Please can you guys get on with it? Finish a serious, forensic investigation (with teeth) to uncover the illegal use of dark money in manipulating political and voter opinion.
Here in UK we seem to be listlessly looking at the most overt electoral fraud and criminality - in particular the role of Russia and Russian money in the Brexit referendum and the notable (but presently unexplained) involvement of Robert Mercer and Steve Bannon in same.
The apathy and lack of haste - and indeed obstruction - surrounding official and police investigations into these matters seems to be coming from the highest levels of the British Establishment.
A major breakthrough in the US investigation would likely result in a similar breakthrough over here.
9
Man, the corruption is limitless in this administration.
10
Am I the only one that noticed how Robert Mercer has dropped out of all Trump and republicans problems?
The Saudis, UAE, Russians and GOP money men that gave nothing to the felonious 45 flooded the inaugural cash cow.
6
Trump the crook thought of everything crooked to get into office. He is illigitimate and needs to be kicked out . He will never be my President. I want a President who is not sleazy and has morals like President Obama. Eight years and you never heard about all this daily corruption we hear today. Very sad group the GOP.
9
We have laws against foreign campaign contributions and hush money campaign deals to prevent unethical candidates from defrauding voters or selling out to foreign interests. Trump broke those laws repeatedly. Ever since, he has been taking the advice of Manafort (who has a long history of selling out to some of the most vile strongmen on the planet) to lie and discredit federal investigators exploring the details of this illegitimate presidency. If you are looking for an enemy of the state, look no farther than the conman in the White House.
14
Anti Trumpests have known since before the election that Donald Trump is a liar, fraud, grifter, tax cheat, money launderer and misogynist. None of this is new. None of this is a surprise.
How Trump loyalists can stick with their guy while he sticks it to 99% of us is always going to be a mystery.
I cannot wait until this tragedy ends and I hope it takes the NRA and GOP with it
24
Another day, another set of felonies.
14
It seems all the Trump improprieties surrounding his election should call for a re-vote.
7
The GOP should be depicted as a flock of ostrich with their heads buried not in sand but in their bank accounts. They must also pay a price for not doing the jobs they were hired to do. If you acted as they in your jobs would you not be held accountable? What a weak, pitiful group!
11
Is there any aspect of this administration that is not crooked?
12
Be patient, it took a long time to take down crime bosses like Capone. First the underlings had to be caught and allowed to sing.
10
How many of our government's decisions have been dictated or illegally influenced by these illegal contributions. Who received the money and what will the consequence be to them and their organizations? If nothing else people have to concede Mr. Trump has not surrounded himself with the best and that is hurting us.
8
We’re hearing all these pious concerns for the rule of law which is supposedly being undermined by Trump. I’m reminded of the Republicans prattling the same thing about Bill Clinton twenty years ago. Somehow the nation survived.
I don’t seem to recall where Bill Clinton took money from Saudis and then turned his back on the way they chopped up a Post reporter or blew up kids, or had most all his senior staff pleading out or being convicted of felonies that had to do with money laundering and pandering to Vlad the Outin, do you?
19
Leaving aside Trump's "politics" (which is hard because they're so disgusting and so irresponsible) the one thing that has always characterized Trump and all his family "businesses" is that they've all been based on corrupt and illegal practices.
From NYC real estate dealings (and what, 6 bankruptcies to evade debts?) to Atlantic City casinos (another bankruptcy, leaving the city in shambles) to shady beauty pageants, to stiffing contractors and small vendors repeatedly, to shady international deals based on loot from the likes of Russian gangsters, the Saudis, and various other international money-laundering lowlifes, to employing the likes of Micheal Cohen and Paul Manafort--self-confessed criminals--Trump's method and nature is always to con and gyp people and flaunt the laws, like paying taxes.
A well-documented life of of criminality and corrupt, illegal actions
8
Uh huh.
And while you're at it, could ya just expand the investigation to the Clintons and all the foreign donations to their foundation WHILE she was Sec.of State.
It'd be a service to the country as well.
2
@Second Chances The Clintons aren't president. Your guy is. Considering they've been investigated since the 90s and there's so many people testifying against Trump, I'm sure you'd agree that turnabout is fair play. Patriotic even.
12
Sure, go nuts. I’m so sick of the Lock Her Up that I want you to get er done. Write the Acting Attorney General, or ask for another Congressional hearing.
2
Wow.. Is the GOP still going to back this crooked President? If so, they really have no love for their country.
11
why is anyone surprised? this is how organized crime has worked for decades.
12
Tomorrow there will be a tweet claiming that these are totally legal personal financial transactions.
8
Trump voters support him unconditionally. These investigations will be viewed as a witch hunt instigated by the deep state and fanned by the lying news media for the purpose of undoing an election.
The justice department will not indict a sitting president, the constitutional basis for such an indictment being ambiguous and the supreme court having been packed in favor of presidential prerogative.
The Republican Senate will not vote to convict a president who is popular with the Republican base and who has delivered on his promise to deregulate industry, cut taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals, and lay the groundwork to gut Social Security, Medicare, welfare and education.
All these investigations, indictments and convictions of former Trump cronies and associates are a mere side show. The power of the current president is and will remain unperturbed in any way.
18
@Robert M How does that work? Trump voters support him 'unconditionally'? Trump's policies to deregulate industry/cut taxes on corporations/rich, gut so-called entitlement programs are what the Republican Senate believe in and demand? What could be the solution to that 'problem'? How can policies that are shown to be detrimental to the nation be corrected? Maybe people can be encouraged to change their minds?
6
And yet, we already saw the power of Trump lessened beginning January with a Democratic House of Representatives.
His base is still with him but his base is a decided minority, so they got swamped by the mobilization of everyone else.
It may be time to stop caring about converting Trump’s base and time to get the majority out to vote. Stop letting the minority be the be all and end all of politics. But all the reports are from a small town diner interviewing old white Trump voters over coffee and noting they are still with him despite it all. How about interviewing the voters in the kitchen, if not in the urban or suburban areas and discovering the first time voters?
17
not if they go after Social Security and or Medicare
14
Come out with your hands up trump. We got the dirt on ya, and we're gonna prosecute you to the utmost!
10
Trump is the biggest loser . We all agree. Now what ? All possibilities are in the air but nothing concrete ever happens . Is this how the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper ?
From climate change to Trump the worst are full of passionate intensity, the best lack all conviction .
2
To use a frequent NYT comment....."It is said"., etc. etc. etc.
Please tell me who says these things. I can publish false news this way too !
2
Further investigation is needed of the money siphoned out of Russia by several big donors. These "donors", using their American citizenship, raised and collected large sums of money in Russia from some Russian individuals who wished to gain Trump's ear for various reasons, primarily to get help with entry visas that have been previously refused by the State Department due to sanctions, and for many other reasons. They were promised a "green light to Trump's body", or access to Jarvanka by these Americans known for their specific connections in Russia to business and government. These “donors” might have collected more money in Russia than their official “donations” including their own remuneration as the facilitators, overhead spending related to funneling funds to their offshore accounts, money laundering expenses, etc.
2
"Federal prosecutors are examining whether foreigners illegally funneled donations ... in hopes of buying influence over American policy." Excuse me for being puzzled about why this language implies that it is only illegal for foreigners to buy influence over American policy. In my humble opinion, money, whether foreign or domestic, for influence over policy equals bribery. Am I wrong?
6
I sure seems to me that and political contributions/donations over $10,000 should not be allowed to be hired by or participate in US Government business. djm
1
While there is some satisfaction in seeing all the corruption of trump world exposed, nothing will warm the cockles of my heart like seeing him escorted out of the White House in handcuffs and placed in the back of a patrol car!
8
It is absolutely disgraceful that our President surfed into the White House atop money from Dictatorships and Oligarchs. Democrats and possibly Republicans both need to work on breaking down PACs, super PACs, and all who run should disclose who's donating to them.
3
Hurry up Mueller, I can't wait for Trump's perp walk. And while you're at it how about nailing Inoufe from Okalahoma, Walker from Wisconsin, and the countless other Republicans who seem intent on destroying our democracy and driving the US to environmental and moral destruction. Are there any Republicans who will step forward and condemn their Party and their President for their immoral and destructive actions?
5
Trump's campaign ran on MAGA. America's greatness will be directly related to the length of 45's prison sentence.
3
Trump; GOP and enablers all need to be investigated and sent to trial. Years in jail may wake them up. Now; white collar criminals get away with mega crimes while poor people go to jail for stealing food money. Change the laws; lock up the mega criminals like Trump. Ray Sipe
4
Whoever walks into the Oval Office carries with them whatever is on their feet. The Japanese understood that centuries ago which is why they leave their shoes outside.
2
rima regas once posted a significant sentence djt
said in an interview during his campaign for potus.
