Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let’s finish the job.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Good lord, these people are nuts.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

In my day, never was longer.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

The willow is too close to the house.

Everybody saw this coming.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

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

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / Peter Smith Joins The Trump Cast Of Thousands

Peter Smith Joins The Trump Cast Of Thousands

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Curiouser and curiouser. And later and later. My acuity at analysis declines after about 3 in the afternoon, but I figure this is important enough to pose some questions now.

Yesterday and today the Wall Street Journal had two articles about a man named Peter Smith, who was a Republican political operative and VERY interested in Hillary Rodham Clinton’s allegedly hacked emails. I read the first last night and can’t access the second behind the Journal’s paywall. (Any Juicer who wants to send it, my address is at the top of the page.) In any case, what is in the articles seems vague and suggestive of connections rather than determinative. But it is little pieces put together that will finally make a picture.

Within the past hour, Matt Tait, who tweets as @pwnallthethings, posted on Lawfare. Tait was one of the sources for the WSJ articles and has his own story to tell about Smith. I’ll post some selections with my questions.

First, the presence of old (ancient, even) Republican operatives around Trump has struck me for some time. The late Roy Cohn, the dandyish Roger Stone, and now Peter Smith. Cohn and Stone go back to the Nixon days. And all three are associated with dirty tricks. No question here, just an observation.

The Trump campaign seems to have been very eager to get Clinton’s emails. Smith contacted Tait seemingly to enlist him in a search for and potential verification of those emails.

Initially, I assumed the query must have been about my work on the DNC hack; after all, few people followed my account prior to the DNC breach, whereas my analysis of the break-in at the DNC had received considerably more coverage. I assumed his query about the “Clinton emails” was therefore a mistake and that he meant instead to talk to me about the emails stolen from the DNC. So I agreed to talk to him, thinking that, whatever my views on then-candidate Trump, if a national campaign wanted an independent non-partisan view on the facts surrounding the case, I should provide it to the best of my ability.

Yet Smith had not contacted me about the DNC hack, but rather about his conviction that Clinton’s private email server had been hacked—in his view almost certainly both by the Russian government and likely by multiple other hackers too—and his desire to ensure that the fruits of those hacks were exposed prior to the election. Towards the course of a long phone call, he mentioned that he had been contacted by someone on the “Dark Web” who claimed to have a copy of emails from Secretary Clinton’s private server, and this was why he had contacted me; he wanted me to help validate whether or not the emails were genuine.

What was Smith’s role in the campaign? He is said to be skilled in opposition research. The Steele dossier was funded by a Republican who supported Jeb Bush in the primary, and then taken up by a Democratic funder (I think) after the Republican convention. Does his activity dovetail with Christopher Steele’s?

Tait suspected that Smith’s “Dark Web” contact was Russian, but Smith didn’t seem to care where he got the information. Was a Russian connection accidental? Probably wouldn’t be from the Russian side.

Flynn is in this up to his earlobes. How much did Trump know? He certainly was fond of Flynn.

Although it wasn’t initially clear to me how independent Smith’s operation was from Flynn or the Trump campaign, it was immediately apparent that Smith was both well connected within the top echelons of the campaign and he seemed to know both Lt. Gen. Flynn and his son well. Smith routinely talked about the goings on at the top of the Trump team, offering deep insights into the bizarre world at the top of the Trump campaign. Smith told of Flynn’s deep dislike of DNI Clapper, whom Flynn blamed for his dismissal by President Obama. Smith told of Flynn’s moves to position himself to become CIA Director under Trump, but also that Flynn had been persuaded that the Senate confirmation process would be prohibitively difficult. He would instead therefore become National Security Advisor should Trump win the election, Smith said.

Tait keeps referring to Smith’s “deep knowledge of the campaign.” I’ll go back to my question about his role and also wonder who his connections in the campaign were.

Reader Interactions

114Comments

  1. 1.

