2 thoughts:
1. The cover-up is always worse than the underlying crime.
2. Where is "Woodstein" when we need them?
3
Good work on putting this whole sordid affair in an easy to read timeline. It's really hard to believe, however, that Trump is still President of the United States of America, given all this. It's already ten times worse than the Clinton/Nixon scandals combined. Such a bunch of deplorables running the Government!
21
“The free press...is to serve the governed, not the governors”.
-Justice Black, on the Pentagon Papers.
The Who’s Who reads like a cast. Spielberg, Jeff Skoll, Clooney and respected social activists...this is a movie to make in 2018, much like The Post or Spotlight.
Use real transcripts and recordings. Have Politifact check it. Release it Mid October 2018. Spielberg can work this fast .
Last night as Maddow laid this out, Fox “News” covered it as false. 40 percent of America won’t believe this story from before the election, unless it is on TV from a source they trust.
8
You forget the law firm, Jones-Day, is also representing Trump.
2
Trump has done nothing to stop the cyberattacks. This is collusion, in plain sight. Includes much of the GOP in Congress. For all the talk on wingnut radio and cable news, it's the GOP that is becoming a real and credible threat to the nation.
14
What a spectacle at just how fast the so-called “successful businessman” in the oval office is proving terribly unfit for the job, and how spineless and feckless a group of cowards McConnell, Ryan and the rest of the GOP are in refusing to come to terms with this reality. It’s a shameful national embarrassment now on full display for all the world to see.
18
It is the decline of the American Empire. It happened to Rome. Now, it's our turn.
5
This is excellent. Thank you.
8
Trump plays to his base yet again. No one with a rational mind believes anything that comes out of his mouth. I do have hope that the Special Counsel was able to examine Trump's tax returns if for nothing else than adding another charge a la Al Capone. Tax evasion!
7
It is a bitter irony that in the Vietnam war we had on one hand Mueller commanding a platoon of Company H, 2nd Battalion (“The Magnificent Bastards”), 4th Marines and its mission “to close with and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver, or repel the enemy’s assault by fire and close combat”. He was awarded the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.On the other hand trump at the same time was immersing himself in the Manhattan party scene and cynically boasting that “fighting venereal disease was his Vietnam” A disgusting war coward, he evaded sacrifice not once but five times in the Vietnam war ... a draft dodger par excellence while over 50,000 americans died as he carried on his self-serving hedonistic life style with absolutely no regrets or second thoughts.
22
Wow! You nailed it!
1
June 9, 2016
Natalia Veselnitskaya meets with Donald Trump Jr. and top campaign officials.
In November, she wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee, "I operate independently of any governmental bodies. I have no relationship with Mr. Chaika (the Russian prosecutor general) other than my professional functions as a lawyer."
In April, Vesilnitskaya said:
" I am a lawyer and I am an informant. I am a source for top Kremlin official Yuri Chaika."
And, what about that call Trump Jr. made to a blocked number before and after the Trump Tower meeting.
There's plenty of there there
8
This is an excellent recap of the honest work accomplished by Mueller, et. al. Gowdy 0; Mueller 19. Facts. trump and the GOP calling for an end to the investigation is absurd.
The GOP lead investigation on the Benghazi matter taxpayers $6.7M across 2+ years and yielded nothing other than to force Clinton to return to Washington for endless hours of committee testimony, which she did. (BTW: No investigation was brought before the public into our four officers who lost their lives on a remote African desert-someplace where they should not have been in the first place.)
To suggest that Mueller should be done in under a year is simply GOP sour grape game playing. Especially since Mueller has brought 19 indictments in the first year.
19
Mueller investigation just hit the one-year mark. He already has 19 indictments including 5 guilty pleas from high ranking officials.
Let's contextualize this:
Benghazi investigation: 28 months/$22 million--zero convictions.
Hillary Clinton email probe: 18 months/$30 million (est) - zero convictions.
Kenneth Starr/Bill Clinton investigation: 36 months/$30 million--zero convictions.
And to further contextualize:
Sept 11 investigation: 19 months.
Watergate investigation: 16 months
JFK Assasination investigation: 9 months
4
The president, who is beneath criticism, is above the law: he cannot be indicted, says DOJ.
Republicans and Democrats (former during Nixon, latter during Clinton) to concoct that nonsense.
Investigate, indict, prosecute.
No one, even a fake president, is above the law.
13
Despite the NYT's hysterical attempts to keep this "investigation" in the news, after over a year we still have no one associated with the Trump campaign accused of actually colluding with the Russians. That is the only fact worth mentioning.
3
These events are vast, complex, and difficult to comprehend in their entirety.
Hopefully Mueller will conclude that his best chance may be to focus on one or a few discrete events that are easy to explain and straightforward to prosecute.
Al Capone ran a far-flung criminal empire but was finally jailed on simple tax evasion. There's a lesson there.
4
We're watching Donald Trump attempt to destroy Robert Mueller, Ron Rosenstein, the F.B.I., the Department of Justice, the courts, the media and more in service of surviving his criminality. What in the world is Trump guilty of that the destruction of our democracy and it's institutions is his response to this investigation, rather than offering his full cooperation - which is what we expect of our president. And it's what we expect of an innocent man. What we didn't expect - and are horrified by each day - is for Trump to attempt to destroy our democracy in service of remaining in office. Nothing yet speaks to the likely truth about Trump more than his assault on our democracy and our institutions. It's impossible for us to believe an innocent person would behave this way. And any man who is willing to destroy our democracy for his own selfish ends seems more than capable of betraying his country with a foreign power.