[and i try to paraphrase here]:
"... i am a greedy person. and that's what i'll do,
once i win, i'm going to grab and grab and grab."
then, he took ... office.
tax evasion/avoidance, money laundering, campaign financing,
will someone ever be willing and able to close all the loopholes?
4
"The super PAC, Rebuilding America Now, was formed in the summer of 2016 when Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign was short of cash and out of favor with many major Republican donors. While Mr. Trump insisted that he could finance his own campaign, he refused to dig too deeply into his own pockets."
Another one of Trump's major lies -- that he would fund his own campaign out of his own pocket. He made a huge deal out of that, and I recall reading interviews with Trump supporters who claimed that that was why they were supporting him: because he wouldn't be beholden to big donors. His backdoor, behind-the-scenes maneuvering to get other people to pay for his campaign is like kicking every single person who supported him for his supposed financial independence directly in the gut. He is as beholden to big donors as any other candidate - except that his donors are also foreigners with whom the Trump Organization also does (or wants to do) business. He betrays his own supporters daily. Are the scales ever going to fall from their eyes, or are they under a permanent enchantment?
78
@Allison I remember that also, and Individual-1's hypocrisy is so beyond the pale it's stunning. In fact he is ore beholden to big donors because they are involved secretly and illegally.
7
What the Russians (read: Putin) know is how unbelievably fouled up the American system of electoral politics is. Call him sinister, call him evil, call him a snake—whatever—the absolute fact is that our system of electing our leaders is indeed riddled with corruption, crime and self-dealing of all kinds. Voter suppression, gerrymandering, unbridled use of money, bribery, cynicism...all of it is slowly infecting democratic self-government like a syphilis.
The rest of the world's evil leaders, most certainly including Mr. Putin, are simply exploiting the opportunities to achieve their own ends as they relate to the United States.
And even in the face of all the evidence we've seen to date, and the evidence yet to be seen (and forthcoming), this one party ruled Congress—the only control on an out of control chief executive—sits on its hands, day after day after day, actively trying to cover up its won sins and the sins of its leaders.
We're witnessing either the downfall of our democracy or with luck, a return to the roots of our national existence. We cannot continue down this path. Oremus!
36
Total Muslim ban. Except for their money. That we should accept. Just secretly.
10
@R.
The problem with that is almost all of their money goes toward purchasing military arms.
Think again.
Trumpsky Dumpsky talked a big wall.
He hoped that his pals would all take the fall.
But all Mueller's horses
And all Mueller's men
Found evidence to put them in the Pen.
One by one they eventually turned.
Though Trumpsky kept tweeting
All his bridges were burned.
GRUSTNYY!
10
Forgive the extreme simplicity, but Trump is the walking personification (and protagonist) of, “Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas”!
In the end the ultimate outcome will come down to whether any handful of Senate Republicans will go along with the impeachment passed in the House, which by itself may pass only along party lines. Yesterday or the day before I heard a reporter ask Orin Hatch, essentially, what he thought about the criminal charges against #45. Hatch said, "These are Democrats doing this." The reporter said, no it was Mueller and other federal and state prosecutors. Hatch said, "I don't care. He's doing a good job as president." I can't shake it out of my mind. An influential Republican Senator literally said he didn't care about any of #45's criminal activities, even if they got him the presidency during the campaign, as long as #45 does what he— and the people who fund Hatch and the GOP— wants. We will be lucky, indeed, if any GOP senators will stand up for America and justice over their party and their donors. They hold the outcome in their hands. Remember, the GOP Senators only folded on Nixon when it came out that there were tapes providing incontrovertible proof of Nixon's crimes. Mueller, the Southern District of New York, the New York Attorney General, and the House Committees may have unbelievably strong evidence, and the Senate GOP may still say, "I don't care." If this eventuates in this fashion, I fear for this country, because the rule of law will essentially have been suspended.
61
You’re right nobody cares, and all this Democratic noise is finally ending.
Orin Hatch and his ilk deserve a dishonorable discharge and revocation of their government perks and pensions. Too bad it can't happen.
11
Such comments from Hatch make me wonder if the money trail from foreign countries leads back to him and his Republican colleagues...
14
Irrespective of the corruption, or alleged corruption at the highest levels in the office, it is indeed a proud moment to see the ordinary career professionals trying their best to uphold the rule of law. I’ve seen firsthand in other countries how corruption permeates like cancer. Once the Justice and the law enforcement are corrupted, we are no different than many other corrupt banana countries on the planet. Hope we won’t be there anytime soon.
It bothers me to see some senators debunking the campaign finance laws as if these laws are trivial and don’t apply to them. These law makers created the laws specifically to minimize political corruption; and now they are crying foul when these are being implemented. Instead of supporting Trump, the should let the justice take its own course.
I’m still, still hopeful that there are sliver of republican patriots in congress with a consciousness to do the right thing. Hope they understand that wearing pins and stripes or standing up to the anthem or other symbolisms don’t necessarily make us patriots. I wonder what McCain would do now if he were still here!
6
Trump has never met a law he couldn't break, a sleazy connection he wouldn't make, illegal contributions he wouldn't take, or an inconvenient truth he wouldn't call Fake.
When he said he'd drain the swamp, he meant retain the swamp, and train the swamp to be personally loyal to him.
That Trump and his gang have done such things is no longer a surprise, hardly news to any of us. But thanks to the investigators for continuing to reveal these improprieties, and thanks to the NYT and other legitimate media, for continuing to report on all that's found.
7
"“Tom has never talked with any foreign individual or entity for the purposes of raising money for or obtaining donations related to either the campaign, the inauguration or any such political activity,” said Owen Blicksilver, a spokesman for Mr. Barrack."
These words seem to be carefully parsed to protect Tom Barrack. Maybe he "never talked" to any foreigners but "communicated" with them through intermediaries.
Also, considering the record amount of funds raised for Trump's inauguration and the fact that he had amateurs and high school marching bands as entertainment, what happened to all that money?
6
Just imagine the legal costs to the American taxpayer for all this...and for years to come!
The smart leaders of most nations realized that Trump was corrupt and easy target to cash in one. MSB targeted Jared with his financial difficulties a prime target to capture and it worked . Hundreds of millions$ went to Trump before he was elected and Jared wanted to tap into for now or for when Trump is out of office. The family and cronies of Trump are cashing in as fast as they can and foreign governments are in line too at the Trump Hotel in D.C. and Mar-A-Lago placing their bets at the Trump casino style administration now crumbling under exposure of rampant corruption.
2
Its time to look into all the tentacles of this illegal presidency, from congressmen and congresswomen who strongly supported his actions to recent elections in north carolina and florida to funneling of monies to other entities that dropped lawsuits against Trump University to governors and legislators strongly tied to the RNC money laundering schemes to raking the public coffers dry, to federal agency heads and those approved with Russian connections to inside the Dept of Justice. The RNC was a willing player and so has been Rep Nunes, Gatez and Ryan and Mitch McConnell, Rubio, Grassley and now Scott (another take the 5th on Medicare Fraud, now Senator). All are guilty of being compromised by money and connections to the NRA and Mercers. Wonder why no gun legislation, look no further than their own investments and ownership of properties directly or indirectly tied to yours truly.
Time to get real. The FLIM FLAM man lives in the White House and his henchmen have been doing his dirty work.
3
Dec.13, 2018 Pg. A1, Trump Photo:
What's with Trump's "Black Power" Salute? He has shown only disdain for Black people. How did He get to the point of imitating them?
2
As the facts come out on the news, Trump continues his "La la la la la! comments and tweets to say he has done nothing wrong because as he said "Only I and I alone" blah blah blah. Buh bye Donnie!
1
Are the prosecutors looking into possible Democratic Party financial crimes? As a progressive Democrat often disgusted with my own party, I have no reason to think that the Democratic Party and PACs are completely innocent of taking foreign money. Democrats, especially under the Clintons but also under Obama, lusted after Wall Street cash, gleefully indulged in lobbyists' money, became lobbyists themselves, and in general slavishly imitate Republicans in selling themselves, and the public, for riches.
I'm waiting for more than impeachment. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop on Democrats.
3
I thought your justice system required reasonable cause to investigate crimes? If they have no reason to believe dems of committing a crime then they wouldn’t be investigated would they? Sounds like you are simply having a game of whataboutism at yet another team of prosecutors have reason to believe the Trump campaign/ company/ charity/ White House may have committed another crime. These investigations are really starting to pile up aren’t they?
5
@William LeGro you will be waiting a long time. Don't you think that with a Republican President, House and Senate they would have investigated if there was evidence of wrongdoing?
5
@William LeGro - Why do people think that claiming to be a Democrat gives credence to this type of drivel?
3
Regardless of whether or not campaign contributions are legal or illegal, what we know is that whoever can afford to place a large volume of ads has great probability of reaching people and convincing them to vote.
