There will be no 2024 campaign. President-For-Life Trump doesn’t need no stinkin’ campaign!!
No. What I’ve been saying here is that based on the transcripts of the testimonies just released, as well as all other available evidence, the hacking was not discussed (or even expected to be discussed). This based on both the fact that all testimonies were consistent on that point, as well as the fact that all testimonies were also consistent that there was nothing of any consequence discussed at that meeting, despite expectations.
You want to continue to speculate that it’s all a cleverly coordinated campaign of deception, that’s fine. But my point was that this has not panned out to date, and that the statement of the Democratic minority seems to indicate some acknowledgment of that, as they move on to speculation on other matters.
From the link -
Giuliani: Mueller’s team told Trump’s lawyers they can’t indict a president
BWAHAHAHHAHA. This… this is according to Trumps lawyers… BWAAAHAHAHHAH. The whole administration are as thick as thieves. ALL they do is lie and let their supporters lap it up.
Hey Rudy, as my Mom always said “Can’t never tried”.
Because…Li’l Donnie’s word is so trustworthy?
Cleverly coordinated? By the Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight? Hahahahahaha…
Once again, to bring out the hackneyed old saw that also happens to be true, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence…let alone what Mueller has which no one but his team knows about.
Oh, I’m so glad you caught that.
This investigation is going fast because everyone involved is so goddamn incompetent. Covering their tracks because they might some day be held accountable was not something they ever even considered.
It’s hard to compare this to other special prosecutors, as this is probably the most wide-ranging special prosecutor investigation in history, and affords much more opportunities for indictments.
Also, most of the indictments to date are of 13 Russians that are not expected to actually be prosecuted, and are kind of like freebies for the prosecution (in terms of preparation effort).
I get your point: We should be glad that there are important things being investigated and there is no need for “perjury about sex” issues in this iteration of presidential reckoning?
If you insist …
I don’t think that they actually realized that they were breaking laws as they were doing so. If anything, they thought it was little regulatory rules that may impose a nominal fine, as with their usual real estate shenanigans.
If you don’t know the rules to chess, then absent a referee who can enforce rules compliance, those who know the game the least have the most advantage.
If you’re going to enter a chess tournament, you need to acquaint yourself with the rules first. If you don’t, sucks to be you, because you’re going down and you ain’t getting any sympathy from me!
I don’t know if these guys were ignorant or simply didn’t care about following the rules. They wanted to play in the big leagues (hah!) and now they are seeing what can happen if you’re not careful. Boo-hoo.
See - I think we’re going to get that as well - Trump really likes outdoing the Clinton’s.
I did read it the first way. But even if I take the second meaning, the question still stands. What would be “much more serious” than trying to get opposition research from Russian government-connected sources? Would paying for it be more serious? Accepting it for free? How about inserting a plank about Ukraine in the GOP platform?
Participating in the hacking of DNC emails would be much more serious (not to mention hacking voting systems). Also, participating with Russian efforts to disseminate disinformation in the US would be much more serious than trying to get legitimate leads about Clinton shady funding from Russian government-connected sources.
That too. So if there’s any indication that inserting a plank about Ukraine as part of a deal with the Russians was discussed at this meeting, then you’re onto something. But again, all indications beyond sheer speculation and wishful thinking is that nothing of any consequence was done at this meeting.
You are saying that Donald Trump Jr. didn’t expect to discuss hacked emails.
I am saying that this assumption only makes sense if he did not connect the “Russia has dirt” to Papadopoulos’s knowledge that the dirt was hacked emails. That’s all.
That doesn’t involve any “cleverly coordinated campaign of deception.”
If I were DTjr and I was offered “official documents and information” from someone connected to the Russian government, which purported to “incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia”, my assumption would be that these were Russian government documents that the person had acquired via their government connections, and not hacked DNC emails.
But even if we were to speculate that DTjr somehow assumed that this was related to hacked emails, that only relates to what his expectations were going into the meeting. The point is that once that meeting started it seems to be agreed upon by all participants (Americans, Russians, translator) that nothing was said about hacked emails, and there was just some vague stuff about Russian funding. So unless there was a “cleverly coordinated campaign of deception” in which all participants coordinated their story on this point (though they were inconsistent in some other more minor areas) then it seems unlikely that the topic actually came up.
Unless, of course, that government connection got that info by way of the hacked DNC emails. That is so fantastic we may dismiss it out of hand. Wave, wave…
I would have thought this was obvious, and I underlined it just in case it wasn’t, but if you need it spelled out further: the hacked DNC emails wouldn’t tend to be “official documents” and not related to Russia specifically. OTOH, documents that the Russian government had legitimately due to them being the government would be both of these.
Five days after the Trump Tower meeting Rob Goldstone sent Ike Kaveladze an email with a screen cap of this CNN article… Russian hackers stole Dems’ Trump files, firm says.
Here’s the body of Goldstone’s email…
Based on this evidence, it seems incredibly likely that the DNC hack came up at the meeting at least obliquely.
All it means is that they met some Russians who promised info and here’s an article about Russians having info. Interesting that in this case it was actually the Russians getting damaging info about Trump himself. (Though you could argue it was of value to Trump to know what the Democrats had on him.)
On a related note, see an email from Ike Kaveladze on that same day (June 14), stating “meeting was boring. The Russians did not have any bad info in [sic] Hillary”. (link, page 15).
[Of possible minor interest: the recipient’s name is redacted, but I belief the time stamps of the email exchange indicates that this person’s time zone was 10 hours ahead of Kaveladze.]