***Official Political Discussion Thread***

[Belgium]

And for the record, while Pruitt is simultaneously under investigation by 6 different entities (see previous page), one of them has already found that the EPA violated the law by approving and paying for a $43000 secure soundproof booth in Pruitt's personal office.
https://www.gao.gov/products/B-329603#mt=e-report
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded that the soundproof booth violated a governmentwide spending law that placed a $5000 cap on refurnishing and redecorating. Lawmakers must be informed about larger expenses. The report also concluded that because the EPA also violated the Antideficiency Act because the EPA did not seek approval from Congres for the $43k soundproof booth. It is illegal for an agency to use money that hasn't been appropriated.


That report was publicly released on April 16th. Trump still hasn't shown any indication of wanting to fire Pruitt despite John Kelly pushing to oust him and calling Pruitt to demand an end to the scandals earlier this month. Other Secretaries such as Tom Price who used their position to fund a lavish lifestyle including private jet flights, first class flights, ... were fired for far less than what Pruitt has done.
Tom Price's private flight costs were around a million dollars if I recall correctly whereas Pruitt's security detail, his first class flights for himself and the entire security detail and other lavish expenses have already reached a minimum of around 3 million dollars.

Trump has been well aware of all this, including the 2 law violations under Pruitt's watch as the GAO sent its report to Congress and the president on April 16th

 

[EddieDoyers]

 

[noskey]

First and foremost , METH.

Me and Coal Gang ready for you Libs.

Amen and #thoughtsandprayers for the BEATDOWN THAT COAL SQUAD is gonna drop on libby kale gang. For every two libs in the world, we each got two TRUE PATRIOTIC MERICAN ELBOWS.

 

[Nike Jordan]

20 something white guys that dress like 50 year olds are definitely white supremacists.

 

[stuntman mike]

time magazine's most influential list had some interesting reading. the ones i scanned through all said nice things about the recipient, even ted cruz's words about trump. not THIS one though
**** scott pruitt. rotten SOB POS.

The Environmental Protection Agency has been instrumental in improving our nation’s air, land and water quality. From the inaugural Clean Air Act of 1970 to the Brownfields Program and Great Lakes cleanup, the EPA has established antipollution standards, cleaned up contaminated sites and provided safe drinking water to millions of people. These achievements merely scratch the surface of the EPA’s positive impact on the environment and human health at large.

Until recently, decades of scientific research on climate change formed the springboard for the EPA’s protective and effective measures. However, under the administration of Scott Pruitt, the agency is experiencing a new wave of policymaking—or rather, policy dismantling. (He has already dismantled the Clean Power Plan, which would have regulated carbon dioxide emissions in the power sector, and is now targeting vehicle-emissions standards.) If his actions continue in the same direction, during Pruitt’s term at the EPA the environment will be threatened instead of protected, and human health endangered instead of preserved, all with no long-term benefit to the economy.

 

[Belgium]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...bed-as-back-channel-to-russia-u-s-lawyer-says
Manafort Suspected of Serving as ‘Back Channel’ to Russia, DOJ Says

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s interest in former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort stemmed in part from his suspected role as a “back channel” between the campaign and Russians intent on meddling in the election, a Justice Department lawyer told a judge.


The disclosure by U.S. prosecutors came Thursday during a hearing on whether Mueller exceeded his authority in indicting Manafort on charges of laundering millions of dollars while acting as an unregistered agent of the Ukrainian government. Manafort’s lawyers say those alleged crimes have nothing to do with Mueller’s central mission -- to determine whether anyone in the Trump campaign had links to the Russian government.


Defense attorney Kevin Downing argued anew to U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington that even Mueller’s appointment order permitting him to probe “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation” wouldn’t cover the political consulting work that Manafort did in Ukraine for a decade.

But Justice Department attorney Michael Dreeben said prosecutors were justified in investigating Manafort because he had served as Trump’s campaign chairman.

“He had long-standing ties to Russia-backed politicians,” Dreeben told Jackson. “Did they provide back channels to Russia? Investigators will naturally look at those things.”

Prosecutors hadn’t previously used such explicit language to describe their suspicions about Manafort. In a previous court filing, Mueller also cited business ties between Manafort and the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.

Any investigation of links between Russia and the Trump campaign “would naturally cover ties that a former Trump campaign manager had to Russian-associated political operatives, Russian-backed politicians, and Russian oligarchs,” prosecutors said in an April 2 filing.

“It would also naturally look into any interactions they may have had before and during the campaign to plumb motives and opportunities to coordinate and to expose possible channels for surreptitious communications,” prosecutors wrote. “And prosecutors would naturally follow the money trail from Manafort’s Ukrainian consulting activities. Because investigation of those matters was authorized, so was prosecution.”