The Trump campaign played on fear and emotion and stirred deep feelings of hate and racism. Just like the supporters of Adolph Hitler who brought him to power in the 1930s, the Trump campaign was filled with angry, vicious rhetoric that blamed America's most vulnerable for crime and economic inequality.
Immigration was vilified by Trump. He portrayed minorities as being criminals, rapists and murderers. He suggested to blacks that they had lost everything due to liberal political elites and immigrants who were taking their jobs.
Money buys everything including elections. In the past election money made fear a useful weapon and Trump capitalized on that.
The lesson learned is that we must reduce the ability of large donors to wield influence in the most corrupt way. That includes businesses. Foreign governments and individuals must never be allowed to contribute even a penny and must be kept from influencing American politics at all levels.
If foreign influence and illegal contributions are found then there must be consequences for everyone involved.
Mr. Trump smiled and enjoyed "Lock her up". Maybe the next version of that call will not be so welcome. Hold Mr. Trump accountable. Fully accountable.
2
The Sopranos take the White House.
3
Does anyone think it strange that the NRA brought Oliver North on board?
4
Please let me know when the same level of scrutiny is applied to the Clinton Foundation.
1
@Jim it was investigated and no issues were found. Also the Clinton Foundation was given the highest rating possible for administration, accountability and overall effectiveness. Compare that with the Trump foundation's rating and behaviors.
4
Probably when they have reasonable cause to believe she committed a crime. Isn’t that the way your system works? On evidence and all that?
4
Utterly disgraceful. It will turn out this guy sold our foreign policy to enrich himself. Auctioned off favors to these brutal medieval kingdoms, for his own selfish greed. Unbelievable.
I agree with previous commenter, before we can restore a semblance of intelligence to our government we will need campaign finance reform. We need to know where the money is coming from. Democrats and those few Republicans who haven't sold their souls should work to reform campaign finance, health care, and taxation, and rebuild our crumbling infrastructure. Restore order to this country, balance the distribution of wealth, save the middle class, win in 2020.
64
I remember a donation of half a million from Venezuela, almost sure it was from a PDVSA account.
Can we just say that Trump is the worst president in the history of US presidents? His term so far has been a disaster with so much corruption, graft, incompetence and ineptitude that you almost feel sorry for him then you start adding up everything else; the hush money to the porn star and Playboy Bunny, the misspelled and incoherent tweets, the schoolboy insults and uncivil behaviour, the shameless nepotism and proud ignorance and you just want to go to sleep and only wake up when he's out of the White House. The endless enquiries and investigations seem to be leading to his downfall but when he's found guilty I will only feel relief as well as a quiet joy that I will never have to hear about him, read about him or (hopefully) see him on TV again.
12
We are witnessing the lug nuts losening on the Bus. These people make Nixon look like a small potatoes. The old Term "Follow the Money" So True!
8
It will be the biggest Ponzi scheme ever!
3
The smocking gun? More like machine gun fire!
2
Too bad republicans will still be able to vote after this sham of a presidency finally comes to its much-deserved end...
4
Amazing how much scrutiny of the Trump campaign is being undertaken when nothing is being done about the Clintons and their dealings with foreigners and "pay for play" history.
1
@MCH
Geez...you're doing too much of something!
3
@MCH yes, good deflection. They were investigated and no criminal issues were found.
3
@MCH When we are finished rectifying the problems that our government presently faces maybe-if it is deemed relevant or important to the national good-we can investigate all possible/potential problems with any/all former administrations.
2
And the endless wheel keeps turning, just when many thought it had slowed down. Middle East, Russia and now Ukraine. Endless.
It stated with collusion and when that came up empty they went on to coordination which morphed to conspiracy. Nothing tbere but...
The old stand-by and easy lying. We need some indictements. Got van der Zawaan, Gates then the big one - Flynn. But now judge Sullivan has requested FBI 302s for Flynn's interview. Apparently McCabe set up interview and told the general he didn't need an attorney. Strzok did interview and testimony indicated Flynn DIDN'T lie. But 302 used in sentencing was dated 8 months after the interview. The judge is wondering why? Are there two? Has the first one been edited? Sullivan has dealt with tampering before. He wants to see 302s by 2PM today!
Uch Ow...maybe we did something and might get caught!
Comey when asked by MSNBC Wallace why he sent Strzok to White House to query Flynn he replied "because I thought I could get away with it" It was Trump's first week and they had no policies of controls. " SHOCKING!
Back to lying. Add Manafort, Cohen and now Corci. From lying Mueller tried campaign finance violations. Two women with NDA's and Cohen. But legal experts (McCarthy, Dershowitz and Tuley) opine that this charge has "lots of holes."
So this AM here comes donations to inaugeral committee from Middle East, Russian and Ukrainian illegal donations.
The wheel keeps turning.
Unbelieveable!
@Frank Leibold
Let me correct the history here. Reflecting, the Republican congress started the wheels as a patriotic fervor with relentless Benghazi investigations, that spun the wheels into Clinton’s private email server saga, which raced to calling Russians’ for help from hacking to quislings for election dirt to finally the stupidity of Trump firing Comey that morphed into current so called “Witch Hunts”. It is the haunt for this congress, for Trump and his base – a making of their own misbegotten plan that became “The Throne” for this administration. Finally, we are seeing the wheels churning results in an unexpected way to your liking! At the end of the day, whether we believe in Karama or not, what goes around comes around – like a wheel!
2
@NMT
Well that must have been painful for you.
HRC was responsible for lack of Benghazi security.
Rice for spreading the lie.
HTC email story is not over. The FBI is investigating along with Foundation. Horowitz and Huber will have more to say on this. Eventually, her hubris will do her in.
By the way, Peggy Noonan purchased as ticks for the Hill & Hillary Your in Toronto for $171. She said the day of the event ticket prices were in single digits. So much for relevance.
If you saw Comey before Congress and yesterday with Nicole Wallace he did all of us a favor. pretty sad. Trey Gowdy, who even you might like or certainly respect, said he wasn't disappointed with what Comey couldn't remember. Rather what surprised him was how much he just didn't know.
nice white power fist....
how's the plan for returning manufacturing jobs to your voters working out?
9
These super pacs, donors, and opportunists support trump only because he's an idiot and will likely facilitate their greedy ulterior motives. They don't care about America.
The "growing scope of criminal inquiries" says it all about the trump admin. Washington is now drowning in swamp gas and mud.
2
So much for the 2016 election. Is there anybody out there making sure this president is not re-elected?
3
So when are investigators going to require Hillary Clinton to explain how approximately $145 million ended up in the coffers of the Clinton Foundation, courtesy of Russia?
1
Move along. Nothing to see here. Excuses to follow from the executive and thief.
1
So-called President's 'power' fist is just slightly creepy, isn't it?
7
Another day, another investigation into trump's illegal actions......
#SAD
1
You mean a prosecutor is looking into the foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation? I thought I would never see the day.
1
@Shamrock
Debunked conspiracy theory.
5
It’s amazing with all the people Trump proclaims to know, he says he doesn’t know most of people who worked on his campaign. No one is surprised how many are involved in illegal activities. This resembles The Never Ending Story. It connects to his methods of business. Just get me out of the mess I got myself into. And his family takes right after him. This time this man is not going to get away with his dirty deeds. And some from his own party may be brought down with him.
5
Gotta love the word parsing. “Never stalked to any foreign individual or entity.” Did say “any individual”, and talking is only one form of communicating. Leave a ton of room for email, US intermediaries, texting, etc to find criminal conduct.
3
We took the very worst among us, this shameless, self absorbed man who has been a cheat and a grifting fraudster, evidently since he was a child, and we place him in the highest office in the land, a position from which he now has unbridled power and an full immunity to the laws that govern the rest of us, and now he cheats, steals and abuses this apparently unlimited power. So what did we think would happen?
8
And meanwhile, Trump has claimed that immigrants crossing our southern border are "illegal" - even the little girl who recently died because no one bothered to give her any food or water after throwing her into a detention cell.
4
Her father is to blame.
2
So Donnie's best pal is named Barrack? How ironic.
We have a trend line that so far has held true:
Anybody associated with Trump is a cheat and a liar.
Why would we put any credence to Best Bud Barrack's denials?
Mueller and the Federal Prosecutors are going to need extensive mental counselling once they are finally done with this den of thieves and serial liars.
How can one distinguish truth from lies? If a Donnie Pal says it, assume it to be untrue.
2
Anyone who did their homework before the election already knew who Trump was. His character and business dealings have been on display for decades. His use of corrupt lawyers began when gangster attorney Roy Cohn became his mentor many years ago. Making lawsuits go away by buying off people he had wronged was an everyday occurrence. (For details, I highly recommend reading "The Making of Donald Trump" by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnston, who has been following Trump's career since the 80s.)
My point is that Trump's modus operandi has always been thus: know what the law is, decide how to break it with the advice of gangster attorneys, cover it up, and lie about it. He knows no other way to doing business. The difference between then and now is that oversight is a bit more stringent than when Trump ran his Trump University scam, or needed to get the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement off his back.
