# 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:** 169
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/3362 "2018-03-17T22:02:35Z")
> [@SaneBill](#): > > I’m a bit confused here. So McCabe had done all his works and was on accrued holiday and after it he would’ve stepped straight to on pension, without needing to do another day at work, right? > How can he be fired when he had effectively already done his career in full ? Sunday is his 50th birthday. If he is terminated before then, he is ineligible for early retirement. ---
**Author:** ![SaneBill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@SaneBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SaneBill)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/3363 "2018-03-17T22:03:59Z")
But how it is legal, he’s done all he’s supposed to do. I’m pretty sure it can’t be done here in Europe ( then again we’re all Socialists here, so… ) ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/3364 "2018-03-17T22:20:06Z")
John Dowd, personal attorney for President Trump, reacted to Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ firing of former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe by calling for the firing of special counsel Robert Mueller. **“I pray that Acting Attorney General Rosenstein will follow the brilliant and courageous example of the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility and Attorney General Jeff Sessions and bring an end to alleged Russia Collusion investigation manufactured by McCabe’s boss James Comey based upon a fraudulent and corrupt Dossier,”** Dowd said. It’s fucking obstruction of justice, and you can’t get any more obvious. ---
**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:** [March 17, 2018, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/3365 "2018-03-17T22:23:46Z")
> [@SteveG1](#): > > John Dowd, personal attorney for President Trump, reacted to Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ firing of former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe by calling for the firing of special counsel Robert Mueller. > > **“I pray that Acting Attorney General Rosenstein will follow the brilliant and courageous example of the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility and Attorney General Jeff Sessions and bring an end to alleged Russia Collusion investigation manufactured by McCabe’s boss James Comey based upon a fraudulent and corrupt Dossier,”** Dowd said. > It’s fucking obstruction of justice, and you can’t get any more obvious. IOW, I “hope” that Rosenstein and Sessions don’t do what these other guys did that got fired. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/3366 "2018-03-17T22:28:49Z")
> [@SteveG1](#): > > John Dowd, personal attorney for President Trump, reacted to Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ firing of former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe by calling for the firing of special counsel Robert Mueller. > > **“I pray that Acting Attorney General Rosenstein will follow the brilliant and courageous example of the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility and Attorney General Jeff Sessions and bring an end to alleged Russia Collusion investigation manufactured by McCabe’s boss James Comey based upon a fraudulent and corrupt Dossier,”** Dowd said. > It’s fucking obstruction of justice, and you can’t get any more obvious. True, but there’s one problem: Trump decides what “justice” is - until someone takes that power away from him. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/3367 "2018-03-17T22:59:05Z")
> [@GreysonCarlisle](#): > > Democrat congressman Mark Pocan from Wisconsin is offering McCabe a job: > > “Andrew call me. I could use a good two-day report on the biggest crime families in Washington, D.C.” > > - [Twitter](https://twitter.com/repmarkpocan/status/975004405824147456) I heard Illinois congressman Luis Gutierrez, who is on the House Judiciary committee, say on NPR today that he’d be happy to hire McCabe for a few days to do some work for him. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/3368 "2018-03-17T23:39:13Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > Comey’s been working on a book, hasn’t he? Is it coming out soon? In a [month](https://www.amazon.com/Higher-Loyalty-Truth-Lies-Leadership/dp/1250192455/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1521329878&sr=1-1&keywords=Comey). ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2018, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/3369 "2018-03-18T00:21:50Z")
I think that all the uproar about McCabe is missing the big news of today. The [revelations](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-cambridge-analytica/trump-consultants-harvested-data-from-50-million-facebook-users-reports-idUSKCN1GT02Y) about Cambridge Analytica are chilling - The Guardian has a new article in a series about the firm. Recently, an interview with the guy who enabled it all. [I created Steve Bannon’s psychological warfare tool’: meet the data war whistleblower](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/data-war-whistleblower-christopher-wylie-faceook-nix-bannon-trump) > [@](#): > > For more than a year we’ve been investigating Cambridge Analytica and its links to the Brexit Leave campaign in the UK and Team Trump in the US presidential election. Now, 28-year-old Christopher Wylie goes on the record to discuss his role in hijacking the profiles of millions of Facebook users in order to target the US electorate Wylie has left Cambridge Analytica but has a stash of documents about his work for them. > [@](#): > > There are other dramatic documents in Wylie’s stash, including a pitch made by Cambridge Analytica to Lukoil, Russia’s second biggest oil producer. In an email dated 17 July 2014, about the US presidential primaries, Nix wrote to Wylie: “We have been asked to write a memo to Lukoil (the Russian oil and gas company) to explain to them how our services are going to apply to the petroleum business. Nix said that “they understand behavioural microtargeting in the context of elections” but that they were “failing to make the connection between voters and their consumers”. The work, he said, would be “shared with the CEO of the business”, a former Soviet oil minister and associate of Putin, Vagit Alekperov. > > “It didn’t make any sense to me,” says Wylie. “I didn’t understand either