    Omnes Omnibus

    For someone whose “acuity at analysis declines after about 3 in the afternoon,” this is pretty good and disturbing.

  2. 2.

    Hunter Gathers

    It’s looking more and more like they blindly stumbled into collusion.
    Trump’s been living in a dimension of his own making for so long now that ignorance of said collusion is extremely plausible.
    He’s stupid and crazy.

    Way to go White people. Yay us.

  3. 3.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    That lawfare article is everything. Evidence of collusion, and Flynn is going to confirm everything to his handlers.

  5. 5.

    Adam L Silverman

    As I put in a comment in the previous thread, and in light of your remark about old Republican operatives:

    What I’d really like to know is what Stone’s real connections to Russian intel are. He was the one that encouraged and arranged the President’s late 1980s trip to the Soviet Union. He was the one who has been encouraging him to run for president since the late 1980s. I’m not a big fan of coincidence.

  6. 6.

    Cheryl Rofer

    I’m going to steal a comment of Adam’s from the previous thread.

    My take has always been that Farage was one of the go betweens with Assange. A direct one. Stone was another. Farage is also a connection of both Bannon and Mercer. What I’d really like to know is what Stone’s real connections to Russian intel are. He was the one that encouraged and arranged the President’s late 1980s trip to the Soviet Union. He was the one who has been encouraging him to run for president since the late 1980s. I’m not a big fan of coincidence.

    We are starting to see overlap among the cast of thousands, but it’s not very strong yet. But more will come out. I am encouraged by the wide variety of news organizations that are looking into this.

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne: Not enough yet. The White House group of Bannon, Conway et al. are mentioned, but connections are not clear.

  9. 9.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Cheryl Rofer: This great mind would like an order of El Paragua’s steak tips in green chile please. Since you’re closest would you be so kind?//

  12. 12.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Cheryl Rofer: Stone is a dandy with very specific sexual kinks who has been continuously in trouble and continuously able to get out of it – buy or slink away or, perhaps, even give up others quietly to save his own skin. Would it surprise you to find out he’s been cultivated by wealthy interests who he doesn’t want to do proper diligence on to know who they are connected to?

  13. 13.

    Mike in NC

    We need to know more about Fat Bastard’s need to have this fucker Flynn so close to him.

  14. 14.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Cheryl Rofer: I like Rancho de Chimayo as well. Unfortunately they tend to be streaky. Some years they’re great, some years not so much depending on who’s running the kitchen. El Paragua is consistently good.

  16. 16.

    Adam L Silverman

    @eclare: I’m sure Nixon wasn’t. My guess is that sometime along the way Stone was cultivated. Most likely by wealthy clients. And his only concern was that they paid their bills. It is also possible, despite his sexual kinks being well known, that someone has something on him that is really bad, but has never been revealed. And this is used to ensure his cooperation.

  19. 19.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Gin & Tonic: It is amazing. In some cases it is that he has powerful clients/patrons. In other cases I’m sure it is that he collects on everyone who employs him, he employs, and he interacts with as insurance in case he needs it. Remember, like the President, he learned from Roy Cohn. Speaking of, here’s a new Vanity Fair piece on the President and Cohn:
    http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/06/donald-trump-roy-cohn-relationship?mbid=social_twitter

  20. 20.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Time for me to sign off. This is such a gigantic story, with so many players. It is slowly, slowly starting to come together. But there will be more.

    I’ll check back on this thread tomorrow morning. And maybe on El Paragua’s steak tips over the weekend. But the Espanola green chile isn’t ready yet, so it would be last year’s, frozen.

  23. 23.

    efgoldman

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne:

    Flynn is going to confirm everything to his handlers.

    Yup. So far, Mikey is the one person who has publicly committed prosecutable acts (lying on a form, leaving material info off a form, illegal/unreported foreign contacts, illegal/unreported foreign income). They’ve got him by the short and curlies. And when Mueller’s shop is done with him, he’s liable to be recalled to active duty and courts-martialed.

  24. 24.

