US Politics - Trump cancels summit having to do with North Korea

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Memento Mori
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PostRe: US Politics - ABC: Michael Flynn prepared to testify against Trump, pleads guilty to lying to FBI about Russia
by Memento Mori » Sat Dec 02, 2017 5:31 pm

Harry Ola wrote:So they managed to keep him off Flynn for about 30 hours.

twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/937007006526959618



It's funny how so many of the Trump team lie about things that are perfectly legal :?: :fp: .


twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/847766558520856578



A whole article of Trump's praise for Flynn.

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Harry Ola
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PostRe: US Politics - ABC: Michael Flynn prepared to testify against Trump, pleads guilty to lying to FBI about Russia
by Harry Ola » Sat Dec 02, 2017 5:40 pm

So this whole tweet essentially has Trump admitting that he knew Flynn had committed a crime when he "fired" him (I think he actually resigned). So his subsequent actions with Comey in trying to get him to lay off Flynn looks even more like obstruction of justice. He is just unbelievably stupid. :fp:

Last edited by Harry Ola on Sat Dec 02, 2017 5:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Alvin Flummux
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PostRe: US Politics - ABC: Michael Flynn prepared to testify against Trump, pleads guilty to lying to FBI about Russia
by Alvin Flummux » Sat Dec 02, 2017 5:44 pm

twitter.com/Mikel_Jollett/status/937010946366517248


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Garth
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PostRe: US Politics - ABC: Michael Flynn prepared to testify against Trump, pleads guilty to lying to FBI about Russia
by Garth » Sat Dec 02, 2017 5:45 pm

Plus, Flynn went 2 weeks after the White House found out about the lie to Pence, only when it was leaked to the press and made public.

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PostRe: US Politics - ABC: Michael Flynn prepared to testify against Trump, pleads guilty to lying to FBI about Russia
by Alvin Flummux » Sat Dec 02, 2017 6:29 pm

twitter.com/FiveThirtyEight/status/937021050553974785



:dread:

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Garth
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PostRe: US Politics - ABC: Michael Flynn prepared to testify against Trump, pleads guilty to lying to FBI about Russia
by Garth » Sat Dec 02, 2017 7:59 pm

Comey is loving this:
Beautiful Long Island Sound from Westport, CT. To paraphrase the Buddha — Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun; the moon; and the truth.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BcNe-U6Azi6/

twitter.com/Comey/status/936059099393003521


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Memento Mori
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PostRe: US Politics - ABC: Michael Flynn prepared to testify against Trump, pleads guilty to lying to FBI about Russia
by Memento Mori » Sat Dec 02, 2017 8:00 pm

Garth wrote:Plus, Flynn went 2 weeks after the White House found out about the lie to Pence, only when it was leaked to the press and made public.

Plus Flynn wasn't actually fired, he resigned.

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PostRe: US Politics - ABC: Michael Flynn prepared to testify against Trump, pleads guilty to lying to FBI about Russia
by KK » Sat Dec 02, 2017 8:07 pm

Garth wrote:Comey is loving this:
Beautiful Long Island Sound from Westport, CT. To paraphrase the Buddha — Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun; the moon; and the truth.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BcNe-U6Azi6/

twitter.com/Comey/status/936059099393003521


I look forward to the bust making its way into another room...again.

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Nibble
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PostRe: US Politics - ABC: Michael Flynn prepared to testify against Trump, pleads guilty to lying to FBI about Russia
by Nibble » Sat Dec 02, 2017 8:57 pm

Didn't Trump also say that, after Flynn's firing/resignation, he wanted to bring him back into the fold once the investigation was over? :slol:

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Garth
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PostRe: US Politics - ABC: Michael Flynn prepared to testify against Trump, pleads guilty to lying to FBI about Russia
by Garth » Sat Dec 02, 2017 10:05 pm

'Just unreal': Trump's latest tweet indicates he's 'utterly clueless about his own jeopardy,' experts say

- President Donald Trump tweeted on Saturday that he "had to fire" former national security adviser Michael Flynn because Flynn "lied" to Vice President Mike Pence and the FBI.
- The statement indicates that Trump was aware, when Flynn was forced to resign, that he had lied to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials.
- The tweet sheds light on Trump's appeal to former FBI director James Comey to let go of the FBI's investigation into Flynn, and his subsequent decision to terminate Comey when he did not comply.

President Donald Trump may have just given special counsel Robert Mueller's obstruction-of-justice investigation an inadvertent boost.

On Saturday, Trump defended his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, following news that Flynn had pled guilty to one count of making false statements to investigators during an interview in January about his contacts with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak during the transition period.

"I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI," the president tweeted on Saturday. "He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!"

