# A Thread for the Mueller Investigation Results and Outcomes (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 28, 2017, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093 "2017-10-28T20:14:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 16
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/301 "2017-10-31T20:11:55Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > You’ve gotta love the balls behind this. > > A guy is arrested for lying to the FBI about stuff that would have been damaging to Trump. > > Trump then throws him under the bus, and says “See! They guy is a liar, and even the FBI agrees with me! That proves I’m innocent!” > > It’s like the kid who kills his parents, and then begs the court for leniency because he’s an orphan. While insulting the judge for being hispanic. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/302 "2017-10-31T20:13:00Z")
> [@GrandWino](#): > > F-P: Well did anybody actually SEE the cookie get stolen? I suppose if you’re inclined to believe that a cookie was stolen you might think that, but then you’re already going to believe anything about cookies and their theft. I’m far more rational than you are, though, so from my perspective I’m looking at that cookie jar and wondering why you even assume there was a cookie in it in the first place. Please see post #185 for my reasoning which I’ve already laid out very clearly in this regards; but of course you may not be a serious poster in which case you needn’t bother to respond. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/303 "2017-10-31T20:14:23Z")
Why is there no investigation into Crooked Hillary for stealing the cookie jar? Lamestream media! ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/304 "2017-10-31T20:16:39Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > What’s Bannon suspected of? (Besides being an all-around human dumpster fire.) > [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Close involvement with Trump. No way to keep clean if you do that. > [@friedo](#): > > We’d have to indict nearly every Republican in Congress, if that’s a crime. Seems a bit wasteful and counterproductive. Not necessarily counterproductive. Indict them all so they’re forced to resign. Suddenly, the (D)s outnumber the (R)s on Capitol Hill. This gives us Speaker Pelosi. Then turn Mueller loose on The America-hating fuckstick and Pence, so indictments force THEM to resign. And THAT’s how you get to President Pelosi. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/305 "2017-10-31T20:20:21Z")
Now a question: is there any informed speculation whatsoever about whether Pence is gonna be implicated? I can see three possibilities at least: 1. There’s no way, in a–what did FP call it, an open management style campaign or something?–in a clusterfuck like Trump’s campaign, that Pence wouldn’t hear about the shenanigans going on. He’s gonna go down with the others. 2. There’s no way that a reasonably savvy politician like Pence would allow himself to get involved; indeed, keeping his nose ostentatiously clean is a great way for him to gain the presidency. 3. What the hell is anyone doing speculating on this with so little information? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/306 "2017-10-31T20:24:13Z")
Some stories have the selection of Pence being Manafort’s idea, with some machinations involved. Coulda been aboveboard political calculation, sure, but Manafort seems to be more than a bit venal. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/307 "2017-10-31T20:26:45Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Why yes, they really are. I saw a tweet the other day from some reporter when she was doing on the street interviews asking people about the sexual assault claims about Weinstein and other people, and she asked one woman about the Trump “grab her by the pussy” statement, and the woman said that was a lie, and she knows it’s a lie because if he had ever said it, she would have seen it reported, and she watched Fox News regularly and they never said anything about it. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/308 "2017-10-31T20:28:01Z")
I don’t know what to think about Pence. On the one hand, he is a veteran politician, unlike (ETA: almost) everyone else in the administration, and so he has probably maintained enough plausible deniability to survive the reckoning. On the other had, Manafort was his biggest booster, and there has to be some reason why Manafort would go out on a limb to get Pence in the administration. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/309 "2017-10-31T20:32:09Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > I don’t know what to think about Pence. On the one hand, he is a veteran politician, unlike (ETA: almost) everyone else in the administration, and so he has probably maintained enough plausible deniability to survive the reckoning. On the other had, Manafort was his biggest booster, and there has to be some reason why Manafort would go out on a limb to get Pence in the administration. Pence ran the transition and was around for a lot of the activities being looked at re: Obstruction. He’s in neck-deep. ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/310 "2017-10-31T20:46:24Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > I suppose if you’re inclined to believe that a cookie was stolen you might think that, but then you’re already going to believe anything about cookies and their theft. I’m far more rational than you are, though, so from my perspective I’m looking at that cookie jar and wondering why you even assume there was a cookie in it in the first place. > > Please see post #185 for my reasoning which I’ve already laid out very clearly in this regards; but of course you may not be a serious poster in which case you needn’t bother to respond. Credit where credit is due - this is pretty funny. Well done. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/311 "2017-10-31T21:44:08Z")
Up till now, Mueller’s team has interviewed former administration officials like Spicer and Priebus. Beginning as early as this week, the team will be interviewing current members of the administration. Three or four officials may be interviewed this week, and Communications Director Hope Hicks will be interviewed in mid-November, just after she and Trump get back from a trip to Asia. Hicks has been a close aide to Trump since before he launched his campaign. The White House expects the interviews to be wrapped up by Thanksgiving. > **[Mueller schedules interview with Hope Hicks](https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/31/mueller-russia-investigation-hope-hicks-interview-244382)** > > The White House communications director is due to speak with prosecutors in the Russia probe after Trump returns from his Asia trip. Maybe we’ll get early Christmas presents this year! ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/312 "2017-10-31T23:17:21Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > Up till now, Mueller’s team has interviewed former administration officials like Spicer and Priebus. Beginning as early as this week, the team will be interviewing current members of the administration. Three or four officials may be interviewed this week, and Communications Director Hope Hicks will be interviewed in mid-November, just after she and Trump get back from a trip to Asia. Hicks has been a close aide to Trump since before he launched his campaign. > > The White House expects the interviews to be wrapped up by Thanksgiving. > > [https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/31/mueller-russia-investigation-hope-hicks-interview-244382](https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/31/mueller-russia-investigation-hope-hicks-interview-244382) > > Maybe we’ll get early Christmas presents this year! I think the timing of these is interesting. Current members of the administration now KNOW FOR A FACT that Mueller is in possession of certain information about contacts the Trump campaign had with the Russians during the election. They don’t know exactly what he knows, but he does have something. They also know that if they spoke with George Papadopoulos anytime in the last three months, they’d better remember PRECISELY what they spoke about. They know that if they lie during these interviews, it is likely that they’ll get a visit from Mueller and will be arrested. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/313 "2017-10-31T23:24:04Z")
