FBI

Get me Roger Stone! (Updated)

by

I have wanted to see long-time GOP ratfucker Roger Stone in prison since his Watergate days. That a creature so vile and devoid of any human decency has been allowed to practice his dark arts freely for so long with impunity is a blot on the American justice system.

But my faith has been restored this morning! Roger Stone Arrested in Mueller Investigation Into Trump Campaign:

Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime informal adviser to President Trump, was charged as part of the special counsel investigation over his communications with WikiLeaks, the organization behind the release of thousands of stolen Democratic emails during the 2016 campaign, in an indictment unsealed Friday.

Mr. Stone was charged with seven counts, including obstruction of an official proceeding, making false statements and witness tampering, according to the special counsel’s office.

Read the Stone Indictment (.pdf).

Before dawn on Friday, F.B.I. agents arrested Mr. Stone at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and he was expected to appear in a federal courthouse there later in the morning.

The indictment is the first in months by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, who is investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and possible coordination with Trump campaign associates.

Read more

Mystery Mueller grand jury subpoena appealed to SCOTUS again

by

An unidentified company wholly owned by a sovereign foreign government can proceed in filing a sealed request to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to consider its appeal of a Robert Mueller-linked grand jury subpoena, the court announced Tuesday. Mystery Grand Jury Company Asks SCOTUS To Hear Appeal In Redacted Filing:

A redacted version of the request has been made available to the public. REDACTED Petition For a Writ of Certiorari (.pdf).

The move will allow the unnamed firm – reportedly a financial institution – a chance at winning an appeal before the Supreme Court.

The mysterious company was ordered to file redacted versions of its court papers for the public record.

Little is known about the company in the case in question. A contempt order issued by a lower court that SCOTUS declined to block is forcing the firm to pay a fine of $50,000 per day as long as it refuses to comply with the grand jury subpoena. Today’s redacted filing confirms that the company is “wholly owned” by a foreign state, meaning that it would have no other shareholders.

Read more

‘Collusion’ in plain sight: a compromised president is a national security threat

by

This past week we learned from Paul Manafort’s attorneys that their client shared closely guarded campaign polling data with Russian (and Ukrainian) oligarchs who have close ties to Vladimir Putin. Paul Manafort shared 2016 polling data with Russian associate, according to court filing.

David Measer explains The real value of Paul Manafort’s polling data:

[I]t’s a mistake to treat polling data as mere briefing material; it’s actionable information. Those of us in advertising use it to decide who to target; to position the brands we represent as distinctive from other brands; to develop messaging and ads; and to knock competitors out of their positions in consumers’ minds. We’ve known since 2017 that the Russian disinformation campaign during the 2016 presidential election did the same thing — aiming different posts at people who indicated that they “liked” patriotism or lived in Ferguson, Mo.

Passing on this kind of information gives a partner the ability to reach audiences in a very personalized way. And if that partner is a foreign country intent on influencing voters, exploiting divisions and disrupting elections, the data is priceless. It gives them the tools to get pretty close to the holy grail of marketing: to be in the right place, at the right time, with the right message.

This would be the Russian troll farm run by Russian intelligence agencies whom the Special Counsel has indicted for interference in the 2016 election.

Read more

McClatchy stands by its reporting that Michael Cohen was in Prague in 2016

by

In April of this year, McClatchy reported Mueller has evidence Cohen was in Prague in 2016, confirming part of dossier:

The Justice Department special counsel has evidence that Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and confidant, Michael Cohen, secretly made a late-summer trip to Prague during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Confirmation of the trip would lend credence to retired British spy [Christopher Steele’s] report that Cohen strategized there with a powerful Kremlin figure about Russian meddling in the U.S. election.

* * *

Cohen has vehemently denied for months that he ever has been in Prague or colluded with Russia during the campaign. Neither he nor his lawyer responded to requests for comment for this story.

Other news organizations were unable to confirm McClathcy’s reporting through their sources.

McClatchy today adds circumstantial evidence to build its case that Michael Cohen was in Prague in late-summer in 2016. Cell signal puts Cohen outside Prague around time of purported Russian meeting:

A mobile phone traced to President Donald Trump’s former lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen briefly sent signals ricocheting off cell towers in the Prague area in late summer 2016, at the height of the presidential campaign, leaving an electronic record to support claims that Cohen met secretly there with Russian officials, four people with knowledge of the matter say.

During the same period of late August or early September, electronic eavesdropping by an Eastern European intelligence agency picked up a conversation among Russians, one of whom remarked that Cohen was in Prague, two people familiar with the incident said.

Read more

Michael Cohen

McClatchy stands by its reporting that Michael Cohen was in Prague in 2016

by

In April of this year, McClatchy reported Mueller has evidence Cohen was in Prague in 2016, confirming part of dossier:

The Justice Department special counsel has evidence that Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and confidant, Michael Cohen, secretly made a late-summer trip to Prague during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Confirmation of the trip would lend credence to retired British spy [Christopher Steele’s] report that Cohen strategized there with a powerful Kremlin figure about Russian meddling in the U.S. election.

* * *

Cohen has vehemently denied for months that he ever has been in Prague or colluded with Russia during the campaign. Neither he nor his lawyer responded to requests for comment for this story.

Other news organizations were unable to confirm McClathcy’s reporting through their sources.

McClatchy today adds circumstantial evidence to build its case that Michael Cohen was in Prague in late-summer in 2016. Cell signal puts Cohen outside Prague around time of purported Russian meeting:

A mobile phone traced to President Donald Trump’s former lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen briefly sent signals ricocheting off cell towers in the Prague area in late summer 2016, at the height of the presidential campaign, leaving an electronic record to support claims that Cohen met secretly there with Russian officials, four people with knowledge of the matter say.

During the same period of late August or early September, electronic eavesdropping by an Eastern European intelligence agency picked up a conversation among Russians, one of whom remarked that Cohen was in Prague, two people familiar with the incident said.

Read more