the email or the pitch presentation we did. Why would a Russian oil company want to target information on American voters?” > > Mueller’s investigation traces the first stages of the Russian operation to disrupt the 2016 US election back to 2014, when the Russian state made what appears to be its first concerted efforts to harness the power of America’s social media platforms, including Facebook. And it was in late summer of the same year that Cambridge Analytica presented the Russian oil company with an outline of its datasets, capabilities and methodology. The presentation had little to do with “consumers”. Instead, documents show it focused on election disruption techniques. The first slide illustrates how a “rumour campaign” spread fear in the 2007 Nigerian election – in which the company worked – by spreading the idea that the “election would be rigged”. The final slide, branded with Lukoil’s logo and that of SCL Group and SCL Elections, headlines its “deliverables”: “psychographic messaging”. ---
**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:** [March 18, 2018, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/3370 "2018-03-18T00:44:24Z")
> [@GreysonCarlisle](#): > > The government belongs to us. We have the right to know what it’s doing and how it’s doing it. > [@BeenJammin](#): > > Not without the appropriate security clearance, you don’t. :dubious: AND an established need-to-know status. Umm, unless the memos aren’t Classified material, in which case McCabe can show them to anyone he wants.\* I’m not prepared to comment on whether doing so benefits the America-hating fuckstick, by tipping him off. \*(generally) ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2018, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/3371 "2018-03-18T01:29:51Z")
> [@jasg](#): > > I think that all the uproar about McCabe is missing the big news of today. > > The [revelations](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-cambridge-analytica/trump-consultants-harvested-data-from-50-million-facebook-users-reports-idUSKCN1GT02Y) about Cambridge Analytica are chilling - The Guardian has a new article in a series about the firm. Recently, an interview with the guy who enabled it all. > > [I created Steve Bannon’s psychological warfare tool’: meet the data war whistleblower](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/data-war-whistleblower-christopher-wylie-faceook-nix-bannon-trump) > > Wylie has left Cambridge Analytica but has a stash of documents about his work for them. Then my assessments are 1000% correct. The Mueller investigation isn’t just about investigating a matter of oblique concerns like “collusion” between Russian interests and the Trump campaign. It’s far more extensive and sophisticated than that, and this means that the Republican party - not just Trump but members of the conservative party and its financial interests (including, but not limited to, Cambridge Analytica) are invested in working with outside actors, like Putin’s Russia. A company like Cambridge Analytica isn’t just invested in the Trump campaign of 2016 - they see something on the horizon. They envision a plutocracy in which they can create an imperfect democracy like that which existed in the late 19th Century. Mueller’s investigation represents public power and the public interest. He’s fighting private power and private interests, including corrupt companies like CA, and their proxies in the Republican party. Putin and the GOP (and American conservatives) have shared interests. They all want Republicans to remain in power and for the US to exist as a corrupt state so that a) Americans will be fighting with other Americans, and b) we will pay less attention to Russian aggression. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2018, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/3372 "2018-03-18T01:43:53Z")
nm … ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2018, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/3373 "2018-03-18T02:15:07Z")
> [@GreysonCarlisle](#): > > The government belongs to us. We have the right to know what it’s doing and how it’s doing it. Public information helps those under investigation to come up with a shared story that exonerates themselves, while not conflicting with the facts that are available to the investigators. By all means, the information should be made public, but there’s a process for that. ---
**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:** [March 18, 2018, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/3374 "2018-03-18T02:22:29Z")
Facebook has suspended Cambridge Analytics. > **[Facebook suspends Cambridge Analytica, data firm tied to Trump campaign](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/facebook-cambridge-analytica-trump-campaign-data-collection-violation-suspended-today-live-updates-2018-03-17/)** > > President Trump's 2016 data guru Brad Parscale, who has been named campaign manager of the 2020 re-election bid, hired Cambridge Analytica during the campaign ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2018, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/3375 "2018-03-18T05:33:40Z")
A readable [piece](https://slate.com/technology/2018/03/the-cambridge-analytica-scandal-is-what-facebook-powered-election-cheating-looks-like.html?via=homepage_taps_top) from Slate on Cambridge Analytica and election cheating. ---
**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:** [March 18, 2018, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/3376 "2018-03-18T06:24:31Z")
I’ve long thought Cambridge Analytica was going to figure into Mueller’s investigation in a substantive way. Not hard to work out a likely connection between the Kremlin, via cutouts, with their targeted Facebook/Twitter/Reddit/Instagram troll farms and the targeted voter information courtesy of Steve Bannon and the Mercers’ Cambridge Analytica. Good pieces all that you posted links to, **jasg**. I posted a link to Reuters’ first story about Facebook’s suspension of Cambridge Analytica in the Clusterfuck thread and it was basically deemed inconsequential. But I think this is about to become a very big story, with ramifications for both Mueller’s investigation and the 2018, 2020 elections. I saw an interview with Wylie earlier today. Bright kid. Pity about the pink hair. Teh Alt-Right will have a field day with that, I’m afraid. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2018, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/3377 "2018-03-18T06:46:12Z")
