2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumA Veteran Spy Has Given the FBI Information Alleging a Russian Operation to Cultivate Donald Trump
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/veteran-spy-gave-fbi-info-alleging-russian-operation-cultivate-donald-trumpOn Friday, FBI Director James Comey set off a political blast when he informed congressional leaders that the bureau had stumbled across emails that might be pertinent to its completed inquiry into Hillary Clinton's handling of emails when she was secretary of state. The Clinton campaign and others criticized Comey for intervening in a presidential campaign by breaking with Justice Department tradition and revealing information about an investigationinformation that was vague and perhaps ultimately irrelevantso close to Election Day. On Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid upped the ante. He sent Comey a fiery letter saying the FBI chief may have broken the law and pointed to a potentially greater controversy: "In my communications with you and other top officials in the national security community, it has become clear that you possess explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisors, and the Russian government The public has a right to know this information."
Reid's missive set off a burst of speculation on Twitter and elsewhere. What was he referring to regarding the Republican presidential nominee? At the end of August, Reid had written to Comey and demanded an investigation of the "connections between the Russian government and Donald Trump's presidential campaign," and in that letter he indirectly referred to Carter Page, an American businessman cited by Trump as one of his foreign policy advisers, who had financial ties to Russia and had recently visited Moscow. Last month, Yahoo News reported that US intelligence officials were probing the links between Page and senior Russian officials. (Page has called accusations against him "garbage." On Monday, NBC News reported that the FBI has mounted a preliminary inquiry into the foreign business ties of Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign chief. But Reid's recent note hinted at more than the Page or Manafort affairs. And a former senior intelligence officer for a Western country who specialized in Russian counterintelligence tells Mother Jones that in recent months he provided the bureau with memos, based on his recent interactions with Russian sources, contending the Russian government has for years tried to co-opt and assist Trumpand that the FBI requested more information from him.
"This is something of huge significance, way above party politics," the former intelligence officer says. "I think [Trump's] own party should be aware of this stuff as well."
Does this mean the FBI is investigating whether Russian intelligence has attempted to develop a secret relationship with Trump or cultivate him as an asset? Was the former intelligence officer and his material deemed credible or not? An FBI spokeswoman says, "Normally, we don't talk about whether we are investigating anything." But a senior US government official not involved in this case but familiar with the former spy tells Mother Jones that he has been a credible source with a proven record of providing reliable, sensitive, and important information to the US government.
triron
(22,240 posts)from CIA
uponit7771
(91,768 posts)flamingdem
(39,926 posts)by Putin since 2012.
He must have been referring to this.
Since he is essentially acting as a foreign agent for Russia the case could be made that he cannot be President! Ya think..
Jean-Jacques Roussea
(475 posts)June 2013
Sat down and talked about how funny it would be to undermine America's democracy. Putin bet he couldn't do it. Donald, being the big-talker he's known to be was like "you're on".
flamingdem
(39,926 posts)Who thought the Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow would be the backdrop for the undermining of America's democracy?
Response to flamingdem (Reply #3)
Name removed Message auto-removed
triron
(22,240 posts)Comey's goal was to stop Hillary at all costs.
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)northoftheborder
(7,608 posts)mopinko
(71,831 posts)same thing i posted on a fb thread about this situation.
mopinko
(71,831 posts)bet your last dollar, people. there is a sex tape of the cheeto and some poor young sex slave out there.
BamaRefugee
(3,709 posts)Melania at those porn shoots, NOBODY hires models to do that without having video running the whole time too, you get 2 types of media for the price of one.
mopinko
(71,831 posts)i know melania was not w trump, but i think there are actually a lot of them that are that and only that.
and you are exactly right. there is video out there.
somebody pretty big must have promised to watch his back. how else do you explain a man w so many skeletons in his closet having the huevos to run?
BamaRefugee
(3,709 posts)But I read somewhere that "someone" has pretty much paid off her hometown in Slovenia not to talk about her.
mopinko
(71,831 posts)and regardless of her paperwork, if she claimed a college degree, which she didnt have, she is guilty of immigration fraud.
i do suspect that she met him as a prostitute, or at least through the porn. she prolly thought she hit the working girls jackpot.
there is a ton of trafficking going on in that part of the world. there was a crack down on strip clubs here in chi, and the whole m.o. is exactly as jane doe and trump modeling show. same scams. company store games, side jobs, pressure to do said side jobs, threats of calling i.c.e. all of it.
almost all the women came from eastern europe. the white ones, anyway.
wouldnt it be a great thing for the world for her real story to be told? sex slave to first lady. i dont do the slut shaming thing, but i do point out the hypocrisy of those that ranted about michelle's bare arms.
the real face of human trafficking would stun the world.
McCamy Taylor
(19,240 posts)We can do it over in 2017. Nothing will be lost--except Putin's ability to rule us from the other side of the world.
Hekate
(94,714 posts)safeinOhio
(34,095 posts)Hang him, Hang him. Hang him.
As long as trump loves those crowd chants.
mopinko
(71,831 posts)i used to make a button along those lines about bushie, and it was one of my best sellers.
at this point, you just have to fall back on the wisdom of the british colonial navy-
volatire pointed out that- the royal navy likes to hang an admiral every now and then so as to encourage the others.
past time for a little encouragement around here. watergate has plumb worn off.