At Thursday’s hearing, Downing argued that he was challenging whether Mueller “had the jurisdiction and the authority to conduct the investigation.” He focused on Mueller’s release of a memo dated Aug. 2, 2017, and signed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, that
spelled out the reasons for pursuing Manafort. Heavy redactions in the public version make it hard to tell all of the reasons.

Downing said that at the time of Mueller’s appointment, Rosenstein apparently failed to put in writing his reasons for pursuing Manafort, even though regulations say the special counsel “will be provided with a specific factual statement of the matter to be investigated.”

‘No Memo?’
Downing said Rosenstein drafted the August 2017 memo because “he realizes he got something wrong” when Mueller was appointed nearly three months earlier. He said he’s received nothing in writing from prosecutors about the reasons then for the Manafort probe.

“In a case of such national importance, that’s being looked at all over the world, there’s no writing, there’s no memo?” Downing said. “I can’t believe the Department of Justice operates like that.”

Dreeben said the August 2017 memo serves as “confirmation” of what prosecutors suspected about Manafort at the time of Mueller’s appointment. He also said that order and underlying regulations require Mueller to report on his work to Rosenstein.

“It’s not a blank check,” he said. “It’s not carte blanche.”

Jackson heard similar arguments about Mueller’s authority at a hearing on April 4, when Downing defended his civil lawsuit that also said prosecutors had no authority to charge Manafort. The judge expressed deep skepticism then about whether a civil lawsuit was the proper legal step. She didn’t say when she would rule in either case.

Guilty Pleas
Mueller has charged 19 people, including 13 Russians, since his appointment. Five have pleaded guilty, including Rick Gates, a former Trump deputy campaign chairman and longtime business associate of Manafort. Gates is cooperating with Mueller’s investigation.

Aside from the Washington indictment, Manafort is also charged in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, with bank and tax fraud.

Dreeben, who is helping Mueller with the investigation, has argued more than 100 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court as deputy solicitor general.

The cases are U.S. v. Manafort, 18-cr-83, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia (Alexandria), and U.S. v. Manafort, 17-cr-201, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).

 

[aepps20]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...bed-as-back-channel-to-russia-u-s-lawyer-says
Manafort Suspected of Serving as ‘Back Channel’ to Russia, DOJ Says

Do NOTHING Burgers from the Coal fired furnace taste AWESOME?

 

[130122]

Do NOTHING Burgers from the Coal fired furnace taste AWESOME?

Trumpitos Italian American Grille sounds like my type of restaurant. Coal furnace broiled nothingburgers with well seasoned treason fries, Fried Matt Calamari, and well done steaks with ketchup! Happy Hour always is superb with Infidelitini’s and the Moscow Mules for all my moral people! #ThoughtsandPrayers for your tummy tho if you get the Collusion Coquito

 

[aepps20]

Mueller is Toast fellas. AMERICA'S MAYOR is on the job. This witch hunt will end NOW.

 

[Belgium]

Mueller is Toast fellas. AMERICA'S MAYOR is on the job. This witch hunt will end NOW.

Well said Comrade, libbies are in absolute SHAMBLES today
In hindsight I probably should've kept this one to rep the coal gang to the fullest extent

 

[Mr.Guy]

Welp it looks like da Don is gonna get off
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...o-tell-trump-he-s-not-target-in-mueller-probe

 

[Mark Antony]

How much that go for?

 

[elpablo21]

 

[Belgium]

"I was told I'm not a target in the investigation so I no longer need to fire the investigators"

Excerpt:
After the meeting, Trump told some of his closest advisers that it’s not the right time to remove either man since he’s not a target of the probes. One person said Trump doesn’t want to take any action that would drag out the investigation.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...o-tell-trump-he-s-not-target-in-mueller-probe
Rosenstein Tells Trump He’s Not a Target in Mueller, Cohen Probes
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told President Donald Trump last week that he isn’t a target of any part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation or the probe into his longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, according to several people familiar with the matter.


Rosenstein, who brought up the investigations himself, offered the assurance during a meeting with Trump at the White House last Thursday, a development that helped tamp down the president’s desire to remove Rosenstein or Mueller, the people said.

After the meeting, Trump told some of his closest advisers that it’s not the right time to remove either man since he’s not a target of the probes. One person said Trump doesn’t want to take any action that would drag out the investigation.



The change in attitude by the president comes after weeks of attacks on the special counsel and the Justice Department, raising questions about whether he might take drastic steps to shut down the probes.



The shift gives some breathing room for Mueller, as well as Rosenstein, who has been criticized strongly by House Republicans for being slow to comply with requests for classified documents. Last week’s meeting was set up in part to allow Rosenstein to assuage Trump’s frustration with his decisions.

U.S. stocks pared their decline on the news. The S&P 500 Index closed down 0.6 percent in New York trading after an earlier slump of as much as 1 percent.

Rosenstein’s message may have been based on a technicality. Trump may not officially be a target, but Mueller hasn’t ruled out making him one at some point in the future, according to a U.S. official with knowledge of the unfolding investigation.