22
Let me make this simple for everyone who is too busy to read the whole article. The key theme is that Russia interfered with our election by enabling an unfit, unethical and immoral candidate to upset the far better candidate using misinformation, computer trolls and outright lies. This happened the moment Trump came down the escalator and was birthed years before when the Trump organization laundered money for these same Russians. The characters are anyone in Trump's inner and outer circles including relatives and officers of the court. It's easy to see if you're not a partisan and, if you are, would be easy to see if it were Hillary. Thank you for your time, class dismissed.
8
That Vladimir Putin was trying to hurt Hillary Clinton is pretty clear. Putin was furious with Clinton’s attempts to interfere with his election on 2012 and then call his victory illegitimate. Putin started his interference long before Trump was a serious contender. Thus it is not surprising that when late in the game Trump beat his rivals for the nomination Putin tried to boost Trump. That The Wild West players in Trump’s campaign looked to all sources to find dirt on Clinton should not be a surprise. Clinton’s people were doing the same thing. Bottom line: there’s a big difference between finding the Russians wanted to help defeat Clinton and did bad things to that end, and concluding that Trump colluded with Russia to rig our 2016 election.
1
Thank you, NYT for this summary that makes clear why the Mueller special investigation is necessary and should be protected until its conclusion and report. It also makes clear why this is not about one Donald J. Trump or any other individual but about how some fortunes and careers are made and how money and political power in the hands of individuals who are not patriotic Americans are wielded. None of the characters in this drama love America. They all love money. They are all looking to make a "deal" to enrich themselves. They have no concept of sacrifice for the greater good or of public service. They see the sublime democratic government our forefathers founded and generations since have died to protect not as a sacred trust but as a trust fund to use for their own benefit. It is really too mild to call it "corruption." It is treasonous to the ideals of the United States of America and the aspirations, faith, sacrifice and hard work of billions of patriotic Americans, past and present. We all, with the help of Robert Mueller and his colleagues, must root out these traitors to America's ideals and make sure that none like them ever come to power in our government again.
16
It doesn't looks like anything substantial has been found on the matter of direct colusion ? indictment for 13 russians doesn't make any sense because it is difficult to imagine how those persons interacts with trump campaign Also it is outside of US jurisdiction and could only work for Russian scare propaganda. "Intelligence" community provided even less evidence then in the case of Iraq war - no one bother today to show up in UN council WMD container . It is indeed remind Watergate when "intelligence" community interfere into candidates campaign on behalf of the incumbent power and today they use smokescreen of the Russian scare to cover the bluff.
3
The opening of the investigation in to four campaign aides is very troubling. We are being told now it preceded the event that supposedly triggered it: a drunken conversation by one aide. It seems that Brennan is not being straight when he says the Steele Dossier was not critical to the opening of fisa warrants on the aides. It is troubling to see how easy it was to place a mole and start wiretapping aides to the opposition's party campaign for president. It was basically triggered by hearsay. This needs more explaining, to say the least.
1
nice try. there's a ridiculous amount of evidence even without steele dossier. it actually started with roger stone.
6
It seems funny that Trump thinks that there is no collusion or obstruction.
Since he thinks he's above the law I can understand why he thinks that way.
I'm sure that the Russia investigation will bring out facts that Donald will deny but it does show us that we need to hold our elected officials accountable for their national and international involvements.
5
Today Guliani is using the one year(ish) anniversary of the start of the Mueller investigation to call for it's end, as if one year is some sort of magical milestone that demands closure. Sorry Rudy, there is no statute of limitations on this very serious and complex investigation. Trump claims he doesn't like this dark storm cloud hanging over his presidency but what really bothers him is the realization that after 50+ years of walking an ethical and legal tightrope, that he is about fall off - and there is no safety net to save him.
3
Most of us don’t have a clue what Mueller knows about Trump and the Russians. We go about our daily lives hoping that he will do his job honestly and in the country’s best interests. Republican politicians do not have the country’s best interests at heart. They are committed to conservatism and keeping their jobs. They seem not to care about Russian involvement in our elections.
7
Very thorough article. Thank you to all of those who contributed to the publishing of this article. As a young reader, the detail in this article made it easier to understand what has occurred throughout this drawn out process. The breakdown of each person involved, their position and role, was also extremely helpful. I highly recommend this article.
13
Thank you, New York Times and Mikayla Bouchard for this excellent summary of what is happening. Some days it gets overwhelming. Hard to believe it's only been 1 1/2 years since this nightmare started. It can't end soon enough for the vast majority of Americans - by putting The Con Don and his Robber Baron brethren in prison for their treasonous attempts to destroy OUR United States of America governments at all levels.
Please, Good People, forward this article to everyone you know. Even hard-core, brainwashed Con Don supporters are starting to get it. Let's help them along.
22
It sure seems like the current administration was intertwined with the Russians since before the 2016 election. The person at the top either new about the Russian involvement or should have known about it. The POTUS and the GOP led congress has inexplicably not done much if anything to address the threats by PUTIN and the Russians. It’s a mess that hopefully can be resolved.
11