Donald, you're not in Trump Tower anymore. This is the U.S. government you're messing with.
7
This line of inquiry is starting to sound, look, and walk like a duck. Especially if foreign players are then found with pockets bulging with receipts from the Old Post Office hotel and brief cases stuffed with unusual government contracts. And/or private deals --- like possibly money laundering real estate transactions which are said to have involved Russian oligarchs.
Unrelated. Thinking about the problems in President Grant's administration, economists are saying his era's economy, even with all the scandals tied to him, was more successful/strong than today's. Contrary to Trump's recent boast.
3
It’s hard to think of something worse for our national security than foreign governments burying influence over our president. And the fact that it’s done through our corrupt campaign finance system is even more appalling. Although we have had multinational corporations doing this for years...particularly after Citizens United. This is a nightmare scenario because the same corrupt system that supports the GOP’s lock on the Senate, and its nefarious attempts to undermine free and fair elections, is also being used by foreign governments to buy influence over policy, so what’s the incentive for, or likelihood of, our Senate Majority Leader and Party to call Trump to account in this. And of course this is something Trump would do...the reality, when it is revealed, will be worse than any of us had imagined. Impeachment or removals by the quickest means possible should be the path forward.
6
How about the same vigilance for American corporation and multinationals that "contribute" to campaigns? End Citizen United and the farce of "money" = "speech". Campaign Finance reform now! It should be government for the people, and not for the donor class.
5
Saudi Arabia- it keeps coming back to this country. The Bush family has had serious and very involved relationships with the Saudi royal family. 9/11 hijackers- well known that most were from the Kingdom. First country visited by Trump after his inauguration?! They gave him a medal! At the recent international emergency conference on global warming in Poland, Trump, Russia, and the kingdom came out for more fossil fuel use instead of curbs on emissions.
3
@J.Waddell: As Ronald Reagan once said to Jimmy Carter, "There you go again...." with the Clinton's. Maybe if Hillary had won the election, the Republicans in their zeal to try nailing her on something, anything would have been even more relentless then they were with Benghazi; and we know how that went.
Meanwhile, as long as you brought it up, were charges brought against her? Was she indicted? Was she tried? Convicted? Sentenced?
Now, when a request was made for additional funding for security, what did the Republicans do? ....Right; they denied the request. Now, we'll never know if that would have made a difference.
It's funny though; the same Trey Gowdy, who headed the Benghazi investigations, also said about Trump,"If he's innocent, why does he act like he's guilty?"
Simple; Trump is not only guilty, he won the Presidency, and not Hillary Clinton.
4
Qatar and Tom Barack have worked closely on many business deals. Qatar also owns a full floor of Trump Tower. Qatar also purchased the 19 billion dollar share of Rosneft, which the Steele dossier said was Trump's payoff. Makes you wonder...
5
The level of criminality and corruption isn't what's most shocking, it's how poorly it was all executed. It wasn't just one or two players, the WHOLE operation ran with a stunning lack of intelligence or sophistication. As Malcom X so adroitly stated, "the chickens have come home to roost."
1
I can only hope that Justice Alito reads this article. What chance is there that the poisonous influence of money on our society, our courts and our government could possibly enlighten either the Republican philosophy or the Federalist Society? We have been corrupted.
4
Perhaps we will now find out what happened to the 28M paid to Melania's friend? Where did it really end up? I find it hard to believe that the person herself earned 28M for organizing the Inauguration.
6
So many strings to pull (on Trump's crime syndicate), so little time (before he makes a truly catastrophic decision). It's reckless to keep him in office.
12
It's starting to appear that those who've been saying "Not my President" in regard to Individual #1 may be uttering a literal, not just a philosophical, truth! We didn't elect him; we didn't even pay for his coronation.....back in the days of "Sputnik," when we knew the Russians were our enemies, who could possibly imagine that they would someday choose our president for us!?!?!?!? What a world, what a world!
5
The most important charge against Trump will be for failure to register as a foreign agent.
13
I can’t for the life of me understand why this is illegal or even morally wrong.
Woman makes an accusation. Accuser pays her to keep quiet. What’s wrong with that? No one forced either into agreement.
The underlying act (cheating) is wrong if true. But this seems to be a simple transaction with an intermediary.
It’s the fact that they did not disclose and actively tried to hide the transaction that’s bad, it’s an issue that could have changed voter perception had it been known.
11
The article is about potential foreign influence on the presidential election. Do you have legal or moral concerns with that, or is that ok too?
10
This article: about Trump’s being investigated for illegal foreign contributions to his inauguration.
Your complaint: left out that it is illegal to make contributions to a campaign over a set limit, to not report them, to construct a set of shell companies to conceal what you’re doing, and to lie to the Feds.
6
"Federal law prohibits foreign contributions to federal campaigns, political action committees and inaugural funds."
In medicine decisions have to be made in real time, often with all the facts not available.
Most sane Americans watched a mentally ill patient during a presidential campaign, then a transition led by the Vice, and eventually the painful inauguration. The majority of Americans were terrified of the open corruption playing out before us.
Why does the Department of Justice and the DOJ Inspector Generals and the Attorney Generals need years to process what most sane observers pick up on within seconds?
8
@Steven of the Rockies
As was observed by much of the world, I suspect.
4
The Democrats are like Miss Havisham. They think life ended with the last election, and they can’t over it.
1
Ed, you are correct, for some reason I cannot get over the fact that foreign powers tipped the outcome of our election. Maybe it’s patriotism or something.
12
Except that is the republicans controlled DOJ bring this all to light....you keep whistling that tune though
8
Ed, you should be wary of labeling the majority of Americans, a group that is on the whole patriotic and that certainly includes many thoughtful people who are concerned about the threat posed by Trump to our national security.
3
Imagine that: No Russian names in an article regarding Trump.
Easier to list who in Trump orbit is not under investigation. Most corrupt administration ever. Ray Sipe
8
“It ain’t over til it’s over”
When dark untrackable money is allowed into presidential campaigns, it can potentially result in Trump. And it did. Justice Kennedy should live with the stigma of passing 'citizens united' emblazoned across his face until his dying day. He is a disgrace to the nation.
7
People have to know that the reason trump backs Saudi Arabia, Israel, UAE, Russia is all the money funneled into his businesses, campaign, & 2020 campaign under covert, fraudulent entities. He really thought if he became president he could anything he wanted because he would be in control of everything. He has gotten fooled this time. Running a country with laws is not like running a company where you are the god-king.
He thought he was safe by not revealing his tax returns. Wrong!!
Like de Niro said on SNL to eric trump..."the worse thing that ever happened to your father was becoming president."
10
Trump is a con man and successful being that. His friends has to be successful con men as well. As the saying goes ‘Birds of a feather flock together’. All men and women associated with Trump should expect calls from federal and state prosecutors.
5
Start counting the weeks to Trump’s de-throning. His demise is as inevitable as the daily sunrise.
5
Read about this tangled web of the many ways to influence- peddle in our elections--PACs, illegal foreign contributions through American "straw" contributors, inaugural committees accepting money and influence, etc., and all I can think is what a fine mess the big donors, corporations, special interests, politicians, and GOP Supreme Court Injustices have gotten this country into.
So with all these perfectly legal ways the rich and powerful have come up with (with the aid of their pricey legal teams) to buy their politicians to do their bidding through our so-called campaign finance laws, we have really just asked for trouble and invited corruption.
So let's make it simple and start by having publicly funded elections--no Citizens United, no PACs, etc. Every candidate gets X amount of public money to run an election.
Let's find out how real democratic countries handle their elections. Of course, the politicians and media will object if we cut off all this "dirty money" they rely on, so it won't be easy to get back to democracy again. But just think, maybe if they did not have so much $$ to spend at election time, we the forgotten people would not have to suffer through all those idiotic political commercials.
Also, I have a question: Who is ultimately held responsible for campaign corruption and the violation of campaign finance laws--would it be Trump, the candidate and recipient? Or does that proverbial buck of responsibility for violations stay with his staff?
9
@PB You've gotta be kidding!
1
I only wish there had been equal scrutiny of the Clintons. Clinton's campaign received illegal contributions from Chinese nationals but not much came of that. All the focus on Clinton's emails was on whether classified information was involved when the real issue was the setting up of a private email server to evade FOIA requirements and to ensure that no telecommunications company or any other entity but herself had access to those emails. At a minimum she was clearly guilty of a misdemeanor just for setting up the server.
Her actions with respect to those emails - provide only paper copies with meta data deleted, erase many emails that were later found to be relevant, and destroy all devices that might have communications stored on them - is about as clear an example of obstruction of justice as I can imagine.