    Adam L Silverman

    @efgoldman: Actually AG Sessions and Jared have also provided incorrect information on their SF 86s and AG Sessions has lied under oath in the Senate.

  25. 25.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Adam L Silverman: I could never have done sub. Jumping always seemed fun. Underwater? No. I also have an issue with caves. Not claustrophobia, but the idea of tons of rock and earth that could come in on me and put me in a Steven King story about rats.

  29. 29.

    Waratah

    Thank you Cheryl, I was puzzled to after reading the first WSJ story until I read the link Adam posted below.

  31. 31.

    Another Scott

    It seems to me that people looking at the collusion angle too often forget Uday (or Qusay?) saying that they got most of their investment dollars from Russia, the public information about the rich Russians and Russian shell companies owning condos in Trump’s building, and all the rest. It can’t be a coincidence that Russians were involved in both aspects of Trump’s world.

    Maybe Donnie’s too stupid, too brain damaged, too ignorant, too narcissistic to know that he’s been compromised. Maybe he knows exactly how compromised he is, but he’s simply too incompetent to know that every tweet and every public utterance shows everyone how guilty he appears to be.

    But it’s not a coincidence to these eyes. Putin wanted Donnie to win because he hated Hillary and was determined to get the sanctions removed, but also because Donnie really is his puppet whose strings have been tied over many years, many deals, and many many shady interactions. Getting the sanctions lifted would ensure Putin’s survival, but destroying the USA, NATO and the EU, from the inside would be like him being named Czar of all the World (not just all the Russias). It’s a once-in-a-lifetime PowerBall ticket.

    Just my $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  34. 34.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Another Scott: Zee money! Follow zee money! This is the other story that broke yesterday, but got lost in the shuffle of the WSJ reporting:
    http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article158518589.html

    McClatchy’s investigation reveals how Trump sought a foothold not just in Russia but across the former Soviet empire. Not known before, the Trump Organization in 2012 negotiated with then-Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Massimov for an obelisk-shaped tower to be built near the presidential palace, designed by architect John Fotiadis, who also did the Batumi project and lists offices in New York and the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. Trump Diamond lost out to a rival project in Astana for the tallest building in Central Asia, the 75-story Abu Dhabi Plaza.

    Development in the region, say experts, often requires the participation of politically connected elites or government officials.

    When Trump and Silk Road Group deep-sixed their Batumi arrangement via a joint statement on Jan. 6 a Trump Organization executive said the decision was “purely business related” and not because of ethical concerns.

    Silk Road, however, attributes the deal’s collapse in part to “intense media scrutiny” following a Wall Street Journal report that alleged that the company’s chairman had earlier ties to militia groups, which the company strongly denies.

    “Even if this (partnership) has now been terminated, I think it deserves a hard look,” said Norman Eisen, a former U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic and a former White House ethics officer in the Obama administration. “I think it’s another set of questions that need to be asked.”

    Much more at the link!

  38. 38.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Waratah: Cenotaph in NM? That isn’t at the Valles Caldera is it? In NM you have to be careful, because it could be an entrance to Xibalba…

  39. 39.

    efgoldman

    @Adam L Silverman:

    AG Sessions has lied under oath in the Senate.

    I thought, in their collegial comity, they allowed the Lying Shitweasel Evil Leprechaun to revise and extend his testimony for the record. Dunno’ about the form.
    Also, for perjury before congress (as opposed to in court) my understanding is the appropriate house has to file the complaint referral with DOJ. Somehow I don’t see that in the cards.
    (I do expect him to end up in orange coveralls before this is over, but not on those specific charges.)

  40. 40.

    Adam L Silverman

    @efgoldman: My take is that the Senate, because the GOP has the majority, is going to let it skate. As for the SF 86 – that’s a whole different ball of wax.

  41. 41.

    efgoldman

    @Another Scott:

    It’s a once-in-a-lifetime PowerBall ticket.

