 49.

    Timurid

    I’m just waiting for the inevitable “we gotta pass this thing for Steve” spew…

  51. 51.

    Mary G

    @Adam L Silverman: Also, too:

    The Trump admin has broken a '13 deal to not raid medical camps treating undocumented migrants in arizona desert https://t.co/IAiOxzgGKI— john r stanton (@dcbigjohn) June 16, 2017

    When it starts getting hot immigrants trying to enter die in the desert and all my life my church and others have set up rescue stations both in AZ and eastern SoCal. Friends who still volunteer tell me they have been followed by LaMigra ever since inauguration day, including with a helicopter. If the volunteers object they are threatened with arrest.

  52. 52.

    Mary G

    In happier news, AP poll has Twitler’s approval rating crumbling even among Republicans, according to Yahoo:

    The Associated Press-NORC survey also found Trump wasn’t a particularly popular president. Just 35 percent of Americans approved of the job he’s doing as president, the poll found. Sixty-four percent—and one-quarter of Republicans—disapproved of Trump’s job performance. In March, the the Associated Press-NORC poll found 42 percent of Americans approved of the job Trump was doing. Just one-in-five Republicans disapproved of the president in March.

    35/64 is going to generate some awesome whiny tweets in six hours or so.

  53. 53.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Josh DawseyVerified account @ jdawsey1
    A little late night news: Trump transition officials & volunteers told to save a wide swath of documents for probes.

    Bradd Jaffy‏Verified account @ BraddJaffy 2h2 hours ago
    “campaign officials were told to preserve all documents related to the Russian Federation, Ukraine” +related to Manafort, Flynn, Stone, Page

  54. 54.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?

    @Morzer: I never said I wanted them dead. I wouldn’t shed a tear for them if they got roughed up a little so they face some consequences for this. It’s unlikely they’ll be voted out.

    This is like “fuck them with a rusty pitchfork”

  55. 55.

    Gian

    @efgoldman:
    it’ll fire up the “build the wall” trump base, and really that’s all they have now, consequences to people other than Trump are beside the point

  58. 58.

    joel hanes

    @Aleta:

    I’m no expert on Senate rules, but it’s my impression that today’s Republicans are not about to allow mere rules, customs, ethics, or laws to stand between them and their goals.

    So I’d expect the Rs to react to that obstruction strategy by changing the rules for reconciliation, and the parliamentarian to rule than they can do so, and if he doesn’t, they’ll get a different parliamentarian.

  59. 59.

    Mnemosyne

    @Mary G:

    If the volunteers object they are threatened with arrest.

    They should probably set up a GoFundMe for their legal fees and then dare the Border Patrol to arrest them.

  60. 60.

    NotMax

    Adam, any cogent thoughts about what’s transpiring (including U.S. troops) in the Marawi City area in the Philippines?

    In other news,

    Police in Washington, D.C., have issued felony arrest warrants for two Canadian supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in connection with a bloody assault outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence in Washington last month.

    Mahmut Sami Ellialti and Ahmet Cengizhan Dereci face charges of felony assault with significant bodily injury. Ellialti also faces a charge of felony aggravated assault.
    [snip]
    …Two U.S. citizens are already under arrest for their part in the attack, and the District of Columbia now seems certain to request the extradition of Ellialti and Dereci on felony charges. Source

  61. 61.

    joel hanes

    @Aleta:

    Went next to LGM, and found this :

    Jim Manley, one of Reid’s former aides, says that McConnell can move to end the amendment period if amendments are being offered with dilatory intent and the Senate parliamentarian agrees. So we won’t be able hold this vote-a-rama open for more than a few days, much less until the midterm election.

  65. 65.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?

    @Morzer: I would never personally put something like that into practice. I just meant I wouldn’t care that much if it did happen to them.

    But if it bothers you that much I won’t do it again

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