# 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:** 359
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2018, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/7163 "2018-10-08T03:47:41Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > At this point we know exactly what a denial from a Trump official about meetings with (or about) Russians is worth… Is it still zilch when converted to rubles? ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2018, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/7164 "2018-10-08T21:27:07Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Is it still zilch when converted to rubles? Heh. Recent thread-topic Rod Rosenstein was in the news today, when many were shocked to see him fly with Trump down to an Orlando speech: > [@](#): > > President Donald Trump said Monday he has no intention of firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, ending lingering uncertainty over the official’s tenure in the wake of reports he had suggested invoking the 25th Amendment last year to remove Trump. > > “I get along very well with him,” he told reporters as he departed the White House bound for Orlando and an event with police chiefs. Asked if he planned to fire Rosenstein, Trump replied, “No, I don’t.” … [Donald Trump says he has no plans to fire Rod Rosenstein](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/10/08/rod-rosenstein-donald-trump-meeting/1563389002/) Of course if Sessions is replaced, then Trump doesn’t _need_ to replace Rosenstein–the new AG can oversee (and sabotage) the Mueller investigation himself. ---
**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:** [October 9, 2018, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/7165 "2018-10-09T00:02:30Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Actually, that might well be evidence that they didn’t\* know\* it was the Russians, just figured it was some bunch of hackers out to make a good old fashioned dollar! If so then, at the very least, they were willing to pay for stolen information. Surely that’s a crime. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/7166 "2018-10-09T11:44:55Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > Heh. > > Recent thread-topic Rod Rosenstein was in the news today, when many were shocked to see him fly with Trump down to an Orlando speech: > > [Donald Trump says he has no plans to fire Rod Rosenstein](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/10/08/rod-rosenstein-donald-trump-meeting/1563389002/) > > Of course if Sessions is replaced, then Trump doesn’t _need_ to replace Rosenstein–the new AG can oversee (and sabotage) the Mueller investigation himself. It’s not like Trump fires anyone himself anyway. He’d just get someone else to do it. ---
**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 9, 2018, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/7167 "2018-10-09T18:19:21Z")
Somebody fire bombed the Russian troll factory offices in St. Petersburg. > **[Russian Troll Factory Linked to U.S. Election Meddling Hit With Molotov Cocktail](https://gizmodo.com/russian-troll-factory-linked-to-u-s-election-meddling-1829622404)** > > Russia’s most famous “troll factory,” a building where Kremlin-financed shitposters wage a battle of words in the New Cold War, was hit with a molotov cocktail overnight. No one was injured in the attack. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/7168 "2018-10-09T18:20:40Z")
Antifas. No question. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/7169 "2018-10-09T23:04:45Z")
_The New Yorker_ has an article on the Trump server that was communicating with Alfa Bank: **Was There a Connection Between a Russian Bank and the Trump Campaign?** > **[Was There a Connection Between a Russian Bank and the Trump Campaign?](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/15/was-there-a-connection-between-a-russian-bank-and-the-trump-campaign)** > > A team of computer scientists sifted through records of unusual Web traffic in search of answers. Background refresher: > [@](#): > > Examining records for the Trump domain, Max’s group discovered D.N.S. lookups from a pair of servers owned by Alfa Bank, one of the largest banks in Russia. Alfa Bank’s computers were looking up the address of the Trump server nearly every day. There were dozens of lookups on some days and far fewer on others, but the total number was notable: between May and September, Alfa Bank looked up the Trump Organization’s domain more than two thousand times. “We were watching this happen in real time—it was like watching an airplane fly by,” Max said. “And we thought, Why the hell is a Russian bank communicating with a server that belongs to the Trump Organization, and at such a rate?” > > Only one other entity seemed to be reaching out to the Trump Organization’s domain with any frequency: Spectrum Health, of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Spectrum Health is closely linked to the DeVos family; Richard DeVos, Jr., is the chairman of the board, and one of its hospitals is named after his mother. His wife, Betsy DeVos, was appointed Secretary of Education by Donald Trump. Her brother, Erik Prince, is a Trump associate who has attracted the scrutiny of Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Trump’s ties to Russia. Mueller has been looking into Prince’s meeting, following the election, with a Russian official in the Seychelles, at which he reportedly discussed setting up a back channel between Trump and the Russian President, Vladimir Putin. (Prince maintains that the meeting was “incidental.”) In the summer of 2016, Max and the others weren’t aware of any of this. “We didn’t know who DeVos was,” Max said. I guess these guys are fans of _Dune_: > [@](#): > > I met several times with the two members of the East Coast group and spoke with them repeatedly. They used pseudonyms, Paul and Leto, in part because they had been alarmed by encounters with Russia while they were working at high levels of government. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/7170 "2018-10-09T23:24:06Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#): > > I guess these guys are fans of _Dune_: And rightly so! ---
**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 10, 2018, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/7171 "2018-10-10T05:27:06Z")
Yabbut, “Harkonnen” would be a far more appropriate code name… ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2018, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/7172 "2018-10-10T15:31:15Z")