    Except, it’s turned out that his WH mole isn’t competent to tie his own shoes and wipe his own ass, let alone run a government of which he knows nothing and can learn nothing, and a country that he doesn’t understand.

  45. 45.

    seaboogie

    Two things that make me happy today:

    Robert S. Mueller III added a top fraud investigator to his team
    and
    I love it when Mueller is referred to as “Bobby Three Sticks”. My kind of gangster – on the side of Truth and Justice, y’all…

  46. 46.

    CZanne

    OT and sorry to disrupt, but does anyone happen to have handy a link to the Health insurance 101 that “Richard Mayhew” wrote a couple years ago? The one that explained basic risk and how actuarial tables work based on age?

    I’ve got some asshat on another site being sexist and ageist and complaining that he has to pay for contraception for young women and boo-hooing that at 50, he’s being charged more when he earns less than those uppity brats wanting their $*** pills. Since I know that young people cost insurers far less than they pay in, and older people cost more, and young people subsidize the older and sicker, and that’s why we HAVE the individual mandate and this was discussed over and over and OVER again in the ACA debates, I’m feeling more than a bit testy with this entitled waste of molecules, but I also know that because I’m female, he’s not going to listen to me. So I want to refer him to our clearly male “Richard.”

    Stabbity.

  47. 47.

    efgoldman

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Development in the region, say experts, often requires the participation of politically connected elites or government officials.

    Spelled “b-r-i-b-e-s”

  50. 50.

    seaboogie

    @Omnes Omnibus: I had a vintage silk men’s robe (40’s era) that was heavy silk on the outside and heavy satin on the inside. Deep burgundy. Yes, you definitely want one of those.

  51. 51.

    efgoldman

    @CZanne:

    I’ve got some asshat on another site being sexist and ageist and complaining that he has to pay for contraception for young women and boo-hooing that at 50, he’s being charged more when he earns less than those uppity brats wanting their $*** pills.

    Don’t waste your time. People like that are not, and cannot be, persuaded by your steenkin’ FACTS!
    Assholes gotta’ be assholes. It’s what they do.

  55. 55.

    Gozer

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I surely hope. I know when I first filled one out it felt like they were all up in my business like roto-rooter. It’d be infuriating for someone to skate away from fucking around on it.

  59. 59.

    Cathie from Canada

    @efgoldman: Has any presidential administration in history ever before filed so many “retroactive” statements about conflicts of interest, particularly about so many meetings with Russia?
    It is absolutely bizarre that the Trump administration has done so much of this, and that neither Democrats nor the media seem to question the legality or ethics of this.

  61. 61.

    CZanne

    @Adam L Silverman: Thank you, that one helps and got me to the one I need.

    @efgoldman: This one is supposedly a liberal. Of the “I hate my union and my pension shouldn’t cost me anything, and I despise paying my taxes” variety, but claims to be liberal. But if you’d prefer he didn’t pollute this pool, I’ll just do basic actuarial math 101. That, I can do in my sleep; we do it regularly with new grad students who crammed for stats 301 two years previously and have forgotten it all since. (They have to have 9 credits of stats to get an interview for the project, but it doesn’t have to be within the last year.)

  62. 62.

    Adam L Silverman

    @divF: I have about a 1/2 dozen or so rugs from Ortegas. My Mom has a very special vest they made for her. My Dad had them do a coat for him. He died before he had the chance to wear it. Since Dad had been buying rugs from Ortegas for decades they took the coat and turned it into a vest for my Mom.

    We were turned on to El Paragua by close friends from Las Vegas who find Chimayo to be hit or miss depending on who is running the kitchen. Also, if you’re in Las Vegas, you want Charlie’s Spic and Span.

  65. 65.

    ??‍? Martin

    Apparently Smith and Kellyanne’s husband go way back. This is just straight up 70s NYC crime family shit.

  66. 66.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Stone imagines he’s untouchable.

    This may be his weakness.

    I want to see him hang.

  67. 67.

    GregB

    The ratchet cranks again.