> [@jasg](#): > > A readable [piece](https://slate.com/technology/2018/03/the-cambridge-analytica-scandal-is-what-facebook-powered-election-cheating-looks-like.html?via=homepage_taps_top) from Slate on Cambridge Analytica and election cheating. Am i the only one troubled by the terminology here? Is it really correct to call this “election cheating”? Now, if any of the parties involved here allowed foreign entities to become part of this story, in violation of American laws governing foreign interference in the election process, that’s one thing. But whatever type of data was collected by Aleksandr Kogan through his Facebook app, and however that data was used by Cambridge Analytica to target advertisements and social media campaigns, the only thing really going on here is influencing people’s opinions. No-one is alleging that people were bribed to vote for one party or the other. No-one is alleging that electronic voting machines were hacked in order to inaccurately count the votes of each candidate. No-one is suggesting that this process purged anyone from the voter roles, or added people who should not have been allowed to vote. All that went on here was essentially a marketing campaign that made use of sophisticated data analytics in order to appeal to people’s biases and emotions and predispositions and political preferences. If that’s “election cheating,” then so is every damn campaign ad run by the political parties, and every billboard or leaflet or commercial sponsored by a Political Action Committee. The people of America went to the polls, and they voted for the candidates that they wanted to vote for. I fucking hate the result, and i firmly believe that a lot of those people are idiots, but isn’t that one of the messy consequences of democracy? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2018, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/3378 "2018-03-18T08:15:12Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > Am i the only one troubled by the terminology here? Is it really correct to call this “election cheating”? > > Now, if any of the parties involved here allowed foreign entities to become part of this story, in violation of American laws governing foreign interference in the election process, that’s one thing. But whatever type of data was collected by Aleksandr Kogan through his Facebook app, and however that data was used by Cambridge Analytica to target advertisements and social media campaigns, the only thing really going on here is influencing people’s opinions. > > No-one is alleging that people were bribed to vote for one party or the other. No-one is alleging that electronic voting machines were hacked in order to inaccurately count the votes of each candidate. No-one is suggesting that this process purged anyone from the voter roles, or added people who should not have been allowed to vote. > > All that went on here was essentially a marketing campaign that made use of sophisticated data analytics in order to appeal to people’s biases and emotions and predispositions and political preferences. If that’s “election cheating,” then so is every damn campaign ad run by the political parties, and every billboard or leaflet or commercial sponsored by a Political Action Committee. > > The people of America went to the polls, and they voted for the candidates that they wanted to vote for. I fucking hate the result, and i firmly believe that a lot of those people are idiots, but isn’t that one of the messy consequences of democracy? No. Because all of those ads clearly state who they are from, as is required by law. These Russian ads did not reveal they were from Russia. Thus they were cheating–violating the rules for election advertisements. I am not sure if the rules for truth in advertising also applies to political ads, but I would hope they would. If so, then they violate this as well, since they were predominantly made up of fake news. If people knew these statements were false and put out by Russia, it is highly likely they would have voted differently. Hence Russia put their thumbs on the scales. They cheated. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2018, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/3379 "2018-03-18T09:29:41Z")
I posted about Cambridge Analytica a year ago. [https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=819549](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=819549) Maybe FB’s action will finally wake up the media and the public about what’s been going on. They used software that analyzed individual’s FB accounts and then individually targeted ads based on each person’s beliefs, political leanings, and fears. People with xenophobic tendencies were fed lies about immigrants and the need for deportations and a wall. Gun supporters were fed NRA type propaganda. Bernie supporters were encouraged not to vote in the general, or to vote for Stein. Etc. The software allowed them to prey on each individual’s weaknesses on a person by person basis, rather than targeting large demographics. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2018, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/3380 "2018-03-18T12:09:43Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > When everyone around you feels compelled to keep memos about your interactions with them, you are probably a garbage human being. “I would like that order in writing, sir!” ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2018, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/3381 "2018-03-18T14:16:20Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Public information helps those under investigation to come up with a shared story that exonerates themselves, while not conflicting with the facts that are available to the investigators. > > By all means, the information should be made public, but there’s a process for that. True. Meuller plays his cards carefully. As long as only he has all the information, he can use it to fact check and charge the various liars and thieves - and get them on perjury and conspiracy. If he makes everything public, he loses his best weapon. He can’t let them know everything he knows. Not yet. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093.md?page=168) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093.md?page=170)