Discussion: Trump Transition Team Accuses Mueller Of Improperly Obtaining Documents

justruss · December 17, 2017, 11:02am

You have it down cold. Novell should have been the path. One thing I have suggested in the past is that Microsoft should have taken the Network Server path on a totally separate path from the DeskTop. As an App server, that should have been narrowed. For example, SQL Server is great in that environment, but why should I be able to load almost any desktop app on the same box? A great deal of the server side vulnerability is based on shared code sets in my opinion. It also changed the viewpoint of the usage and management of the systems.

What was beautiful about 3.X was it did a few things well and succinctly. That attitude should have been the guide

But as you pointed out, they took a series of divergent paths.

WP I think is owned by Corel Corp now.

cvilledem · December 17, 2017, 11:02am

Well, they never got in any trouble for it. The GOP just ignores push-back and it works perfectly. Every time.

ohcomeonnow · December 17, 2017, 11:02am

The Pedophile State does have serious issues. Its no wonder Democrats do not vote for at all as most/all are DINOs.

justruss · December 17, 2017, 11:04am

Ditto

khyber900 · December 17, 2017, 7:32pm

In reflecting on the Axios and Buzzfeed articles overnight my conclusion is that the Trumpers and their attorneys believe they have bigly liability exposure. By even raising this ridiculous claim before any indictments have been handed out, it communicates a consciousness of guilt that has been a constant theme of Trumper behavior. Another theme has been sheer buffoonery and incompetence…and of course the emails.

The primary objective of the Transition was to figure out how to pay back Russia for its help when they got to the WH without getting caught.

That’s what all the emails are about. That’s what the Flynn guilty plea was about. Take a look at this list of events that happened from the end of the election into the first weeks of the administration:

• 11/8/16: Flynn op-ed on Fethullah Gulen is published in The Hill. Statement of Offense identifies that Flynn lied about having oversight, supervision and direction from officials of the Turkish government.
• 11/10/16: Obama warns Trump not to hire Flynn.
• 11/18/16: Elijah Cummings’ letter detailing that Flynn Intel Group was being paid by Kamil Alptekin (Inovo BV) to lobby for Turkish interests. Cummings’ letter questions why Flynn was allowed to receive security briefings while being in the employ of connected Turkish government interests.

12/1/2016 - Kushner, Flynn and Kislyak meet at Trump Tower and discuss the backchannel to Russia through secure communications to evade USIC.

• 12/7/16: Sale of Rosneft (19.5%) announced by Russian gov’t. Rosneft was viewed as a tough sale with limited buyers because of US sanctions, but Russia got a sales price close to its stock market value. The Trump election eased sanctions fears. Glencore and the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar purchased the stake. Russia needed the cash to shore up budget deficits and finance its wars. Recall that the Steele Dossier identified the Rosneft sale as a big carrot for Trump, and Page admits the topic came up when he visited Moscow in July and spoke with Andrei Baranov (head of investor relations at Rosneft who is a direct report to sanctioned CEO, Igor Sechin).
• 12/8/16: Carter Page visits Moscow (2nd time) – admits to meeting with an executive from Rosneft (likely Igor Sechin). Rosneft sale.
• 12/13/16 – Kushner meets with Sergey Gorkov (head of VNB bank), a sanctioned bank. Meeting arranged at the suggestion of Kislyak.

12/15/16: Kushner, Bannon, Flynn meet UAE Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed. MBZ came unannounced and Susan Rice spied on that meeting and unmasked the US participants. Meeting held at Trump Tower.

• 12/22/16 - Kushner tells Flynn to lobby Kislyak to veto or delay UN Security Council Resolution on Israel.
• 12/29/16 - Kislyak calls Flynn re: sanctions issued by Obama on Russia on 12/28. Flynn conferences with several Trump transition team members before giving Kislyak advice.
• 12/30/16 - Trump praises Putin for a restrained response (the same counsel that Flynn gave to Kislyak).
• 1/6/17 - Comey briefs Trump. Tells him about report on RU interference in US elections. Talks pee pee tape.
• 1/10/17 - Buzzfeed publishes the Steele Dossier.
• 1/11/17 – Erik Prince travels to Seychelles to meet with UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed and later with Russian head of direct investment fund (sovereign wealth fund), Kirill Dmietrev.
• 1/12/17 - Israeli press reports that USIC met Israeli intel officials and warned that Trump is compromised by Putin which may pose a security risk for Israel.
• 1/12/17 - Ignatius piece in WAPO references Flynn-Kislyak discussion(s).
• 1/15/17 - Pence tells CBS sanctions did not come up in the convo, and that he asked Flynn that question.
Priebus says the same thing to NBC.
• 1/17/17 – Anthony Scaramucci speaks at the Davos economic conference. He meets Kirill Dmitriev (same guy Erik Prince met less than a week earlier). I believe the Mooch also made some remarks suggesting that US-Russia relationship/sanctions regime should change.
• 1/24/17 - Flynn is interviewed by the FBI and lies.
• 1/26/17 - Yates tells McGahn that Flynn is compromised, gave some testimony that they know isn’t true. That night, Trump invites Comey to dinner.
• 1/27/17 - Trump demands a loyalty oath from Comey at dinner (my guess is that Trump knew Flynn was in trouble at this dinner, not later as McGahn suggest through CNN).
• 2/9/17 - Investigators confirm that Flynn did discuss sanctions on 12/29 despite Pence’s denials. Pence blames Flynn - ‘just repeated what Flynn told me’. This is the first instance of the ‘Flynn lied to Pence’ canard, but Flynn had been set up for a fall on that a few weeks earlier.
• 2/13/17 - Flynn fired/resigns.
• 2/14/17 - Trump traps Comey alone in the Oval Office and asks Comey to drop the investigation into Flynn.
• 2/16/17 - By this time, Trump and just about every senior Trump official had repeated the canard that Flynn lied to Pence.

