Saturday, April 1, 2023

Republicans Rail About Weaponized Justice

I am not sure that the current crop of Republicans will ever come to grips with what THEY have done and are DOING. They are the ones in Congress using committees to investigate Biden without facts. That is weaponizing congressional power.

Republicans declared the Mueller Probe and January 6 Probe were weaponizing Justice. What precipitated those investigations? An audit trail of factual information triggered them, and it continues today as Justice pursues the prosecution of Donald J. Trump. As my example shows, the probes did not come from thin air. It is the tip of the iceberg.  


"President Donald Trump repeatedly has called for the Justice Department to launch investigations into "corruption" at the FBI, "illegal surveillance" of his presidential campaign, and the "phony" and "corrupt dossier," which he still insists started the federal probe of contacts between Russian operatives and his associates." -- ABC News, July 23, 2019


Fact: DECEMBER 2015: Michael Flynn, the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, attends a gala in Moscow celebrating the Kremlin-backed television network RT, which paid Flynn more than $45,000 to attend. Flynn, who does not join the Trump campaign as an adviser for another few months, is captured on camera sitting next to Russian President Vladimir Putin.


EARLY MARCH 2016: George Papadopoulos becomes a foreign policy adviser to Trump's campaign.

MARCH 14, 2016: While traveling in Italy, Papadopoulos meets a London-based professor who claims to have connections with the Russian government.

AROUND MARCH 24, 2016: While in London, Papadopoulos sends an email to Carter Page and other campaign members, telling them the professor he met in Italy two weeks earlier has introduced him to the Russian ambassador to England and a Russian woman who is supposedly Putin's niece. Papadopoulos says in the email that the two Russians might be able to help set up a meeting between Trump and Putin.


MARCH 2016: The FBI interviews Carter Page about his contacts in Russia.

MARCH 2016: Russian hackers launch an operation to break into computer systems associated with the DNC and email accounts of Clinton campaign staff, including campaign chairman John Podesta.


APRIL 2016: Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-California, meets in Moscow with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. In the summer of 2016, Rohrabacher also met with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, months before the site released hacked Democratic emails received from Russian hackers.

MAY 2016: The DNC realizes it has been hacked and quietly hires a security company to investigate.

MAY 19, 2016: Paul Manafort, who initially joined the Trump campaign in March as a "campaign convention manager" becomes the campaign manager.


LATE MAY 2016: Acting on behalf of the DNC, the law firm Perkins Coie hires Fusion GPS to conduct research on Trump. Having known Steele for nearly seven years, Fusion GPS contracts with Steele to conduct the research.


LATE MAY 2016: Papadopoulos tells the Greek Foreign Minister that the Russians have "dirt" on Hillary Clinton.

 

JUNE 3, 2016: British publicist and Trump associate Rob Goldstone, who came into the Trump orbit when he helped promote and state manage the Miss Universe pageant, emails Donald Trump Jr., saying prominent Russians "offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary." Goldstone says it is "very high level" and "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump." 

JUNE 7, 2016: Goldstone emails Trump Jr. again, looking to set up a meeting between Trump Jr. and a "Russian government attorney." Two days later, Trump Jr. and the attorney meet in Trump Tower, along with Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort. 

JUNE 14, 2016: News outlets widely report that Russian hackers working on behalf of Russian intelligence services have infiltrated the DNC and accessed a trove of emails.


Trump's 'zombie' case lurches ahead of the pack 


BY REBECCA BEITSCH AND ZACH SCHONFELD


Some prosecutors called it a "zombie;" other legal observers said it was a "sleeper case." But Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's (D) probe into Donald Trump is the first to initiate history-making criminal charges against a former president. 

 

Among the dizzying array of ongoing criminal probes into former President Trump, he faces investigations by both federal and Georgia authorities over his role in seeking to block the transfer of power after the 2020 election. The Justice Department is also investigating the mishandling of classified records at his Florida home.



Image: CNN



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