> [@SteveG1](#): > > She always was pretty fucking stupid. Isn’t her five minutes of “fame” up yet??? With Bristol recently added to the cast of that MTV Teen Mom show, Sarah surely will find a way to be on more cameras. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2018, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/7173 "2018-10-10T15:32:44Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > Sarah Palin accidentally describes [how investigations work](https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/407485-sarah-palin-mueller-will-keep-fishing-until-he-gets-something). > > \*“When we go fishing, have we ever stopped before we caught something?” Palin told DailyMailTV of the Russia investigation in an interview published Wednesday. “No…we keep fishing.” > > 'Unfortunately, that is what’s going on in our country,” the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee said.\* You can tell she lives in Alaska where the fishing is pretty good. In the rest of the U.S., yes, Sarah, sometimes we go home at the end of the day with no fish. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2018, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/7174 "2018-10-11T16:22:26Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/26/us/politics/matthew-whitaker-justice-department.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/26/us/politics/matthew-whitaker-justice-department.html) > > Matthew Whitaker, the man who would replace Rosenstein, is a Trump loyalist. No shit, Sherlock. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2018, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/7175 "2018-10-11T16:23:55Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > Kavanaugh will factor in the Mueller and other federal investigations. > > And not in a good way. He’s there, to be Trump’s “GET OUT OF JAIL FREE” card. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2018, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/7176 "2018-10-11T16:25:18Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > If so then, at the very least, they were willing to pay for stolen information. Surely that’s a crime. No, they’re saying it’s OK, nothing to see. Now they’re saying it’s some sort of First Amendment right. SERIOUSLY. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2018, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/7177 "2018-10-11T16:26:19Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Somebody fire bombed the Russian troll factory offices in St. Petersburg. > [Russian Troll Factory Linked to U.S. Election Meddling Hit With Molotov Cocktail](https://gizmodo.com/russian-troll-factory-linked-to-u-s-election-meddling-1829622404) Awwwwwww, too bad. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2018, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/7178 "2018-10-11T23:02:56Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Somebody fire bombed the Russian troll factory offices in St. Petersburg. > [Russian Troll Factory Linked to U.S. Election Meddling Hit With Molotov Cocktail](https://gizmodo.com/russian-troll-factory-linked-to-u-s-election-meddling-1829622404) > [@SteveG1](#): > > Awwwwwww, too bad. 😃 From the video it appeared to be a smallish Molotov Cocktail that affected just a few desks. Certainly they’re back at work in force; check out Elizabeth Warren’s Twitter feed for plenty of examples. ---
**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 11, 2018, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/7179 "2018-10-11T23:04:47Z")
Michael Cohen has reregistered as a Democrat. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2018, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/7180 "2018-10-11T23:15:13Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Michael Cohen has reregistered as a Democrat. He should hurry up and vote while he can. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2018, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/7181 "2018-10-12T05:43:35Z")
> [@romansperson](#): > > He should hurry up and vote while he can. He’s set to be sentenced in December so he should be good to go. In New York felons are only disenfranchised while incarcerated. Meanwhile, out in sunny California, Richard Pinedo has been [sentenced](https://www.salon.com/2018/10/11/mueller-wins-longest-sentence-so-far-in-trump-russia-case/) to six months in jail plus another six under house arrest for selling stolen identities to the Uncle Vlad. > [@](#): > > 28-year-old Richard Pinedo admitted in February that he unknowingly sold stolen bank accounts to Russian internet trolls, who in turn used that information to purchase internet advertisements with the plan of disrupting America’s political discourse during the 2016 presidential election… In his statement to the court, Pinedo accepted “full responsibility” for what he did and asked for leniency on the basis of his cooperation with Mueller’s investigation and the fact that he has received threats since his involvement in the Russian meddling became public. > … > This was the second major win for Mueller since the start of the month. Last week, convicted former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort met with Mueller’s team as part of his cooperation agreement. But the real fun is only just beginning. Mueller is gearing up to begin the much-anticipated [textual relations](https://www.salon.com/2018/10/11/mueller-wins-longest-sentence-so-far-in-trump-russia-case/) with Team Trump. > [@](#): > > President Donald Trump’s legal team is preparing answers to written questions provided by special counsel Robert Mueller, according to sources familiar with the matter. > > The move represents a major development after months of negotiations and signals that the Mueller investigation could be entering a final phase with regard to the President. Given that Mueller seems to have backed off on his insistence for an in-person interview at this point, I suspect they have very strong evidence of shenanigans irrespective of anything Trump might provide directly. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2018, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/7182 "2018-10-12T14:16:56Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > …Given that Mueller seems to have backed off on his insistence for an in-person interview at this point, I suspect they have very strong evidence of shenanigans irrespective of anything Trump might provide directly. Better in writing anyway. I started to say, “so thump can’t deny he said/wrote it,” but knowing him, he can and probably will. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093.md?page=358) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093.md?page=360)