Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Dr. Strangelove]

Trumpland freaking out over Mueller obtaining transition/campaign emails...ALL of them, even the ones Trump's people deliberately withheld for 'client privilege'.

So on a saturday they leak a letter they've written to Congress to State TV (FoxNews) accusing Mueller of highly improper behavior (He had no right to request emails from a government office apparently). Fox is helpfully providing headlines screaming that Mueller is breaking the law (and in small print say "per Trump's legal team")

[ame]https://twitter.com/renato_mariotti/status/942181279101014016[/ame]

[ame]https://twitter.com/renato_mariotti/status/942182009195114496[/ame]

[ame]https://twitter.com/renato_mariotti/status/942182453929762817[/ame]

[Dr. Strangelove]

So Mueller has emails that Trump, his lawyers, and his staff all believed he didn't have.

Gonna be awkward if anyone on the WH staff lied to Mueller's team about subjects contained in those emails.

Nah, what am I saying? Trump surrounds himself with highly capable, honest, tremendous people. Only the best!

On a more serious note...a 'Saturday Night Massacre' sort of event is becoming more and more likely IMO...with the holidays an opportune time to do it.

[CGVT]

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/365247-rep-speier-rumors-say-trump-could-fire-mueller-before-christmas

Democrat: Rumor is Trump could fire Mueller before Christmas
BY JOSH DELK - 12/16/17 12:57 PM EST 4,188
26,801

Democrat: Rumor is Trump could fire Mueller before Christmas

Democrat: Rumor is Trump could fire Mueller before Christmas
TheHill.com
Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) said Friday that "rumors" on Capitol Hill suggest President Trump could fire special counsel Robert Mueller before Christmas, after Congress leaves Washington for the winter recess.

“The rumor on the Hill when I left yesterday was that the president was going to make a significant speech at the end of next week. And on Dec. 22, when we are out of D.C., he was going to fire Robert Mueller," Speier told California's KQED News.

Speier, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said that Trump was trying to shut down the committee's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, pointing to the lack of interviews scheduled for the new year.

The New York Times reported Friday that the committee is scheduling its final witnesses of the year to testify in New York, despite important votes coming up in Washington, D.C., and confirmed no additional witnesses are scheduled yet in 2018.

"We can read between the lines I think," Speier said. "I believe this president wants all of this shut down. He wants to shut down these investigations, and he wants to fire special counsel Mueller."

The ranking Democrat on the committee, Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), also said Friday that he is worried that Republicans leading the committee are seeking to shut down the committee's investigation by the end of the year.

"Republicans have scheduled no witnesses after next Friday and none in 2017 [sic]. We have dozens of outstanding witnesses on key aspects of our investigation that they refuse to contact and many document requests they continue to sit on," he tweeted Friday.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Rumors that Trump could fire Mueller have swirled since Mueller's appointment in May.

"There is no intention or plan to make any changes in regards to the special counsel," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in October.

TAGS JACKIE SPEIER DONALD TRUMP ADAM SCHIFF

[Da Geezer]

Trumpland freaking out over Mueller obtaining transition/campaign emails...ALL of them, even the ones Trump's people deliberately withheld for 'client privilege'.

Who is Renato Mariotti and why can't he publish an article with his opinions? If any of you progs actually care what is being alleged see this article:

http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/12/16/trump-lawyer-accuses-muellers-investigation-of-serious-wrongdoing-heres-what-theyre-alleging

Langhofer claims Mueller’s team intentionally went around the transition team and went straight to the General Services Administration to obtain the private documents. The GSA provides presidential transition teams with office space, equipment and even email hosting during the transition period. In exchange, the GSA says that any confidential information will remain private.

Just remember the phrase "...fruit of the poisoned tree..." If GSA said the information was going to remain confidential and private, then they become a fiduciary. Assuming Mueller had a warrant, it would have had to go first to the principal, or, if it went to the fiduciary, the fiduciary would have had to inform the principal of it (because that is what being a fiduciary is). If GSA complied and didn't inform the transition team, that is a 4th amendment problem.

[Da Geezer]

And Trump is never going to fire Mueller, that is just a hallucination of the left. He should fire Sessions, and should have done that in about February. But he isn't going to touch Mueller.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Lenny Loewentritt, who's Deputy Counsel for the GSA, goes on the record to emphatically deny the allegations that Langhofer and the Trump campaign are making.

GSA specifically told the Trump campaign that any materials requested by law enforcement would be provided, that they never promised the Trump campaign to notify them first, that GSA devices could be monitored and audited, and that there should be NO expectation of privacy. The Trump people signed agreements back in June 2016 acknowledging these facts (apparently).

Note that in his letter the Trump lawyer calls on Congress to 'take action' so that FUTURE presidential transitions do not have their records 'misappropriated'. Why would Congress need to take action if what Mueller/the GSA did is so clearly illegal?

https://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/the-trump-campaign-claims-a-federal-office-illegally-turned?utm_term=.mdp19VQ9J#.wxQDkqJkM

[Dr. Strangelove]

And as this article notes, the idea that only a warrant or subpoena could have obtained these emails is simply wrong.

****
"Of course Mueller obtained emails from a third party," [ame="https://twitter.com/renato_mariotti/status/942156671220150273"]wrote[/ame] former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti. "Prosecutors in most white collar criminal investigations do that. It's not 'inappropriate' or even unusual. Anyone who claims otherwise has no idea what they're talking about."

He added that it seemed like Trump's lawyers were just "playing politics," but that the development was nevertheless a "bad sign" for them.

Jeffrey Cramer, a longtime former federal prosecutor who specialized in white collar cases, echoed that point.


"This is not a problem," he said, referring to the way Mueller's team got a hold of the emails. "The server owner, in this case GSA, properly has the emails and can turn them over if there was a subpoena or court order," in the same way that internet providers and banks can provide emails and records about clients to law enforcement. More than that, Cramer added, the special counsel's team may not even have needed a subpoena to obtain the emails. An administrative request — a legally authorized and judicially enforceable demand for records issued by a government authority — may have sufficed, he said.

http://www.businessinsider.com/mueller-has-obtained-tens-of-thousands-of-trump-transition-team-emails-2017-12

[The Oracle]

And Trump is never going to fire Mueller, that is just a hallucination of the left. He should fire Sessions, and should have done that in about February. But he isn't going to touch Mueller.

Lol, I'm sure you're pretty plugged in.

[hack]

Pretty reasonable to think something might happen during the holidays. They value a distracted electorate.

[Ghengis Jon]

Maybe Trump will do the honorable thing and resign. It's one way to make America great again.

[hodgkal]

...and give us Pence?

[CGVT]

...and give us Pence?

Really.

He scares me as much as Trump.

[hack]

He would have the benefit of at least *pretending* to value the principles on which the country was founded.

[Ed Balzer]

Maybe Trump will do the honorable thing and resign. It's one way to make America great again.

Maybe Trump will do the honorable thing and resign. It's one way to make America great again.

He scares me as much as Trump.

Trump, to his credit is not the religious nutjob Pence (or Cruz) is.

Pence is also more likely to reverse direction and escalate the Bush/Clinton wars in the Mideast, and resuscitate TPP & TTIP.

[Ed Balzer]

He would have the benefit of at least *pretending* to value the principles on which the country was founded.

Our past presidents were so much better at pretending... as if they were made-for-TV villains.