The department said it had concluded that Flynn’s interview by the FBI was “untethered to, and unjustified by, the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Flynn” and that the interview was “conducted without any legitimate investigative basis.” That's your first domino in Spygate. The rest are going to start falling soon. Durham has grand jurys in play and it's getting close to handcuffs for a bunch of people from the previous administration.
why did he feel that (urine) after PISS TAPE was necessary? If anybody old enough to read unaware that they one in the same?
Judges Sullivan has appealed for an en banc hearing. With the DC Circuit 7-4 in favor of Democrat-appointed judges, (vs 2-1 in the panel verdict), seems likely a) he'll get it, b) he'll win it. Possibly as much as 9-2 or 8-3. I haven't read it yet, but I've heard the dissent after the panel hearing was absolutely blistering, and should heavily influence the outcome of the appeal.
The Bulwark is a great source of information. Their breakdown of a recent Trump ad is awesome. The “evil hippie scum” are actually pro-democracy protesters. And the policeman getting beat up is a member of the riot police who had been brought in to try to protect the authoritarian president, Viktor Yanukovych, who was attempting to turn Ukraine into a one-party state by extralegal means. Still not at the bad part. One of the extralegal means Yanukovych employed was a specialized federal internal police force, the Berkut, which answered directly to him and was used to assault his political opponents and tamper with elections. Another of the extralegal means he used was jailing former Prime Minister Yulia V. Tymoshenko after beating her in the 2010 election. He actually “locked her up.” Now we’re at the bad part. Wait for it . . . The picture Trump is using in his ad was taken on February 14, 2014. On February 22, 2014, an overwhelming majority of Ukraine’s parliament—328 of 447 members—voted to remove Yanukovych from office. And on February 25, 2014 Yanukovych turned up in . . . Moscow. Where he enjoyed asylum. Because he was Vladimir Putin’s puppet. I’m sorry. I lied. Because we’re not actually at the bad part yet. Buckle up your chin straps because the real bad part is that after Yanukovych fled to Russia, the Ukrainian people charged him with treason. Not in the Fox News sense. They didn’t go on TV and say “Oh yeah, that guy. He was the worst. Total traitor. Human scum.” No, they filed charges and tried him in a court of law (in absentia) and convicted him. Not of a little light treason, but of “high treason.” Oh, and also—just as a cherry on top—back in 2004, before Yanukovych had ascended to the throne and tried to destroy his country’s democracy, he hired this really interesting American political operative to help his party. The guy’s name was Paul Manafort. Perhaps you’ve heard of him? Irony = ded.
I listened to the audio. Lindsay Graham is such a tool, and seems to have started drinking the conspiracy theory Kool-aid. Yates has an incredible amount of patience rebutting his inanity. Listening to Dianne Feinstein is tolerable at 2x.
Interesting episode of a legal podcast where the guest argues that Trump's commutation of Stone's sentence may have been illegal. Worth listening to because they cover a range of topics unrelated to this. One of the reasons why Shugerman says that the commutation was illegal is that there was a conflict of interest and that should render the commutation void. Another reason, and this is complicated so I'm not going to attempt to give much of a summary of it here, is that such a commutation violates Trump's oath of office to "faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Shugerman gives expected reasons why Trump has violated his oath (both with the pardon and other actions) and then throws in a completely unexpected one, with case history to back it up: Incompetence. Just being incompetent or acting incompetently in one area can be enough to say that something is a violation of the oath of office and get it undone. They also apply that standard to the actions of both Clinton and Obama and show how they've committed similar acts with their use of the pardon pen at times. He's going to be doing some legal challenges to various things, but of course, none of them will make it through the courts before the election. I don't know how right he is on some of his arguments, but he's got some pretty good credentials so unlike us, he's not some wanker bloviating on a message board.