Flynn was forced to resign as national security adviser in February, when news surfaced that Flynn had spoken to Kislyak about US sanctions on Russia on December 29 — the same day that the sanctions were imposed by President Barack Obama.

'I fired him because of what he said to Mike Pence'

Trump told reporters at the time that he had been forced to fire Flynn because he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about those conversations. But the White House gave no indication at the time that it knew Flynn had lied to the FBI in a January interview about those conversations — a federal crime that Flynn pleaded guilty to on Friday.

"I fired him because of what he said to Mike Pence," Trump said during a press conference on February 16.

He continued: "Very simple. Mike was doing his job. He was calling countries and his counterparts. So, it certainly would have been OK with me if he did it. I would have directed him to do it if I thought he wasn’t doing it. I didn’t direct him, but I would have directed him because that’s his job."

Trump's tweet on Saturday appears to indicate that Trump was aware Flynn had lied to the FBI when he departed the administration in February.

It also seems out of line with what a person close to White House counsel Don McGahn told the New York Times on Friday, which is that when former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates warned him about Flynn in January, she did not mention that Flynn had committed a federal crime.

If Trump knew that Flynn was in the FBI's crosshairs when he asked former FBI Director James Comey, whom he later fired, to consider "letting Flynn go" the day after Flynn resigned, that could dramatically bolster the obstruction case federal prosecutors are building against him.

"I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go," Trump told Comey on February 14, according to Comey's testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee in June. "He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go."

Comey gave no indication that he would consider Trump's request. Three months later, Trump abruptly fired Comey, wo was leading the FBI's Russia investigation at the time.

Trump is either 'utterly clueless about his own jeopardy or he truly believes he is beyond accountability'

"I think the obstruction case was already substantial — both circumstantially and through Trump’s own words," said DOJ veteran and former Assistant Deputy Attorney General Bill Yeomans.

"This tweet certainly contributes to the case. He knew Flynn lied to the FBI when he pressed Comey to drop the case and then fired Comey," Yeomans said. "Mostly disturbingly, however, the tweet shows either that the president is utterly clueless about his own jeopardy or he truly believes he is beyond accountability because neither his base nor Republicans in Congress will hold him responsible."

Former FBI special agent Asha Rangappa largely agreed.

"I think if the President knew Flynn had done anything illegal at the time he asked Comey to drop investigation, then yes, it strengthens the [obstruction] case," she said on Saturday.

"I think it also has to be looked at in the context of both him and others on the campaign simultaneously and blanketly denying any contacts with Russia, when the statement of facts Flynn pled to clearly shows the opposite," Rangappa added.

"So asking Comey to drop investigation knowing he had lied to FBI, combined with the pattern of lying about the existence and nature of across his campaign evidences a (corrupt) intent to prevent what would be uncovered by the investigation."

Andy Wright, a former associate counsel to President Barack Obama and Vice President Al Gore, said Trump's tweet " could be construed as an admission that he knew Flynn had lied to the FBI on January 24."

"Later that same week, DOJ tells the WH that Flynn is compromised and President Trump tells Jim Comey he 'needs loyalty.' Then, on Valentine’s Day, the President asks Comey if the FBI could 'let Flynn go,'" Wright said. "Having not received the assurances he sought, he fired Comey under the false pretext of Comey’s handling of the Clinton investigation. As an obstruction of justice timeline, it looks very bad."

The White House initially said Comey was fired because of his handling of the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.

Later, however, Trump told NBC's Lester Holt that "this Russia thing" had been a factor in his consideration. He also told Russian officials during an Oval Office meeting one day after firing Comey that dismissing the FBI director had taken "great pressure" off of him.

"Oh my god, he just admitted to obstruction of justice," tweeted former DOJ spokesman Matt Miller. "If Trump knew Flynn lied to the FBI when he asked Comey to let it go, then there is your case."

"So he knew Flynn had lied, and now he’s admitted it. And of course it’s possible he and Flynn discused it at the time," Miller later told Business Insider. "Just unreal."

Did Trump 'direct Flynn to lie to the FBI?'

Wright noted that Flynn's guilty plea also raised a "second obstruction question" related to Trump's tweet: "Did President Trump direct Flynn to lie to the FBI? That would be squarely within the abuses of power the Framers contemplated as they drafted the impeachment clauses."

According to documents filed by Mueller's office on Friday, Flynn called a senior member of Trump's transition team "who was with other senior members of the Presidential Transition Team at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, to discuss what, if anything, to communicate" to Kislyak "about the US Sanctions," the document says.

Trump was at Mar-a-Lago on December 29. A press-pool report from that day indicates that transition officials at Mar-a-Lago included Stephen Miller, K.T. McFarland, Kellyanne Conway, Steve Bannon, and Reince Priebus.