There’s something in those thousands of Transition emails that would address most or all of these events.

fiftygigs · December 17, 2017, 11:08am

OT: France will continue to defend net neutrality despite whatever decisions are taken by other countries

The new shining beacon on a hill. Creators of the Statue of Liberty. Vive la France!

dommyluc · December 17, 2017, 11:09am

Just as when you sign up for Facebook, Twitter or any other social media app, you assholes, you had better read the fucking Terms of Service. You had NO expectation of privacy, and you also have NO basis to make the case for Executive Privilege, since your jagoff boss hadn’t even been sworn in yet and Obama was still President. Oh, and it’s funny how these emails are sacrosanct but any email that had anything to do with Hillary Clinton or the Democratic Party had to be released to the world because, if not, it would be the end of democracy in this country as we know it!
These motherfuckers are really gasping for air on this one. There must be some heavy shit in there somewhere.

dommyluc · December 17, 2017, 11:12am

“Fruit of the poisonous tree!” That’s my favorite bit of knowledge from “L & O”. LOL! Oh, and that Fred Thompson was almost as bad an actor as he was a Senator and human being.

johnrm · December 17, 2017, 11:16am

It only gets better…

The sources say that transition officials assumed that Mueller would come calling, and had sifted through the emails and separated the ones they considered privileged. But the sources said that was for naught, since Mueller has the complete cache from the dozen accounts.

They assumed mueller would come to them for the e-mails…but instead he went to GSA…and now we know they tampered with the evidence…

dark_hawk_98 · December 17, 2017, 11:13am

Agree. In my 24 year public service career, I was blessed/cursed to use both federal and state email systems at various times. Nothing that I was willing to testify to in open court was EVER put in an email or said over the phone. Same with my agency cell phone. No personal calls EVER. IF I had to speak to my kids or wife, it was on my personal cell phone, never the governments. I NEVER wanted the government to be able to say that I misused government property for personal gain.

I had a supervisor get frog-marched out of our office for converting government property to personal use. He took over $10K dollars of tools home and never brought them back.

michaelryerson · December 17, 2017, 11:18am

We have to be ready. The motivation for shutting the whole thing down is getting to the irresistible level. Putin is in Don’s ear telling him the end draws nigh.

dommyluc · December 17, 2017, 11:18am

As opposed to the usual clueless, pissed-off, and stupid?

lastroth · December 17, 2017, 11:25am

After reading through the comments so far (130) I of course have several questions:
It has been reported that Trump doesn’t use email, Keith would get the typed note and personally deliver it, so who will claim that what went out under their name and email account wasn’t really them but directed by…?
I wonder how many currently sitting Republicans said something they shouldn’t have in those emails?
Did we ever figure out what was going on with that super secret server in Trump Tower?

And finally when will we get the Republicans’ version of “Who will rid me (us) of this meddlesome priest?”

kendyzdad · December 17, 2017, 11:26am

Here’s hoping she’s with the DoJ,

egyptsteve · December 17, 2017, 11:27am

There’s that old legal cliche: When the law is against you, argue the facts. When the facts are against you, argue the law. When the law and the facts are both against you, pound the table. That’s what’s going on here.

jacksonhts · December 17, 2017, 12:26pm

I am much more vindictive and hold on to a grudge much longer than my Anglo brethren. I am focused after the perp walk…

jootjoint · December 17, 2017, 3:28pm

The title to the story would better serve TPM readers, if it read, “The Trump Transition Team LIES on Mueller Improperly Obtaining Trump’s Emails!”

For it would be a good lead up to the story at hand. It is clear Trump and his LOSERS are playing politics with this Russiagate investigation that Mueller and his team are conducting today!

reggid · December 17, 2017, 11:32am

Um, “the dead guy told us he’d give us a head’s up if he could” is not really rock-solid, as legal arguments go.

Amateur hour from the Team Trump clown show, as usual.

daveminnj · December 17, 2017, 11:32am

He grunted well.

nemo · December 17, 2017, 11:33am

This investigation was always going to turn on emails.

One thing worth bearing in mind is that the emails in question are, it seems, transition emails. The big question, as far as Trump-Russia is concerned, is the status of the campaign emails, because it was during the campaign that the core treason would have happened. If the rule of law applied in a normal way to Trump, or if this was Clinton being investigated, Mueller would immediately have had not only the transition emails but the campaign emails. It really is extraordinary how different standards apply to Republicans and Democrats in this country. That is something that Democrats have to aggressively tackle once they’re back in power: the continued cultural acceptance that Republican criminality and lawlessness is somehow redeemed by the inherent legitimacy of the white right.