Oh, yes. Strategically speaking, how Mueller rolled out the Manafort/Gates speaking indictments and then unsealed the Papadopoulos plea arrangement was brilliant on so many levels. I expected nothing less. Trump will never figure out how outmaneuvered he is going to be throughout this process. ETA: Delightful as it was to watch unfold, we’re in for a rough year. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2017, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/314 "2017-11-01T00:04:19Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Left Hand of Dorkness** : > > Please see post #185 for my reasoning which I’ve already laid out very clearly in this regards; but of course you may not be a serious poster in which case you needn’t bother to respond. All this business about Trump is clearly just a smokescreen: You’re trying to distract us away from your confession that you’re a sock puppet of [**BigAppleBucky**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=20571466&postcount=185). ---
**Author:** ![Tabby\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tabby\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabby_Cat)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2017, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/315 "2017-11-01T00:14:17Z")
These things take time. Don’t place false expectations on yourself. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2017, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/316 "2017-11-01T00:55:05Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > Up till now, Mueller’s team has interviewed former administration officials like Spicer and Priebus. Beginning as early as this week, the team will be interviewing current members of the administration. Three or four officials may be interviewed this week, and Communications Director Hope Hicks will be interviewed in mid-November, just after she and Trump get back from a trip to Asia. Hicks has been a close aide to Trump since before he launched his campaign. > > The White House expects the interviews to be wrapped up by Thanksgiving. > > [https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/31/mueller-russia-investigation-hope-hicks-interview-244382](https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/31/mueller-russia-investigation-hope-hicks-interview-244382) > > Maybe we’ll get early Christmas presents this year! [We already got ONE…](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=839650) ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2017, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/317 "2017-11-01T06:18:06Z")
One thing that struck me about what I’ve seen of the material released is the painstaking way in which Mueller’s staff have documented Gates and Manafort’s financial shenanigans — particularly the latter’s — and their rationale for considering them a flight risk (including their curiously variable net worth). One way I interpret this is as a warning shot across Il Douche’s bow: “You’re not dealing with mail-order ambulance-chasers who share office space with a laundromat in Trenton: we’re professionals, and you’re in for the fight of your miserable life, you Cheeto-faced shitgibbon!” ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2017, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/318 "2017-11-01T06:43:18Z")
That, and the other message that was implied in his hiring decisions: money laundering and financial shenanigans will be front and center. Mueller, from what I’ve read, got some of the heavy weights for ferreting out subtle and covert monetary dealings. Trump isn’t guilty of collusion, if only because Putin would never trust such a blustering blabbermouth. For once, he’s telling the truth! And he doesn’t care who else is guilty, so long as its not him. But his money? And the truth about his money? So, Mueller to Trump: wanna play hide and seek? Wanna bet yer ass yer better at it that me and all these guys? Maybe you are. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2017, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/319 "2017-11-01T10:38:08Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > All this business about Trump is clearly just a smokescreen: You’re trying to distract us away from your confession that you’re a sock puppet of [**BigAppleBucky**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=20571466&postcount=185). How dare you accuse LHoD of being a sock for me? And a mod, no less! edit: crap, wrong account ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2017, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/320 "2017-11-01T10:45:31Z")
[Manafort has 3 passports, traveled to China with phone registered under fake name](http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/31/politics/manafort-3-passports/index.html) > [@](#): > > A [new court filing](http://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2017/images/10/31/manafort.gates.flight.risk.filing.pdf) Tuesday showed exactly what Manafort and Gates told banks and investigators about their net worths and travel histories over the past few years. > Among the highlights: > > - **Manafort currently has three US passports, each under a different number.** He has submitted 10 passport applications in roughly as many years, prosecutors said. > > - **This year, Manafort traveled to Mexico, China and Ecuador with a phone and email account registered under a fake name.** (The name was not disclosed in the filings.) > > - Both Manafort and Gates were frequent travelers to Cyprus. “Extensive travel of this nature further evidences a risk of flight,” the prosecutor’s filing said. > > - Manafort wrote on loan applications and other financial documents that his assets were worth between $19 million in April 2012 and $136 million in May 2016. > > - In some months, like while he served as Trump’s national campaign chairman in August 2016, Manafort’s assessment of his total worth fluctuated. In August 2016 he said his assets were worth $28 million, then wrote he had $63 million in assets on a different application. > > - Gates “frequently changed banks and opened and closed bank accounts,” prosecutors said. In all, Gates opened 55 accounts with 13 financial institutions, the prosecutors’ court filing said. Some of his bank accounts were in England and Cyprus, where he held more than $10 million from 2010 to 2013. > **Manafort’s and Gates’ attorneys have asked the judge to release them from house arrest.** Hahahahahahahahaha [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093.md?page=15) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093.md?page=17)