Fox and CBS reported on Friday that it was McFarland who spoke with Flynn about Kislyak on December 29.

But Colin Kahl, a former national security adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, noted that "in coming Deputy National Security Advisors don't order their incoming boss what to do ... unless they were instructed to do so by someone higher in the chain of command."

Former NSC spokesman Ned Price agreed.

"KT McFarland’s recent foreign policy bona fides consisted of being a Fox News talking head," he tweeted. "She wasn’t calling the shots, and certainly not giving her own orders to her putative boss."

http://uk.businessinsider.com/trump-def ... ?r=US&IR=T

Please continue, Mr. President.

He lies so often he's getting caught up in his own web of lies.

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Peter Crisp
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PostRe: US Politics - ABC: Michael Flynn prepared to testify against Trump, pleads guilty to lying to FBI about Russia
by Peter Crisp » Sat Dec 02, 2017 11:06 pm

Trump obviously thinks he can just do what he likes and then force his version of reality to become the truth simply because he can't be wrong. It's sad that he has an entire TV network backing him as that just makes his delusion even worse.
When Trump does eventually collapse under the weight of the scandals he's brought onto himself I hope we also see Fox being put through the ringer for the sheer amount of twisting of the truth they've done.

I'm just glad channels such a Fox news are not allowed in the UK and that our news is actual news and not a Hannity style 2 hour monologue of conspiracies and blowing smoke up the arse of whatever politician he currently backs.

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PostRe: US Politics - ABC: Michael Flynn prepared to testify against Trump, pleads guilty to lying to FBI about Russia
by Cuttooth » Sat Dec 02, 2017 11:28 pm

The way the Russia investigation is likely to ramp up now (particularly when Trump tweets an allusion to committing obstruction of justice!) makes me think he's just going to sign the tax law that'll make him a quick buck and then bail on the whole thing, hoping Pence will pardon any potential wrongdoings.

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PostRe: US Politics - Trump: "No collusion, no collusion. There has been absolutely no collusion."
by Alvin Flummux » Sun Dec 03, 2017 5:04 am

The more clueless Trump is, the better Mueller's chances of snagging enough evidence of criminality to bring the strawberry floater down.

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PostRe: US Politics - Trump: "No collusion, no collusion. There has been absolutely no collusion."
by Garth » Sun Dec 03, 2017 8:00 am

twitter.com/LawyerRogelio/status/937156347224821760


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still
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PostRe: US Politics - Trump: "No collusion, no collusion. There has been absolutely no collusion."
by still » Sun Dec 03, 2017 9:34 am

Garth wrote:

twitter.com/LawyerRogelio/status/937156347224821760



The big question is. How on earth do 33% still approve of him? What the hell is wrong with them. 33%!!

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PostRe: US Politics - Trump: "No collusion, no collusion. There has been absolutely no collusion."
by Peter Crisp » Sun Dec 03, 2017 11:49 am

It's just how US politics is these days in that for some people as long as the party they support is in power it doesn't matter what they actually do.

I'm going to find it rather funny when all the rich people and corporations get all these huge tax cuts and then just keep the cash and give it to shareholders and paying the CEO's even more and don't hire any new people. It will be rather fun watching the republicans explain why they made the deficit balloon for seemingly no gain.

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PostRe: US Politics - Trump: "No collusion, no collusion. There has been absolutely no collusion."
by Alvin Flummux » Sun Dec 03, 2017 12:51 pm

still wrote:
Garth wrote:

twitter.com/LawyerRogelio/status/937156347224821760



The big question is. How on earth do 33% still approve of him? What the hell is wrong with them. 33%!!


538 had a piece on that a couple of months ago (it might've been one of their weekly chatroom-style pieces where the senior staff hash out a particular issue), where it was suggested that Trump's disapproval rating has a floor somewhere in the mid-20s, beyond which it can go no lower. If that holds true, that means that what we're seeing here is likely the slow whittling away of Trump's base of support outside the fanatics who will never ever see sense.

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Garth
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PostRe: US Politics - Trump: "No collusion, no collusion. There has been absolutely no collusion."
by Garth » Sun Dec 03, 2017 1:52 pm

twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/937305615218696193


Sounds like he's planning some more obstruction of justice.

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Memento Mori
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PostRe: US Politics - Trump: "No collusion, no collusion. There has been absolutely no collusion."
by Memento Mori » Sun Dec 03, 2017 2:06 pm

Garth wrote:

twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/937305615218696193


Sounds like he's planning some more obstruction of justice.

The President there publicly slamming his own law enforcement organisation.

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Victor Mildew
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PostRe: US Politics - Trump: "No collusion, no collusion. There has been absolutely no collusion."
by Victor Mildew » Sun Dec 03, 2017 2:44 pm

Sad!

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