    I wonder if Trump is freaking out about actually having to meet with Putin?

  69. 69.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Cheryl Rofer: These are also the same guys who bought into the Iraqis would greet us with flower and candy nonsense. The Republicans have always seemed to be suckers of Iranian Intelligence.

  71. 71.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @CZanne: Point out that what ever Puritan fantasy he wants to impose on them, the hard cold fact of life is those teenage girls are going to have sex like so many million of years of evolution tell them to and a birth control pill is a hell of lot less expensive than paying for welfare for the children produced by unprotected sex.

  72. 72.

    Eljai

    @CZanne: I applaud you for your efforts to enlighten the asshat. I hope he has a change of heart. But even if he doesn’t, someone else might read what you write and find it useful and share it with others.

  73. 73.

    burnspbesq

    @??‍? Martin:

    This is just straight up 70s NYC crime family shit.

    Nope. George Conway is a right-wing looney-tune with horrific taste in women, but he is straight as straight can be. Harvard undergrad (magna in Biochemistry), law review at Yale, clerked for a legendary Second Circuit judge, and spent his emtire career at Wacjtell Lipton.

  74. 74.

    Ruckus

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:
    It might help to remind him that he was a teenager at one point and was either looking for/hoping to find one of those girls. (For some reason I sort of doubt that he actually found one) Even if his entire world was telling him that it was wrong, wrong, wrong to have those feelings, he had them anyway.

  75. 75.

    burnspbesq

    @CZanne:

    Gotta part company with you there. There is way too much evidence that Supermax confinement is inherently cruel and unusual. If you want to send somebody to Marion and put him on a tier full of Vice Lords or Gangster Disciples, I’m down with that. But nobody should be sent to Florence.

  76. 76.

    Mnemosyne

    @burnspbesq:

    And yet he’s knee-deep in treason with Russia. How does that fit in with him being “straight as straight can be.”

    And, no, I don’t buy that KellyAnne was in on it and he was a total innocent.

  77. 77.

    Ruckus

    @burnspbesq:
    You do know that none of that history makes him a saint don’t you? Granted he may not have been involved in 70s NYC mob workings, but none of the things you listed mean he was pure and honest.

  78. 78.

    jl

    I can imagine Stone and Smith watching an Expendables sequel and deciding to ride out for one more escapade.

    So far, as far as I can tell, no one knows whether the late Smith fellow was really working with the inner Trumpsters or name dropping to gin up some dirty tricks business.
    The supposed secrets and inner circle gossip Smith peddled don’t seem all that remarkable to me.
    Seems to me the developments today produce tantalizing clues that may or may not lead someplace.
    Maybe I missed something.

    I remember a story about a much younger GOP political operative in Florday who was also in contact with (possibly Russian connected) hackers who fed him information. At first I thought this story involved that person, but doesn’t seem to. What happened to that story?

  79. 79.

    CZanne

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Though public health is showing that teen pregnancy is *DOWN*. My bet is a combo of LTC, better access to it, more young’uns identifying as other than straight and fewer getting kicked out for coming out, online socialization taking over for face to face, and fewer places for young’uns to hang out without getting harassed. It’s hard to do the procreative deed when you’re not in the same room. It dropped another 9% last year, to an all-time USmore young’uns identifying as other than straight, low of 20 per 1000 live births. But oh, yes, contraception is SO much cheaper. Around $200 a year in costs to insurer. (Plus no grudging child-support for 18 years.)

    @Eljai: Thanks. I try. But I admit I am about done with my male peers (I’m also middle aged). (I’ve given up on every emeritus and tenured elder I have to deal with. January can’t come too soon.) So it’s as much my expression of frustration with boys playing on the easy setting and not doing their homework. I have undergrads for the latter. I don’t need it from peers.

  80. 80.

    CZanne

    @burnspbesq: I agree. I oppose Supermax. Marion is fine, too. But Club Feds are not, and the Supermax has the critical care unit that’s required for elderly inmates. So…

  81. 81.