‘Fairly Standard’
“I don’t know what it means. It is a fairly standard part of any investigation -- trying to decide whether a person you’re encountering is a witness, a subject or a target,” former FBI Director James Comey, who was fired by Trump, said Thursday on CNN when asked what Rosenstein’s assurance to Trump means at this point.

A target is someone about whom an investigation and a grand jury “developed significant evidence -- evidence sufficient to charge,” Comey said.

Trump, who still hasn’t ruled out removing Rosenstein and Mueller at some point, signaled his shift in approach to them on Wednesday, responding to a reporter’s question about their fate by saying they are “still here.”

“They’ve been saying I’m going to get rid of them for the last three months, four months, five months,” Trump said at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. “And they’re still here. We want to get the investigation over with, done with, put it behind us. And we have to get back to business.”

The expectation that the investigation will wrap up soon was underscored by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who’s joined Trump’s personal legal team. Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor, said in an interview Thursday that he was taking a “very brief” leave of absence from his law firm in an effort to get Mueller “what he needs to wrap it up” and to “try to negotiate a way to get this over with.”

The Justice Department declined to comment on Rosenstein’s meeting with Trump, which was also attended by White House General Counsel Don McGahn, FBI general counsel Dana Boente, and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.

The moment echoes another conversation early in Trump’s presidency, when he spoke with then-FBI Director Comey.

Comey’s Book
Back in March 2017, Comey told Trump he wasn’t a target in the FBI’s investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Comey wrote in his new book, “A Higher Loyalty,” that Trump repeatedly asked him to help lift “the cloud” hanging over him by publicly announcing he wasn’t under investigation.

Comey refused to make a public announcement, writing that “the FBI and Department of Justice had been reluctant to make public statements that we did not have an open case on President Trump for a number of reasons, most important that it would create a duty to correct that statement should that status change.”

Ever since FBI agents raided Cohen’s home and office earlier this month, Trump has been egged on by some of his strongest supporters to strike back at Mueller.

Court papers filed after the raid revealed that the U.S. attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York has been investigating Cohen for months, following a referral from Mueller. That referral was approved by Rosenstein, according to a person familiar with the matter.

In his remarks Wednesday, Trump called the Mueller-led investigation “a hoax” created by Democrats “to soften the blow of a loss.”

“As far as the investigation, nobody has ever been more transparent,” he said during a news conference with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “I have instructed the lawyers, ‘Be totally transparent.”’

 

[Belgium]

How much that go for?

About $300 if I recall correctly. So not that much really due to its limited appeal. Interested buyers are either Putin supporters or people with some kind of infatuation with dictators or important figures.
The guy I sold it to was an American with Russian heritage but it must have changed hands since then. I think pretty much all of the initial bidders were American but they were lowballing, the guy I sold it to immediately offered to buy at full price in Bitcoin and mentioned something about Russian roots so I took the offer.
I briefly considered contacting the Kremlin at the time I obtained it but figured that probably wasn't the brightest idea.

 

[Mark Antony]

About $300 if I recall correctly. So not that much really due to its limited appeal. Interested buyers are either Putin supporters or people with some kind of infatuation with dictators or important figures.
The guy I sold it to was an American with Russian heritage but I'm pretty sure it has changed hands since then.
I briefly considered contacting the Kremlin at the time I obtained it but figured that probably wasn't the brightest idea.

For sure thought that would have went for more. good move not reaching out.

 

[RustyShackleford]

Papi Vadi would have sent over some delicious Russian chocolates to seal the deal. You know the ones with caramel, sea salt, and polonium.

 

[gry60]

Papi Vadi would have sent over some delicious Russian chocolates to seal the deal. You know the ones with caramel, sea salt, and polonium.

Don't forget the helping hand to send him over the edge.

 

[EddieDoyers]

The president of the Party of "Morals"

 

[frink85]

Mueller and Rosenstein playing 64 bit peek-a-boo, I sees it.

“I’m not under investigation so they can keep investigating whatever” = something an innocent man would say

 

[130122]

Da Don Dotta is king of 2D Jenga, Mueller and Rosenstein are not equipped for da moral wig splittin Trumpito is gonna put on them

 

[gry60]

This one is just so juicy, salty, and ketchupy

 

[youngogjosh]

How does one or two, in this case, think it's perfectly sound to donate money that they can't afford to a billionaire. Did they really think da don was gonna let it rain $100's in the streets?

 

[elpablo21]

Was wondering when Kush would be back on the show

 

[Belgium]

House Republicans demanded Rosenstein hand over the secret Comey memos to Congress for whatever reason and warned Rosenstein about consequences if he didn't do so. Rosenstein met their demand earlier.
AP obtained a copy and uploaded them here:
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4442900-Ex-FBI-Director-James-Comey-s-memos.html