Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

In my day, never was longer.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

This fight is for everything.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

The revolution will be supervised.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

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

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

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

People are complicated. Love is not.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Selling Pardons

Selling Pardons

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Unsurprising news alert:

Donald Trump offered Julian Assange a pardon if he would say Russia was not involved in leaking Democratic party emails, a court in London has been told.

The extraordinary claim was made at Westminster magistrates court before the opening next week of Assange’s legal battle to block attempts to extradite him to the US.

Dana Rohrabacher supposedly passed the message to Assange, so who knows what really happened.

Reader Interactions

94Comments

  1. 1.

    waspuppet

    I guarantee yesterday’s pardons were all bought. Maybe they weren’t paid for in advance; that might be a little much even for the Senate GOP. But mysteriously funded Super PACs will soon be formed.

  3. 3.

    hueyplong

    @waspuppet: Makes sense.  Pardoned people so far have either been rich or have been the types upon whom fundraising could be based.

    As for any Barr “dispute” with Trump, I’ll believe it when I learn that FoxNews has denounced Barr and called for his firing.  Anything short of that and the “disagreement” is fake.

  4. 4.

    MattF

    Getting Trump, Assange, and Rohrabacher into a single corrupt bargain is quite a feat. But… where’s Vladimir?

  7. 7.

    Mr. Longform

    Remember when the reaction to such a rumor would be “that’s crazy, bonkers, impossible, unbelievable” and not – complete acceptance of the absolute probability, except that it’s likely even worse in reality.

  14. 14.

    waspuppet

    @Mr. Longform: Just for the sake of objective reality, I do like to mention once in a while that the first reaction of the Trumpites to accusations in 2017 was that there was no contact between the Trump campaign and any Russians. At all. Whatsoever.

  15. 15.

    Duane

    The pardons are such an inside job Trumpov will get away the blatant crimes, as long as people don’t talk. At this point who’s gonna do that. Shitpile mobster conmen, (thanks Mr. Moshpotato), the whole lot of them.

  16. 16.

    scav

    If American™® Troops are now available (only) to the highest bidder, why not American ™® Justice?! All Hail the MAGAnificence of the Commander-in-Chief and Law-Enforcement-Officer-in-Chief (position also only available to the highest qualified† bidder!

    † no bonus points awarded for obvious necessary qualifications.

  18. 18.

    Jeffro

    @scav:

    that’s not a bad campaign bat to whack trumpov with: “are we selling EVERYTHING now because of you?  Our military, our justice system…?”

  20. 20.

    bemused

    The mob party of trump and hanger ons do nothing all day, every day but double deal and commit crimes and must dream up more plots in their sleep. It’s mindblowing how much effort and time they put into being duplicitous and corrupt.

  22. 22.

    patrick II

    Up to this point, Assange has assiduously denied Russian involvement in Wikileaks.  Why the change?  Because whatever causes chaos in the U.S. is the goal.

  26. 26.

    The Moar You Know

    Asswipe Assange wouldn’t ever take that deal because it would:

    1.  Be a tacit admission he did something wrong, which he sincerely does not believe,
    2.  Put him in permanent debt to Trump.  There would be a lot of subsequent “asks”.  And he’s smart enough, barely, to understand that puts him in a place nobody sane would ever want to be in.
  27. 27.

    hells littlest angel

    Trump just does whatever it takes — theft, bribery, extortion, fraud — to fight corruption.

  28. 28.

    patrick II

    If Assange’s lawyer can be believed, it indicates that Trump knows of Russian involvement.  If we are to make sense of Trump’s actions towards Stone, it is to keep him quiet about Russian involvement.  Those, and about a thousand indicators, including taking payoffs, …er, investment money, from Russia, deference to Putin, shows Trump knows about and acts on his knowledge of Russian involvement in the 2016 election.

    At the same time, he actually believes there is a server secretly flown to Ukraine and hidden by the Ukrainians that show they are the ones who interfered in the 2016 elections.

    Both things cannot be true, yet Trump “knows” both things and acts upon that knowledge, offering pardons or a reduced sentence in one reality while threatening the Ukrainian president to give up the server in the other reality. The man is not sane.

  31. 31.

    germy

    .@PressSec:  “The President barely knows Dana Rohrabacher other than he’s an ex-congressman. He’s never spoken to him on this subject or almost any subject. It is is a complete fabrication and a total lie. This is probably another never ending hoax and total lie from the DNC.”

    — Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) February 19, 2020

    Rohrabacher has gone from being R-Moscow to being R-Undercarriage… https://t.co/OBrsn6j4GA— Nicholas Weaver (@ncweaver) February 19, 2020

  32. 32.

    kindness

    I am shocked!  Shocked I tell you to see gambling going on in Trump’s casino.

    And just like all Trump’s casinos we will all be bankrupt (both morally and fiscally) by the time Trump is finished with us.

  33. 33.

    Jay

    @bemused:

    guess you havn’t followed along with the Concentration Camps, the EPA, hundreds of Judges appointed for life,  thousands of other laws and regulations removed and Administrations weakened or broken and staffed with Winger ReThugs.

    in 3 1/2 years the Trumpists of the Third Reich have dismantled much of “the system” it took rational Americans 80 years to build, in fits and starts.

  35. 35.

    Roger Moore

    @germy:

    George Zimmerman has filed a lawsuit against Democratic presidential nominees Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg for tweeting their condolences and remorse on the birthday of #TrayvonMartin

    Someone is desperate for some media attention.

  36. 36.

    Gin & Tonic

    @germy: Now who says Trump doesn’t get any exercise? He must have arms like Dwayne Johnson from tossing all these guys under the bus.

  37. 37.

    Jay

    @scav:

    Dump and the Turd Reich signaled with the pardons, that it’s a Fire Sale, everything must go before January 2nd, 2021. Make your offer now.

  38. 38.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Assange is an Australian citizen. I didn’t know the POTUS could pardon foreign nationals.

  41. 41.

    Brachiator

    Donald Trump offered Julian Assange a pardon if he would say Russia was not involved in leaking Democratic party emails, a court in London has been told.

    A talk radio host, discussing the recent shower of pardons and Trump’s interference in DOJ prosecutions made the claim, “well, he’s the president and ultimately in charge of the justice department, so he can do anything he wants.”

    So, conservative-friendly media may be pushing the idea that there is no such thing as abuse of power, as long as the president is a Republican white guy.

    Doesn’t even matter if judges and career prosecutors protest or resign. What do they know? They probably went to elitist colleges anyway, so their opinions don’t matter.

  42. 42.

    Kent

    @SiubhanDuinne:Assange is an Australian citizen. I didn’t know the POTUS could pardon foreign nationals.

    Citizenship has nothing to do with pardons.  Non-citizens can be convicted of Federal crimes in the US and Trump has pardon power over all US Federal crimes, but not state/local crimes or obviously, crimes in other countries.  Assange has been indicted on a 17-part count Federal indictment of violations of the Espionage Act, but has not yet been tried or convicted.

    I’m not sure if Trump can prospectively pardon Assange for a crime for which he has not yet been convicted.  I suppose it is possible, others would have to weigh in.

  43. 43.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Brachiator:

    They probably went to elitist colleges anyway

    As opposed to William Barr, who went to [checks notes] The Horace Mann School and Columbia University, both beacons of the American heartland.

  44. 44.

    Roger Moore

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I didn’t know the POTUS could pardon foreign nationals.

    He’s allowed to pardon anyone for a crime against the United States.  It’s potentially valuable for him to be able to pardon foreign nationals as part of his foreign policy job; you never know when a strategic pardon or two might be just the thing to get somebody to the negotiating table.

  45. 45.

    frosty

    I’m so old that I remember from the distant past that the founders considered abuse of the pardon power an impeachable offense. Who was it back then? Arpaio?

  46. 46.

    Roger Moore

    @Kent:

    I’m not sure if Trump can prospectively pardon Assange for a crime for which he has not yet been convicted.

    Presidents certainly can pardon people for crimes for which they have not yet been convicted or even charged.  Two obvious examples are Ford pardoning Nixon and Carter pardoning the Vietnam War draft dodgers.  In the latter case, the President not only pardoned people who hadn’t been charged prospectively, he did it as a blanket action without specifying who exactly the pardon applied to.

  48. 48.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    • June 09, 2016: Natalia Veselnitskaya meets with Trump campaign team

     

    • June 14, 2016: Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) secures front row seat for Veselnitskaya at House Foreign Relations hearing on Russia (photo)

     

    • June 15, 2016: In closed door meeting, then Republican Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) states, “there’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump – swear to god!”.

     

    • March 09, 2017: Nigel Farage visits Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

     

    • March 19, 2017: Farage flies 5,400 miles to California to meet Dana Rohrabacher (photo)
  49. 49.

    germy

    @Roger Moore:

    Someone is desperate for some media attention.