    ??‍? Martin

    @burnspbesq: I mean it in the sense that their only source of loyalty now seems to be that any one of them could turn states evidence on the others, with the risk that Little Vladimir will put a hit out on them.

    Regarding lockup, I’d be okay if we just took every penny they had, put them on SS and Medicaid, maybe a nice scarlet face tattoo, and turn them loose on the street. Think you’re hot shit self made? Now go for it.

  82. 82.

    burnspbesq

    @Mnemosyne:

    Conway represented HP in a civil RICO action brought by PEMEX (a truly shady company) that involved allegations of attempts to bribe a Russian public official. The case settled after PEMEX disclosed in a SEC filing that its own investigators could find no evidence to support its claims.

    I’m sure you’d love to explain how that is connected to the collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

  85. 85.

    Sentient AI from the Future

    The Conways are the link to Smith. There is no goddamn way that they somehow avoided each other given that they ran in the same circles for literally decades.

  87. 87.

    CZanne

    @Sentient AI from the Future: Have you seen the 2014 Council for National Policy membership directory? It’s a secret society of neocons who consider themselves ubermensch. First rule of Fight Club and all, and they charge an exclusive membership fee, but the Southern Poverty Law Center managed to get a copy of one directory. The relationships are pretty clear. (Peter Smith was not a listed member in 2014, but that doesn’t mean he’s not in a different secret society of self-selected ubermensch. For such superior beings, they tend to grift and infight a lot.) https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2016/05/17/council-national-policy-behind-curtain

  88. 88.

    hitchhiker

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    That’s it. George Conway helped draft the legal briefs for Paula Jones’ lawsuit against Bill Clinton. He was part of the group Ann Coulter used to brag about on Larry King Live — the elves, which also included Barbara Olsen, author of a book about HRC called “Hell to Pay.” She was on the plane that crashed into the pentagon on 9/11; her husband Ted argued @ SCOTUS in favor of W during the recount catastrophe, and also in favor of gay marriage.

    I remember vividly hearing Coulter describe the night the elves sat around in somebody’s apartment listening to the tapes of Monica Lewinsky describing her doings with Bill to her “friend” Linda Tripp.

    All of which is to say, Kellyanne Conway definitely knew Peter Smith very, very well.

  89. 89.

    piratedan

    and one additional coincidence is look at who these guys are picking as legal counsel, in almost every case, it appears that the law firm in question does big business in Russia… so not only do we follow the money, the money is showing that they’re picking legal beagles that already have their chops swimming in those particular chilly European waters.

    My best guess is that the money is going to essentially show that Trump is a bought and paid for political subsidiary of Putin Industries and his particular shell company is employing the entire campaign staff.

    So the part that we have to wait for, is despite what Mueller finds out, is there anyone left over on the GOP side who can be shamed into doing the needful. I’m still not convinced that there is, at least based on how McConnell is playing his cards and the words and deeds from such notables as Graham, Hatch and McCain seem to indicate that there was a lot of dark money spread around “liberally”. It might be easier to comprise a list of who wasn’t likely compromised.

  90. 90.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Aĺl these connections within connections remind me of long-running soap operas such as General Hospital. Only someone who has followed the “show’ for years is aware of the convoluted interlocking relationships. Ťhe young or those new to the show have no idea of the plots within plots and long-range revenge plans that will severely damage many in the story. Ùnfortunately THIS is real life, something we will experience, not merely observe while enjoying a good meal (while we can).

  91. 91.

    Aleta

    To read the newer WSJ article by Shane Harris, you can click on its headline in his twitter entry.
    https://twitter.com/shaneharris/status/880964267381579776

    Officials identified in (a recruiting) document (written by Smith) include Steve Bannon, now chief strategist for President Donald Trump; Kellyanne Conway, former campaign manager and now White House counselor; Sam Clovis, a policy adviser to the Trump campaign and now a senior adviser at the Agriculture Department; and retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, who was a campaign adviser and briefly was national security adviser in the Trump administration.