The same with Benghazi. All the focus was on her responsibility for security when the real issue was her - and the rest of the Obama administration's - claim that the the attack was the result of an anti-Muslim video when they knew from the beginning it was a terrorist act. If the truth had come out earlier Obama might have lost the 2012 election.
I only hope that when federal prosecutors are finished with Trump they go back and further investigate Clinton for similar offenses.
@J. Waddell
From USA Today, December 2016: The final report of the Select Committee on Benghazi released its findings in June of 2016. It was added to the official House record on Dec. 7, 2016 by Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., the panel’s chairman.
The panel spent spent more than $7.8 million over two and a half years, and disbanded at the end of the 114th Congress, before a new Congress began in January 2017.
------
So you want this re-opened, because you're mad that Obama won re-election?
6
They should also investigate George Washington. Try to bring yourself into the present for the love of God.
5
Ahhh the two wrongs make a right argument
My 5 year old does the same
;-)
5
Well, you have to admit—trump’s consistent. This has pretty much been his act since what, 1972?
6
Individuals despise the truth when it doesn't fit their narrative or harms what they believe in. Let's go back 8 years, if this was Obama believe that every conservative, progressive, far-rightist, evangelical, etc. would be calling for his head. I'm not saying what Trump did is right but anyone with common sense is not going to openly admit they committing something illegal. He knows the truth so therefore he is not going to come out and say it. Deny, Deny, Deny, Deflect, and Spin. Only low-minded people would believe Trump didn't commit these crimes.
4
Also, what's with the clenched fist greeting in the photo? He does that a lot. Who greets the public with a clenched fist? I hope he doesn't start wearing a sword or something. If he comes out in a gladiator costume, head held high, and the rally attendees scream with delight at his powerful visage, can we legally and quietly put him away somewhere?
4
At the end of the day, none of this really matters. The midterms ripped the mask off of the GOP and exposed it for what is- party of rural whites desperately afraid of a changing America and the rising minority population.
As long as Trump continues to advocate for Evangelical White Supremacy and demonize people of color , his party will turn a blind eye to his corruption.
The problem isn’t Trump. The problem is the racist party that supports him and an antiquated political system that gives a disproportionate share of power to the rural states.
9
How may Trump Investigations can fit on the head of a pin? Countless?
2
Trump spends the majority of his time inventing storylines to make himself look innocent and a pawn of unsavory characters bent on doing him harm. Some of these yarns of fiction rival those of our great fiction novelists!
3
@Peter Quinn
It’s not that the anti Trump league is trying to throw anything against the wall to see what sticks. Trump makes Nixon look like an amateur.
That’s how crooked he is.
9
The level of graft, hypocrisy, lying and outright treachery would be breathtaking at any other normal time in a normal country under a normal administration.The salvation for President Trump seems to lie in the sheer massiveness of malfeasance committed in his name and apparently by the figure himself.
Under our syndrome of national outrage fatigue, we seem numbed simply by the incalculable scale of wrong-doing.
3
Who knew Trump calling himself a Great Dealmaker meant every clown in the car with him would plead guilty in deals for less time in prison?
6
Remind me again, when does the winning start?
3
A proper job of digging in to foreign contributions would also uncover foreign contributions from other nations, and to other candidates and PACs.
Get them all.
5
Especially the screaming ‘ America First””
Crowd
4
Does anyone really believe large donations are not meant to influence elections? The laws are so complicated that you need the NYT to explain it and top lawyers interpret them differently. But only the career politicians will be astute enough to hire and listen to lawyers to navigate the legal system to keep out of trouble and have a preset plan to defend themselves. That is difference between Trump his predecessors. I don't see enough there to qualify Trump as any more corrupt than say-Clinton. Certainly not enough to remove him from his Presidency.
1
@Qcell -- "Does anyone really believe large donations are not meant to influence elections?"
Not just elections, but the actions of those elected.
The credulous or disingenuous US Supreme Court wrote exactly that denial in Citizens United -- that it is not corruption and does not even give the appearance of corruption.
Does anyone actually believe that?
10
Clinton Wealth from 2001-2015: $250,000,000
Bill and Hillary Clinton, who left the White House in debt, earned more than $250 million over the next 15 years
Obama Wealth after leaving office: $50,000,000
Obama will receive an annual pension of over $200,000, after vetoing a bill passed by Congress in 2016 that would have capped each former president’s pension to that threshold. He raked in $400,000–the equivalent to his annual presidential salary–for a 90-minute interview Thursday in midtown Manhattan, where he spoke with a presidential historian on things like income inequality and civic engagement. He’s set to earn another $400,000 for a 60-minute speech during a conference hosted by the investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald.
4
And as private citizens all what’s it if your business?
7
...none of which is illegal.
9
@Kurt VanderKoi The problem is not that former government officials can/do make money from speaking (to people who want to hear them) or writing (from people who want to read their books). And it is not a problem that retired officials receive pensions and protective services. It is a problem when corporations or foreign countries pay candidates/officials for actions/policies to benefit them rather than US citizens.
7
The question isn't how/from whom/why the Trump Inauguration fund raised twice the amount of the Obama Inauguration fund, but why our system allows for such blatant, anti-democractic donating in the first place. The candidates are already elected: the only obvious purpose for donating money at that juncture is to buy favor and access.
8
While these investigations move forward, besides the damage Trump is doing to the country that we can see from public view (reshaping the federal judiciary, deregulating banks/corporations, rolling back civil rights protections) what is he doing/saying behind closed doors to further undermine our democracy? Specifically, what is he telling Putin during their one on one meetings? We could very well have a Russian asset pretending to be President right now, and no one with the power to do so (cough cough congress) is stopping him from potentially sharing US secrets critical to our national security with our adversaries. It’s completely mind boggling and terrifying all at the same time.
6
Wouldn’t be surprised if Trump thinks campaign funds belong to him and that it is normal for Presidents to make money from the pay to play game.
5
@DSS -- You may be shocked to discover that any leftover campaign funds DO belong to the candidate, after he makes his last run for office.
Also, most of our recent presidents have made a LOT of money from having been in office. Most of it was collected afterward, but Hillary gathered hers while in office, calling in charity to her Foundation or payments to Bill not her.
2
I don’t know why your comment reminds me of this fact but Trump recently stated that he thought the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff earned $5,000,000 a year! The president earns $400,000 and yet he thinks the CJCS earns more than ten times that. Just evidence of how little Trump understands or knows about the federal government he is in charge of.
5
They do don’t they?
Sling with laundered russian cash
2
SCOTUS is responsible for throwing out campaign finance transparency and allowing dark money (not easily traced) to flood American politics. The Citizens United vs FEC decision created Super-PACs, unlimited money and no oversight of the sources of that money. What could possibly go wrong? The Trump campaign is the shining outcome of this decision.
12
I’m sure that the corporate Supreme Court would be fine with this.
4
Go find someone that thinks Richard Nixon was not a crook. I'm sure at this juncture in Nixon's Presidency he had much support. The tide is going to turn and drown Trump just like it did with Nixon. Future generations of political-science students will be comparing and contrasting the two in essays ad infinitum.
Not to worry about the Senate impeachment numbers issue. Politician's main motivation is the retention of power, when these republicans realize that the people are done with Trump, they too will be done with him simply to retain power.
It's almost formulaic.
8
I would certainly hope that after Trump's guilt is confirmed--a.s.a.p. and if he is still in office, he gets the book thrown at him. Also, how much more must we know before he is lawfully impelled to disclose his tax returns? It goes beyond common sense to wonder why (especially considering his lame excuses) he conceals things that are disclosed on a routine basis by people seeking and within public office. But I'll still trust Mueller and crew to know best in the long run.
4
@akhenaten2: I suspect strongly that the Special Counsel's Office has legitimate and legal access to Trump's tax returns. I could be wrong, but in the end we will find out if they do have the returns. And then perhaps we will get them too. Although I sincerely doubt that either you or I would want to go through the 10's of thousands of pages that comprise his returns and those of his many corporations. I would rather see a professional summary.
One positive note of all the twitter's tweets. Seems to me they all provide a glorious record of obstruction. That's what lies are.
Here we go again.
Still another case of going after a man you don't like by fishing for some law he might have broken. Doesn't matter if the law is something that can be conveniently molded into any necessary shape to indict just about anyone.
As Stalin's henchman Beria said, "You show me the man, I'll show you the crime."
You people must be real proud of yourselves.
There's a concept called democracy. You should read about it.
1
@frankly0 -- I especially love the way they use things that so many of the accusers are guilty of doing themselves, meaning the people they support.
We seem to have reached a sad point in American history when “We hold these truths to be self-evident...” will come to represent the discovery of inequity rather that the declaration of equity.
1
It is truly frightening to see how vulnerable the country is, when an obvious criminal enterprise is able to take control, and how quickly our “representatives” will abandon their sworn duty and betray the country to make a quick buck.
Money truly is speech, and that is a very bad thing.