    I read somewhere last month he was suing Trayvon’s mother.  I can’t remember why. It must not have gone very far.  I believe Klayman was involved in that one, too.

  50. 50.

    catclub

    @Kent: I’m not sure if Trump can prospectively pardon Assange for a crime for which he has not yet been convicted.

     

    Ford pardoned Nixon for just that.

  51. 51.

    glory b

    Open thread so:

    Briahna Grey, Sanders campaign spokesperson said he will not release any more medical records, why is no one talking about Mike Bloomberg’s heart attacks (he has had a stent, but no heart attacks) and equates questions about Bernie’s health to BIRTHERISM!

  52. 52.

    Jay

    Of course Trump will have all Russia related cases thrown out, evidence implicating his regime destroyed, and evidence of others involved in helping Russia attack us will be used as an insurance policy to make sure he receives their full loyalty. Putin 2.0https://t.co/To1AtnRxWZ— Olga Lautman (@olgaNYC1211) February 19, 2020

  56. 56.

    Roger Moore

    @glory b:

    Briahna Grey, Sanders campaign spokesperson said he will not release any more medical records, why is no one talking about Mike Bloomberg’s heart attacks (he has had a stent, but no heart attacks) and equates questions about Bernie’s health to BIRTHERISM!

    This is an obvious consequence of staffing his campaign with a bunch of the biggest pro-Bernie trolls from the internet.

    ETA: And yeah, I’m not seeing how asking for more details about a heart attack the campaign tried unsuccessfully to cover up is at all like claiming somebody was born in another country after they voluntarily released their birth certificate.

  57. 57.

    trollhattan

    @hueyplong:

    As for any Barr “dispute” with Trump, I’ll believe it when I learn that FoxNews has denounced Barr and called for his firing.  Anything short of that and the “disagreement” is fake.

    As a reality check this seems like a good one. Tucker and Shaun go after Barr, then and only then he’s outta there.

    All else is kabuki.

  58. 58.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Roger Moore: Every once in a while I ask myself “is being blatantly disingenuous and completely ridiculous just how you win elections now?”

    Because that’s basically what the entire Bernie campaign is about, so far as I can tell. Freak out about M4A and people who say it can’t be done for a literal year before quietly admitting that of course it can’t be done!

    This isn’t to say many of his supporters are acting in good faith, but the campaign itself is kind of a crapfest of bad people.

  60. 60.

    Jay

    @germy:

    he, is sueing the family, the prosecution and others. It was filed Dec.4th, so it hasn’t even come before a Judge yet for review or challange. The goal is not to win millions, but instead, use paper terrorism to disrupt the lives and add burdensome costs to the lives of those sued.

    @Gin & Tonic:

    you don’t need “standing” to file a nusiance suit, just money and either time or a lawyer. “Standing” is what is determined, by a Judge, if the Defence challenges.

    who is bankrolling Larry Klayman?

  63. 63.

    Brachiator

    @Gin & Tonic:

    RE: They probably went to elitist colleges anyway

    As opposed to William Barr, who went to [checks notes] The Horace Mann School and Columbia University, both beacons of the American heartland.

    I never said that the dopes making these claims were logical or consistent. ;)

  64. 64.

    trollhattan

    @Brachiator:

    If only he had gone to the Michael Mann School, Barr would be tooling around Biscayne Bay in a cigarette boat filled with babes and wearing a pink suit, “pal.”

  66. 66.

    Jay

    @trollhattan:

    only once it reaches a preliminary hearing, what anti SLAP laws provide mostly, is a “harassment” defence early on in the hearings process and punitive costs for bringing a SLAP lawsuit.

    You still need lawyers, depositions and hearings in many cases, but in the most obvious cases, you will sit infront of a Judge, twice, once at the preliminary hearing where the SLAP is dismissed, the second, where costs are heard, awarded and fines levied.

    And as ususal, the qualities of the involved lawyers on both sides, the strength or weakness of the laws, and the qualities of the Judge, are all huge factors.

    Oops, three or more times, you will also need various levels of Court Orders to collect your costs.

  67. 67.

    Roger Moore

    @MisterForkbeard:

    This isn’t to say many of his supporters are acting in good faith, but the campaign itself is kind of a crapfest of bad people.