  92. 92.

    mai naem mobile

    It’s interesting that Peter Smith dies 10 days after talking to the WSJ reporter. Not sounding conspiratorial since he was 81. His obit at Legacy.Com has no guest book entries. His obit at the funeral home has a few – http://www.rtfunerals.com/m/obituaries/Peter-Smith-7/Memories
    Again, not sounding conspiratorial. Interesting that the first memory is from some employee (waitress??) at the Chicago Four Seasons who apparently didn’t notice him being obviously ill and the post is from a month ago. Also another from somebody who says he worked on some Clinton stuff with him,also from a month ago.

  93. 93.

    Morzer

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Find the financial links that connect Stone, dirty Russian money and Trump and I think you’ve got the core of the conspiracy between the Nixon Legacy Gang, the Trump criminal Organization and the Friends of Vladimir.

  94. 94.

    Morzer

    @Aleta:

    https://partners.nytimes.com/library/politics/012499jones-lawyers.html

    Marcus, Porter and Rosenzweig were classmates at the University of Chicago Law School, graduating in 1986. Conway met the others through the Jones case. Some of the lawyers were also involved with the Federalist Society, a legal group that includes conservative and libertarian luminaries like Starr, Robert H. Bork and Richard Epstein, a University of Chicago law professor.

    Porter was the most overtly political member of the group, having worked on the staff of Vice President Quayle and on the Bush-Quayle campaign, where he did opposition research.

    Porter was also an associate of Peter W. Smith, 62, a Chicago financier who was once the chairman of College Young Republicans and a major donor to Gopac, a conservative political group affiliated with former Speaker Newt Gingrich. Beginning in 1992, Smith spent more than $80,000 to finance anti-Clinton research in an effort to persuade the mainstream press to cover Clinton’s sex life. Among others, his efforts involved David Brock, the journalist who first mentioned the name “Paula” in an article on Clinton.

    n.b. Conway here is the husband of Trump’s pet bullshit artist.

  95. 95.

    Zach

    Q: Where’s the evidence that Russia intervened in the GOP primary? To the extent Clinton is bad for Russia, a generic Republican is worse… cold-war-nostalgia, saber rattling, etc. It’s even easier to significantly influence a primary.

    My guess is there was also intervention to cause turmoil in the GOP primary and kneecap candidates likely to pursue the Graham/McCain wing of GOP foreign policy. Or maybe via co-opting Manafort, Dole, etc over shading lobbying the last couple decades, the anti-Russia wing of the party isn’t as strong as it seems when the chips are down.

  96. 96.

    Morzer

    @Zach:

    That’s intellectually plausible, but it’s hard to think of any evidence of actual intervention in the GOP primary. My own guess is that Putin didn’t begin to plan an intervention until Trump got lucky. Even then, I suspect Putin thought he would be dealing with a weakened Clinton presidency, rather than imagining that he could win the lottery.

  98. 98.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @GregB: There were reports this week that Trump is looking for various presents, like the two country homes in Long Island and Maryland that Obama closed down, to give to Putin when they meet at the G20. No reciprocation expected, just a good-will gesture. He also wanted a full-up summit rather than a side meeting. National Security Advisor H.R. McMasters said there’s no agenda, just whatever strikes Trump’s fancy.

    Buckle your seat belts, Aleyska!

  101. 101.

    Barry

    @Adam L Silverman: “Who knows. Personally, provided everyone was of legal age and consenting, I could care less.”

    There’s a thin but very important line between ‘barely legal’ and ‘sex with minors’. If somebody has had a multi-decade career of serious debauchery….

  104. 104.

    kindness

    What I found indicative of the whole Republican shit show is in that pulled article Flynn thought it was Obama who brought him down. Odd as it seems to me everyone should be in agreement that it was Flynn himself who brought himself down.