3
$26 million paid to an event planner whose prior experience was planning a wedding and is a friend of the family. Follow that money, please. Perhaps with her windfall she bought some real estate ...such as Trump condos.
6
As a side note to all the "distractions" this president has brought before us since his election, one has to wonder how unfortunate this nation is to see him win the election. Putting aside his rights or wrongs, the thousands of hours that have been spend not performing his constitutional duties is insulting to the American people. The are the ones who are the losers. All the major issues needed to be corrected have not even been put on this list. He has achieved no legislative accomplishments. Don't think for one moment financially enriching himself, his cronies, and businesses count as an accomplishment, which to be honest spreads over to the GOP party in Congress as well. A sad part of our American history for sure, but we have short memories so that is something to count on.
This can't be a crime because it was rich people doing it to help another rich person. In our Republican dominated legal system, being rich is a get out of jail card.
4
Trump’s clenched fist in the cover photo, same as Pence’s in their meeting with Pelosi and Schumer, is less a rally cry for republicans than a desperate plea for mercy from a wounded figurehead. Trump has never even liked republicans. They’re just there to serve him.
3
Forget 45. His time in court for his crimes during his campaign and presidency is assured.
Perhaps more importantly, at some point soon we must hold Congress fully accountable. Of course they must be called into question for how they (mostly Republicans) have enabled this mad charade. But to a man/woman, they must be charged with failing this nation at this time in a most critical way: their utter failure to create and maintain consensus.
Consensus is common ground. Common ground is the beginning of a shared path.
203
50 years since the My Lai massacre. A Gallup poll at the time reported that 79% of Americans opposed the conviction of William Calley for helping to slaughter over 500 civilians, including over 50 children and infants.
That's when I knew this country was a reeking pigsty and things have only gotten worse. Getting rid of Trump will accomplish nothing. The American people are still here and they are at the core of our troubles.
5
These days whenever I get to the point in the story when the accused denies ever knowing, saying or doing what he is accused of I usually skip over that paragraph. Is that wrong of me?
2
Dumb question but doesn’t the article describe exactly the type of activities the Emoluments clause anticipated?
4
Trump has always surrounded himself with people just like him. Corrupt to the core. Everything they do or say is a lie or is illegal. But they persist and they would like to remove all impediments to their corruption. We may see him doing away with the justice system altogether, or just refashioning it to prosecute immigrants and minorities while looking the other way on his (and his cronies) criminal activity.
46
Is it really written into law that a president cannot be indicted for crimes? What if a brazen, unethical president decided to start a war in order to take the pressure off? Wouldn't that simply be too late to replace him [her]? Why not look at the consequences of NOT charging that person.? It is mind boggling that this most important issue is not crystal clear! But it is crystal clear that this particular person occupying the white house should be evicted.
53
It's not law, only policy. I'm not sure if it's official or only based precedent. While I understand the intent, in practice it's ridiculous. Unfortunately I think Pence, if he's not taken down as well, would issue a pardon as his first presidential act.
3
Wonderful random juxtaposition. As I scroll down through this article, my screen shows multiple copies of an ad for the posh watch brand Audemars Pichet. The text: "TO BREAK THE RULES, YOU MUST FIRST MASTER THEM."
22
Nice to know that the sense of irony is not completely lost in America. Thanks for noting.
3
@kb: good advice for musicians and poets; for politicians, not so much.
1
Here in the land of the free and the home of the brave we've become just another society built on greed.
It's good old American high octane capitalism at it's finest.
We're at the point where absolutely everything is for sale, including the future of the planet.
Want an education? You gotta pay to play.
Want justice? How much can you afford?
Want to be president?
38
@ArtMurphy
We can thank Reagan, Gingrich and Fox News for this. Not greet, per se, of course. That's always been with us. But for its death as a vice and rebirth as a virtue, as well as for the elevation of this "virtue" above all others.
2
I guess now that Mueller's "Russian Collusion" investigation has crashed and burned without implicating Trump himself, the Anti-Trumpers are now going to throw whatever they can at the wall and see what sticks. But don't worry boys and girls - only six years left of Trump's Presidency... :)
6
@Peter Quinn let's check back in a few months and see how this turns out. Too early to tell yet. It seems Trump has a lot to be concerned about. A lot of people who are supporting Trump won't change their minds, but that number of people is shrinking. Doubtful he would be re-elected if he makes it to 2020.
10
@Peter QuinnOh, I think you are being optimistic in your loyalty to a man who has no scruples. Have patience.
3
@Peter Quinn Your remark about Mueller's Russian collusion investigation is simply wishful thinking. More likely, it is the Trump presidency that will crash and burn.
5
How many serious crimes have either been proven or are on their way to be proven? No matter. Let's play the, 'What will they say?' game.
trump:
Witch Hunt!
Deep state!
Build the Wall. Terrorists! Terrorists... and Zombies. Zombies are coming up from the south!
What about the Clintons?! Lock her up!
Obama's birth certificate...where is it?
Pelosi:
These are serious crimes. No; impeachment is not a good idea at this time. It'll just be too divisive. We need unity. Medicare! Medicare!
Ocasio-Cortez - just get out and vote in 2020!
Hatch:
I don't care. It's not a big deal. The Economy! The Economy is the best it has ever been. We're doing great.
Editorial Boards of the WaPo and NYT:
trump is horrible. Bad. Criminal. Never before seen. But it's not the time for impeachment. Criminal charges won't stand. Get out and vote in 2020!
And on and on goes the merry-go-round of American democracy.
5
Every time one turns over a stone, there is a snake underneath.
20
Snakes don’t commit crimes.
Opening lids of unflushed toilets is a more appropriate analogy
Is it me, or is it getting hot in here?
13
A farce from the start--Comey-Mueller mutant twins playing the same side of the snipe hunt--"Russian Collusion is coming! Russian Collusion is coming!" Ooops, two years and millions spent--nada.
So now they've moved on to "illegal" campaign donations. Deep-swamp still pining away for Hillary or RNC-DNC Politburos want things as they were--institutional corruption replete?
5
You are not wrong, but I would not characterize it as nada. First the indictments have been getting more and more seriously and more and more directly related to Trump (Papadopoulos to Cohen, for example). And the big second: similar to how nobody can claim that trump has definitely committed crimes yet, nobody can claim that this investigation is a waste. The investigation has not ended. This fact is what keeps both sides in perennial frenzy mode. We are so used to leaks and bombastic claims aka reality TV, that a professionally done, secret investigation is driving everybody nuts.
2
@Alice's Restaurant
Not moved on. Added on. See the difference?
2
@Alice's Restaurant it appears you missed some indictments and convictions. Are you suggesting that illegal acts discovered are off limits? Not according to the memo authorizing the investigation.
1
Trump is only doing what all the rich do, hide there money where we can't see it and if some of that money falls into the hands of some Russians, Saudis and others he'll say that he never knew about it.
What we really need is a whistle blower in the IRS.
21
I want the punishment for a government official taking bribes to be hanging by the neck in public until dead.
8
If memory serves, the ancient Roman punishment was to sew them in a sack with a snake, a cat and a hawk, and fling them into the Tiber.
I’m agin it; after all, they just got the Potomac cleaned up pretty good.
2
Not only did Saudi Arabia, Isreal and the United Arab Emirates donate illegal donations but they directly influenced Trump actions, as journalist Adam Entous reported in this informative New Yorker piece.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/06/18/donald-trumps-new-world-order
I hope to see justice done and this criminal, illigitmate administration - not just Trump -- removed from office.
36
What we know for a fact: foreigners illegally funneled donated millions to the Clinton foundation and to Bill in a pay for play deal...where is the press on that issue....completely hypocritical. the Trump hating press will continue its one sided trek against the President until the people quit reading them.
7
@Tony J Mann
Exactly along the lines of the comment I was thinking of writing. I'm all for the free press exposing corruption and all, yet it is plain to see like the nose in front of you the absolute one-sided approach they have taken since President Trump took office. It seems the press took an 8 year nap and only woke up after the last election.
@Tony J Mann - The books on the Clinton Foundation are open for viewing. If you can spot something illegal feel free to share it with us.
4
@Tony J Mann Last time I checked, Trump was president.
3
I’m considering the people who will never stop supporting Trump, whose reasons for this support include:
1. That he “stands up for them” by aggressively and convincingly stating their shared beliefs
2. That he speaks directly to them
3. He projects confidence and success
4. He’s affable and funny to them
In other words, they permanently support him not for what he accomplishes. They support him because they like him.
This is the real plot twist about the Trump candidacy and presidency that we probably all recognize deep down...
The real villains are the supporters. It was always the supporters. The supporters who would rather destroy the world than say they’re wrong. The supporters who frankly don’t care if he ultimately ruins America, or themselves, or their families. and Why? Because they just like him.
That’s a very strange kind of evil. And there’s no special counsel or election that will make it go away.
