The Mueller Investigation.

[Jon Miller]

That is fine for 'private' crimes. Not for crimes relating to his actions as president or his election.

JM

[Dinner]

https://www-m.cnn.com/2019/01/08/politics/manafort-russia-court-deadline/index.html?r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F

We have yet more evidence c of direct collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, folks. In the latest filing Mueller says Manafort was feeding the Russian GRU Trump campaign polling and get out the vote information so the Russians could better target their disinformation and propaganda efforts in order to help the Trump campaign.

We have direct high level conspiracy between the Trump campaign and a hostile foreign government with the goal of effecting the outcome of the 2016 U.S. election. We are well into the worst case scenario now, boys.

[pchang]

I find it interesting that while Fox News has covered this story, they have totally buried it. If you have to know about the story and search specifically for it in order to find it.

[-Jrabbit]

Manafort's lawyers claiming he was just too busy to remember is pretty precious.

This is being painted as sloppy redacting by Manfort's legal team, but it looks very deliberate to me. Manafort is being set up as the scapegoat.

[Berzerker]

Considering that it is current DOJ rules to not bring charges against the president, no charges are (currently) expected to be brought. The whole purpose of the investigation is for the report to be made public in some way.

JM

The purpose is to report the findings to Congress, they get to decide if impeachment or censure is appropriate. I'd have a problem if Congress dropped the matter but still made the report public. I have mixed feelings about it, I want to know what Trump did but I'm not entirely on board with publicizing investigations in lieu of actual charges.

[-Jrabbit]

Pretty sure Trump is the only person they would hold back indictment on. There's no "constitutional crisis" in charging others if there's ample evidence, as evidenced by the many indictments and pleadings already completed through the grand jury and federal courts.

[ZEE]

Let's all slow down the CNN train. President Donald John Trump of the United States of America, which he Has Made Great Again, is going to be fine.

[Jon Miller]

The purpose is to report the findings to Congress, they get to decide if impeachment or censure is appropriate. I'd have a problem if Congress dropped the matter but still made the report public. I have mixed feelings about it, I want to know what Trump did but I'm not entirely on board with publicizing investigations in lieu of actual charges.

Reporting the findings to Congress is making the report public in some way (the full congress, not just a subset).

JM

[Dinner]

Manafort's lawyers claiming he was just too busy to remember is pretty precious.

This is being painted as sloppy redacting by Manfort's legal team, but it looks very deliberate to me. Manafort is being set up as the scapegoat.

It might have been an accident or it might have been a way to give other accused people a heads up about what Mueller knows. Remember Manafort not only kept lying to Mueller even after signing a cooperation agreement but he also acted as a mole having his lawyer leak inside information back to team Trump. This very well could be him continuing to do the same thing.

[Berzerker]

I'm sure the worst parts would be leaked

[Jon Miller]

I'm sure the worst parts would be leaked

If there is something important to the greater public (but not enough votes, for example due to partisanship, to impeach), then congress could take care of providing it. Yes.

If there is nothing of substance, than it will be at worse like the Access Hollywood tapes. Which didn't do Trump in.

JM
(I think that the argument can really be made that impeachment doesn't work properly in this highly partisan era. Maybe it hasn't really worked well in any era.)

[Proteus_MST]

...
(I think that the argument can really be made that impeachment doesn't work properly in this highly partisan era. Maybe it hasn't really worked well in any era.)

I guess the USAs big problem is, that it factually has a 2 party system.
That makes partisanship quite easy, especially in times like today ... you are either on side of your own party, or you are not

Having 3, 4 or even more parties with a significant amount of seats in congress, would make things a little bit more complex, as those parties, even if they form an alliance with either the GOP or the DNC, will have to think first and foremost aboiut the interests of their voters and not about appeasing their alliance partner


Another idea would be similar to the approach taken in many states, nowadays, to combat gerrymandering:
Have independent watchdog councils that perform an overwatch duty and where steps are taken to assure, that the composition of the councils doesn't favor one of the parties

[I AM I AM I AM MOBIUS]

How many syllables is "judged"?

[Berzerker]

1, like in dipped or skipped

[Dinner]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/01/10/trump-i-knew-nothing-about-manafort-sharing-poll-data-with-alleged-russian-spy.html

Trump continues to lie and pretend he did not know about his campaign chairman giving Russia's military intelligence polling and get out the vote data to enable Russia to "micro target" areas for their propaganda and disinformation campaign in order to help Trump in the 2016 campaign.

We know the Trump campaign was especially small and that Trump micromanaged everything without exception so this weak denial simply is not believable. Remember he also denies knowing about the collusion meeting in Trump Tower even though he was in Trump Tower when it happened, even though we know Trump called his son immediately before the meeting started and immediately after it ended. We also know that Steve Bannon got exiled from Trumpland when he admitted to reporters that it was inconceivable that the Russian government officials were not taken one floor up to speak with Trump himself during the collusion meeting.

This is a direct conspiracy involving Trump and the Russian dictator to break American laws and change the election results in Trump's favor. This is where we are at now.

[Dinner]

https://youtu.be/wOvBf6WpVlA