    What is the psychological term for not accepting responsibility for your own your actions and blaming others instead? It’s more than just denial going on there. Still is. Look at Trump. He’s a case in point and the entire MSM refuses to admit it every single day.

  105. 105.

    J R in WV

    And almost no one notices that Dear Peter died just 10 days after being interviewed by the WSJ, now just another Murdoch hate machine. How long do you think it took for a transcript of that interview to hit FGE – or whichever alphabet soup is the former KGB today?

    The fact that he was 81 doesn’t cut any ice, most folks that age go out after a couple of weeks on life support in ICU, not just gone overnight. He looked pretty spry to me.

    And no one NO ONE put his sudden death in the stories about his oppo research stories, which ought to run with at least a couple ‘graphs of obit-like material in every story. Why no mention of the sudden death? I found exactly one mention when I looked this AM, and none when I saw this thread last night.

  106. 106.

    Another Scott

    @J R in WV: Dunno.

    His obituary doesn’t say anything about his cause of death, but doesn’t say it was “sudden” or similar, either.

    It does say:

    In business and political matters, he was adept at bringing people together and negotiating agreement. Among his guiding axioms: “What one says does not count; it’s what the other person hears that counts.” “There are no mistakes in life, only lessons learned.” Peter will be remembered by his family and others who knew him well as someone who demonstrated through countless kindnesses that he cared more about others than himself. A private family memorial service has been planned. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to [blank].

    The [blank] probably isn’t significant – obituaries often have errors and omissions.

    Dunno if those were just pithy expressions he liked, or if he actually thought that “there are no mistakes…”

    It reads like the glowing remembrance of someone high-up in the tribe who was kind and gentle and friendly to people close by, and people in the tribe, but easily could be a horrible monster to those outside the tribe. (There are countless examples of people like that.)

    Remembrances at the funeral home are all glowing. He was charming and nice in his interactions with underlings the last few years. But there’s also this:

    Peter was a great American patriot who helped me enormously in an ongoing investigation of the Clinton family charity frauds. I appreciate his counsel, his insights, and his dedication over decades to truth, liberty, and appreciation for all that distinguishes this nation and our people from others. I will miss Peter, but I will always cherish his memory. My deepest sympathies go out to his family and to his many friends. Sincerely, Charles K. Ortel.

    Charles K. Ortel – May 20 at 09:44 AM

    “ongoing”

    What kind of a monster puts that up on a public funeral remembrance board?

    And Peter (if one believes Charles) still was after the Clintons for their imagined crimes…

    There was a lot going on there with Peter, but I’m not willing to get out of the boat to start thinking about Vlad’s minions being involved in his demise. Yet. ;-)

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  107. 107.

    Morzer

    @Another Scott:

    What kind of a monster puts that up on a public funeral remembrance board?

    The sort of intellectually vacant monster who “writes” for the Washington Times.

  108. 108.

    Cathie from Canada

    You know what strikes me as the funniest part of all this? There were never any “missing” Clinton emails to find. She deleted all 30,000 herself, because they were personal, before she gave the rest of her emails back to the Secretary of State office.
    And her personal server had never been hacked by anyone anyway – the FBI couldn’t find any evidence that it had ever been compromised at all.
    So all these Clinton-haters were actually just chasing unicorns while they were being grifted by a bunch of Russians.

  110. 110.

    Brian

    Thank you!

    This is the first piece that I have found that actually cut through all the fluff to get to the details of what actually happened.

    This is yet another reminder to me why I left the Republican Party in disgust last year. Russia is not our friend… this is no longer the party that confronted Moscow thirty years ago.

  111. 111.

    ed

    If it hasn’t’ been said before: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy is/was a real thing.

  112. 112.

    Aleta

    @ed: Yeah, we ought to give out clocks inscribed
    In recognition of Political Gallantry against the VRWC. Thanks for fighting for us.

  114. 114.

    Mike in DC

    I’m gonna guess that big Wapo story is gonna drop the night before Trump meets with Putin at the G20 summit.

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