56
@Sauron Its not just the base; its those who sway them with propaganda and disinformation, with hate and lies. They are vulnerable to these attacks from Fox, Alex Jones, Rush, etc.
5
@Sauron
Um, that is how the game is played. You support your guy and the endeavors they are trying to accomplish. The same was done for the last president as well. The difference is that the media acted as if he could do no wrong and walked on water.
The interesting difference is how it is portrayed that the other side is a "Villian" to be vanquished. All Americans have a stake in this. To hear the rhetoric about letting the Red States die and to not have the supposed empathy the Left is allegedly known for is scary. Stories all day long about people from other countries and their plights yet a downplaying of the consequences if we continue to import more people here.
@Sauron: That's only part of the problem. Too often we assume that Trump supporters are innocent patsies themselves. But I am starting to wonder if perhaps a significant portion of them might be involved in illegal dealings of various kinds themselves and admire him for being such a successful crook. After all, there is a criminal element in this country, and not all of them have had their voting privileges stripped from them - or have even been caught commiting their crimes. Think about white collar crime and how infrequently it is dealt with, in comparison to other crimes, and then ask yourself if Individual 1 may actually be the first crooked president elected by people who believe that crime does pay. Some of the commenters here are so willing to dismiss Individual 1's crimes as "trivial," that one begins to wonder exactly what they would consider a significant crime, and what milieu they inhabit, where bribery and payoffs are "trivial" behavior.
3
Trump lied from the moment he was elected-his inauguration was in the sunshine and witnessed by the biggest crowds ever-not! He promised to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution-not! His inauguration would be grand-not! The festivities would be paid for by American citizens-not!The Russians saw an opening to "capture" this presidency and they poured lots of time and money into it.We are jut now unraveling this plot.
18
Bottom line, lie to get what you want. Cheating people into giving you money is brilliance.
The 2016 election fraud is a direct result of Citizens United. Unaccountable dark money, foreign contributions and campaign finance fraud. In 2010 the John Roberts court majority stated that money would not corrupt elections. Money is free speech, corporations are people decisions are coming back to haunt American democracy in a big way.
43
"While Mr. Trump insisted that he could finance his own campaign, he refused to dig too deeply into his own pockets."
Probably because his pockets aren't that deep. My belief, based on what I've read over the past two years, is that Trump is not only broke, but leveraged up to his eyeballs to various international entities. Of course, we'd know that if he had released his taxes prior to the election.
The corruption and influence peddling of this administration is as brazen and blatant as humanly possible. Everything they do is a racket of some kind. Some sleazy angle to play in order to funnel as much money from as many different sources into their pockets. While most Americans struggle to find a steady, good paying job these crooks are enacting a fire sale of our country, and giving away government positions as a pay to play prize.
Everyone, please also note the overwhelming silence of the Republican party in light of these revelations. President Obama couldn't tie his shoes without Republicans screaming their heads off. Now this. Utter silence, utter devotion to Trump, utter abrogation of their elected duties. Graft and corruption- it's what the Republican party stands for.
54
Trump's least favorite Christmas song lyric: "Later on, we'll conspire, as we dream, by the fire..."
14
“investigators found a tape recording”. They may well have found a recording but if it was made in 2016 I’ll bet it wasn’t on a tape.
2
I don't know. These guys are so technologically clueless that it could well be an actual tape. Possibly even an 8-track.
2
Don't you just love the smell of "presidential" fear in the morning? It smells like victory! I always prefer a small complete even roast, don't you? Seared through and through and completely done, Democracy delicious!
14
It doesn't seem that this particular action is directly related to Trump or his campaign as colluding. Yet.
The criminal act seems to have originated with the donors. Now, there are a lot more details to be seen, so all of the "see ... no proof ..." people better be careful.
And it certainly seems to reflect a belief that Trump's team is open for sale.
3
A thorough examination of the trump organizations books is likely to reveal that he built condos and casinos with laundered money - so this is not a surprise. And its why revealing his tax returns was impossible for him. And he lied about releasing them.
He is Nixon times 10.
As his base crumbles and realizes they have been duped, no amount of fake news will save him.
Resign now, trump.
23
The pattern throughout mirrors Trump’s so-called business model—shady and criminal financial practices, lawyers and money viewed as capable of fixing any problem, and always an eye on fleecing foreign money sources. Works for real estate and banking, not so much for politics.
14
If he were smart (which he is not ) he would cut a deal and resign.
15
He can’t resign. Once a private citizen, jail time is evident.
3
Unbelievable that 40% of this country continues to support this man.
28
Obama was guilty of campaign finance violations, the media yawned at the time. He paid a small fine. You would be forgiven if you missed it, it was barely covered by the MSM.
Obama sold 20% of the US uranium supply to Russia, after Russia donated millions to the Clinton Foundation. The same Russia that Democrats consider to be the enemy and who interfered with the US election. The MSM also yawned.
When Trump allegedly accepts illegal foreign donations, the MSM wakes up and makes as much hay of it as possible. In the end, if the allegation is proven, he should receive a fine as Obama did. Do not hold him to a different standard as Obama or the Clintons.
4
@Philly
Why is the republican congress silent on these issues ? Trump promised that he will investigate the Clintons, and Obama's corruption. Other than empty threats, he didn't act. Please remind him again to keep his promises.
1
@Philly
You need to do a wee bit more research on the 'violations' Obama's campaign paid fines for.
Trump and his campaign's behavior and actions are in a whole different league.
Hopefully you have enough time on your expat hands to make an effort to dig a bit deeper.
4
I read the story on Obama’s campaign screwup and fine in the Times, as well as the ninety-eleven stories on Uranium One that appeared throughout the media in the course of multiple investigations. None of which produced anything incriminating.
And not that you’ll care, but there’s a big fat whale of a diff between failing to file paperwork on time, fessing up, paying the fine, and what your boy Trump’s been up to.
Your boy Trump’s been paying people off illegally, ginning up shell companies to hide it and launder the money, and then lying like crazy about it. If this new investigation pans out, he’s also busted campaign finance laws (again!) and been taking a ton of money from Saudis and others who want stuff from the President.
If you really think that’s okay, I dunno what to tell you. But to me, the nicest thing that can be said is that Trump’s looking an awful lot like a crook.
4
“, investigators found a tape recording “
1
As this onion gets peeled back, I don't think we'll find Trump in the middle of all the wrong-doing. Instead I think Trump has played the role of the unwitting dotard who has created an environment where criminals and greed thrive.
It would have been better for Trump to just come out and say he is too far over his head to comprehend the extent of corruption he has enabled. But his ego is too big. It will be his cover up activities that takes him down.
11
"one of Mr. Trump’s closest friends"
That makes one feel REEEEAL confident about the likelihood of above-board ethics, doesn't it?
7
Proof we have the Manchurian Candidate in the office of President of the United States. Where is Denzel Washington when we really need him?
3
I agree about Denzel, but I’d rather “The Siege.” It’d be fun to see him and Tony Shalhoub bust through the doors of the Oval Office with a whole buncha gals and guys wearing blue windbreakers that say “FBI,” onna back.
Otherwise we’re in “Book of Eli,” territory, and well...
1
What an historical irony. After all that mock anti-Communist furor for decades, it is the Republican Party that has been infiltrated by the Russians. The GOP is the enemy within.
34
@james haynes, These aren't you father's Russians any more; they're your grandfather's robber barons.
so there's this pile of money just sitting there on, like the sidewalk on 34th Street. what, if I walk by, I'm not going to grab some? everybody else is.
here's a question for Michael Cohen: say the driver of one of your cabs drove into a bad neighborhood with a bunch of flowers for his girlfriend. he double parks, leaving the cab running, while he runs upstairs with the flowers. you think the car will still be there when he comes down?
these sharpies want up to believe they just fell off the turnip truck, but nobody's buying that line.
3
When they chanted "Drain the swamp!" they didn't realize it would be drained into Trump's pockets.
6
Who amongst us would be surprised? Through this investigation perhaps we are getting a first hand look how Trump accumulated much f his wealth.
Do we really want a President who could be blackmailed by the likes of Putin?
6
Time for folks to brush up on Shakespeare: Hamlet, MacBeth, and The Lion in Winter. And, while you're at it read about Napoleon and the French Bourbon Kings. You will discover some frightening similarities. This is the Winter of America's discontent. Santa's coming to town with Robert Mueller riding shotgun in the sleigh. All I want for Christmas is.... #thelastact #muellertime
7
The amount of corruption being uncovered before our eyes is outrageous and shocking, even for Trump. At the same time, it the most fascinating situation I've ever witnessed in my lifetime! They so brazenly broke the law, as if it never occurred to any of them that they might get caught. And the legal arguments as to, for example, whether or not Trump can be indicted while president, or if the statute of limitations can successfully be tolled until he's out of office, is intriguing, as well.