    Which honestly is the thing that scares me the most about Bernie as a candidate.  Yeah, he’s not actually a Democrat, he has no history of substantial legislative accomplishment, and he spends all his time making unrealistic promises.  Those are all the kinds of things any politician might do.  But the way he staffs his campaign is a preview of the way he’d staff his administration, and it would be an absolute fucking nightmare.

  68. 68.

    trollhattan

    @JPL:

    “I would release my medical records, except I’m being audited so cannot while that process is ongoing.”

  71. 71.

    trollhattan

    @Jay:

    Thanks.

    So the dual boat anchors of expense and time are yours to grab for at least the first phases. Just great.

  72. 72.

    Nelle

    Okay.  Putin runs Trump and the Republicans.  He may be running Sanders, even if Sanders is naive and unaware.  Is he really running the whole show, left to right?  Last spring, I was so heartened with the slate running for the Democratic nomination – with the exception of Tulsi and Bernie.  There were some I was excited about, some less so.  And now this?

    At this house, we aren’t taking the foot off the pedal for Warren (and we keep opening the wallet.  But sheesh.

  73. 73.

    glory b

    @Roger Moore: Remember, a number of Bernie’s top staffers still proudly exclaim about voting for Jill Stein in the 2016 general.

    If this isn’t him rubbing our noses in it, I don’t know what is.

  76. 76.

    Mnemosyne

    @The Moar You Know:

    Put him in permanent debt to Trump.  There would be a lot of subsequent “asks”.  And he’s smart enough, barely, to understand that puts him in a place nobody sane would ever want to be in.

    I think it’s much more this. The only deal a mobster makes is one where you’re in just as deep as he is so you can’t turn on him later.

  80. 80.

    Immanentize

    @The Moar You Know: That depends a little on the State — many states now have anti-SLAPP (strategic litigation against public participation) which can cost the filer a bunch of Benjamin’s.  Some places call these strike suits — to cause the opponent hassles, money or embarrassment. Yes, they can still file, but it is really not cost free.  Of course Nunez started filing suits in Virginia (no anti-SLAPP laws) from California (strong anti-SLAPP State.)

  82. 82.

    Roger Moore

    @Immanentize:

    It’s very telling that Nunez sued his hometown paper in another state.  It’s obvious he knows he has no case and would be shot down in short order if he tried this in California.  Of course he also expects to be able to use his nuisance lawsuits as a fundraising opportunity, not just a means of harassing his enemies, so being able to drag them out as long as possible is desirable for more than one reason.

  83. 83.

    J R in WV

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Assange is an Australian citizen. I didn’t know the POTUS could pardon foreign nationals.

    He can, for crimes committed against America, like stealing computerized data from an American server. It is Donald’s justice dept seeking Assange’s extradition from GB to the US, after all.

  84. 84.

    artem1s

    this is good news…

    https://nyti.ms/2SBySdkf

    By the end of the day, Attorney General William Barr was said to be considering resignation, though the Justice Department denied such suggestions. The attorney general said last week that Mr. Trump was making his work “impossible,” and the president agreed with him on Tuesday, saying: “I do make his job harder. I do agree with that. I think that’s true.”

    in the past ‘considering resignation’ usually means a not-firing/resignation is imminent.  Is Donnie stupid enough to not-fire the primary thing standing between him and certain jail time?  Yes, I think he is!

  85. 85.

    Roger Moore

    @artem1s:

    I will believe Bill Barr is considering resigning when he has submitted his resignation.  I’ll believe it’s a matter of principle when he stands up and forthrightly proclaims exactly what principle of his forced him to resign.  Until then, this is just another lame attempt for one of Trump’s lackeys to distance himself from his own actions as a lackey.

  89. 89.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @glory b: I’m Shocked! I’m Shocked!

    It’s not like Bernie to be so incompetent to panic on national tee vee and create a scandal by hiding records (like his tax returns) and equating a heart attack to naked racism.

    Next he’ll say something stoopid, like a woman can win and then call the person a liar…

    …oh wait.

  90. 90.

    jc

    How do the Dems run against Trump? When they go low, we try to stay positive. Then they go lower, and we shake our heads in disbelief. Then they go lower, and we stare in disbelief. Then they go lower, and we wonder WTF is it with this guy?

    I think the Republicans will be bringing an assault weapon to this gun fight 2020. Dems can’t come armed with sternly-worded letters of disapproval.

  93. 93.

    Brachiator

    @Roger Moore: 

    Until then, this is just another lame attempt for one of Trump’s lackeys to distance himself from his own actions as a lackey.

    Is a lazy minion lackeydaisical?

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