Watching these people, who have made fortunes through unethical and even criminal activities, throw each other under the bus... I just have to admit, I find almost cathartic. Not only am I witnessing the possible downfall of the Trump Family Criminal Enterprise, but Trump is apparently ready to take down any person he's ever worked with in order to save himself.
He may, in the end, walk away from all of this without any consequence. It wouldn't be the first time a wealthy person has gotten away scot-free. But at this moment, I have hope that justice will be served.
486
Without the GOP standing behind him at every turn, none of the damage he imposed could have evolved. The Republican Party is to blame for every single bit of this. So stop limiting your outrage to Trump. Look behind the curtain, Dorothy!
103
@Patty O
Yes, and this series of events demonstrates why the entire policy of a president being immune from indictment is pretty harmful. Indictments are more than just accusations; they require a certain amount of evidence to be brought forward to justify them.
The notion that a president would become "distracted" from critical duties seems pretty ridiculous, and perhaps keeping someone away from important duties while under a criminal cloud isn't the worst idea anyway. It would also give the chance for the VP not to be the "most useless job in Washington" by filling in for the president while under investigation.
This presidency is like a disease on our nation; I just hope we have enough white blood cells to withstand it and emerge healthy and functional again, maybe even stronger. His campaign motto may in fact have been prescient, just not for the reason he intended.
23
@Patty O I've said that the most bizarre aspect of this Twilight Zone episode in our history is how Republican-enabled Trump egregious behavior has been demonstrated in full view for so long.
21
It's a bit of a scandal that transparency comes after the alleged crime instead of before it. And that's why Trump and the Republicans want to do away with regulations and oversight. These kinds of transactions (like Laurance Gay and Ken McKay working for free!!! -- nonsense, it's bartering in a dark economy of favors for favors), ought to have drawn attention during, not just after, they were doing their mischief. In civil life, we presume innocence. In politics, the Founders presumed guilt and corruption, which is why they made sure three pairs of eyes were watching themselves. (Four, if you count the Press). The legacy of the Trump era will be the clear need to have more oversight and regulations and a criminal justice system that goes after white collar crime and punishes them so harshly that it acts as a deterrent. Thanks for bringing this too to our attention. Without the Fourth Branch of Government, we would be hopeless.
309
@Max & Max
Blah! Blah! Nonsense!
It takes immense stupidity to believe that Donald Trump's problem was a lack of transparency.
The legacy of the Trump era will be that 63 million Americans including 58% of white people voted for Trump knowing exactly who he was and was not.
It takes galactic ignorance to forget that the Republicans spent eight years trying to make Barack Obama a one term President.
It takes monumental delusional denial to ignore the fact the Trump Ministry of Propaganda aka Fox News and the Wall Street Journal was the only " Fourth Branch of Government" that mattered and matters to Trump Nation.
2
@Max & Max "Without the Fourth Branch of Government, we would be hopeless." Exactly, which is why Trump keeps calling the press the "enemy of the people" by which he means himself, the only one who matters in his universe.
2
While there is little question that Trump, Manafort et al are at best unethical and at worst criminal in their fund raising from foreign sources, that's not the moose on the table.
The moose is the republican obstruction of meaningful campaign finance reform legislation. Such reform begins with transparency. Transparency is even more important than contribution limits, even from foreign sources.
Why? Because foreign sources have a vested interest in American governance and leaders. So all of the, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Israel, all of them are going to find ways to try to sway our elections. The American people must be aware of which American political parties, candidates and elected officials take those contributions. This obviously holds true for domestic contributors as well.
There is another reform legislation that the new Congress must consider.
The new Congress should propose laws that unambiguously state that money does not equal free speech and that corporations are not people. It must force the issue with the Supreme Court and if the Supreme Court rules in favor of money and corporations, then the Congress should propose amendments to the US Constitution of accomplish the goal.
The vast majority of Americans, regardless of party affiliation, want such reforms. The new Congress should take up the responsibility and return our electoral process to an ethical basis.
If only we had leaders instead of politicians.
340
It's also worth remembering that Republicans were eager to embrace dark money Super PACs. In the beginning Dems were warning of the dangers of such practices and only began employing them when the political situation made it a necessity. I'm not saying the Dems are perfect, and I criticize them plenty, but I give them credit for at least trying to do the right thing.
9
@TDurk Wow! You pose a very important "reform legislation" around campaign finance and taking away corporate person-hood which gives a thing free speech and rights to contribute money, etc.)
A corporation was intended to enable individuals to consolidate capital and run an operation, but it was supposed to serve the common good, meet some kind of a public interest, or at least the king's interest. But in the end, a corporation is a legal construction and no different than any other technology. It isn't a person...let's put the genie back in the bottle.
Only a constitutional convention can do this; maybe it is time for the Democrats to organize such a thing and include ballot reforms, and voting rights, electoral district reforms as well.
7
@TDurk
Supreme Court: “No problem. Countries are people, too.”
2
What Trump describes as minor violations of the campaign finance law of civil nature are gradually acquiring serious criminal dimensions due to the national security threats being posed by the illegal transfers of foreign money to his PAC and other committees involved with his election campaign beyond the Russian interference being probed by the special counsel, Robert Mueller.
16
The United States is for sale to any bidder. Want political access, just send money to the PAC. Want oil or gas leases, highest bidder gets the best deal. Want reduced regulations? Call the EPA with your line of credit. Want to make something go away? No problem, just pay cash to AMI. Making America Great Again will not come cheap.
43
This, sadly, appears to be the truth and it is NOT just one party being affected.
2
There can be little doubt in any rational person's mind that Trump's relationship with Saudi Arabia, as with his once-cosy relationship with Putin, is rooted in his desire to profit personally, now and in the future, from the relationship. If ever there was a need for skilled and experienced career diplomats representing our interests in foreign embassies it is in the Middle East today. Yet Trump has still not appointed an ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Relying on the utterly unqualified Kushner as his conduit to Saudi Arabia and to MBS, his (Kushner's) friend but not America's at such a sensitive time in the Middle East strongly indicates his corrupt intent.
Trump should be impeached and removed from office as an urgent matter of national security. The GOP refusal to move in that direction makes them equally responsible for our disastrous foreign policy under Trump
39
"The inquiry focuses on whether people from Middle Eastern nations — including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — used straw donors to disguise their donations to the two funds" For all the hysteria about Russia,it is in fact the Middle Eastern nations, including Saudi Arabia and Israel, which are in the business of influencing American policy.
8
It has reached the point in which one has to wonder if Donald Trump has ever done ANYTHING legal or ethical. Look at his history: defrauding people with his Trump University, colluding with Russians to get elected, obstructing justice by firing the man investigating him, committing multiple adulteries, evading taxes, directing Cohen to commit felonies, pathologically lying, and I could go on and on.
41
the Times imposes a character limit on posts, therfore you could not begin a comprehensive list of Trump's malfeasances here.
but if you would put them in the form of a book, it also would be useful for boosting small children high enough to reach a tabletop.
1
The prosecutors should also focus on Trump’s immediate family. All those secret meetings held by the sons with multiple VIPs must surely add up to something. Political influence isn’t cheap. In the world of Trump, it appears to be downright illegal.
30
@Bill
And on Sheldon Adelson.
10
I agree, but an investigation into the family members will likely shake Trump into perhaps resigning....maybe. Trump would gladly throw anyone else under the bus. Just ask Cohen and Manafort.
Would the same investigations be going on if Hillary Rodham Clinton won the 2016 presidential election? I would hope so, with the focus being on the Clinton Foundation, which was nothing but a slush fund of foreign money contributed to buy access to HRC as Secretary of States and as President had she won. Thank God she didn't. Thank you.
2
@Southern Boy as you are trump supporter, I take this comment to mean that yes, he's a bum and that your faith in him is waning.
Finally some sense comes to the base!
12
@Southern Boy
What happened to you usual tagline, "I support the president. I support Trump."?
Or are you starting to be affected by his stench as well?
10
@Southern Boy
Trump gets a pass on massive criminal behavior and rampant corruption because Clinton wasn’t an angel? I don’t really understand this line of reasoning.
13
If I was a criminal taking money under the table from foreign governments all over the world, and promising to pay them back once elected to the highest office in the land, I think the easiest way to hide the fact that I'm actually working on behalf of my highest bidders... I think I would conveniently hide behind the falsehood "America First!"
10
@Stephen So true, “America Firsters” are traditionally fake patriots on the take from big money interests! And vis a vis Trump, we know those big money interests include foreign countries trying to buy their way into America. This reminds me a lot of the Michael Moore film where he’s in front of the Saudi embassy in Washington, and they call the cops on him! What other country is buying up our country? China?
7
Which candidate in recent years has NOT engaged in this?
Our campaign finance rules and Citizens United have made this very hard to avoid, reporting and identification of contributors is now a huge effort.
1
All of them, Margo. All of them. This is Just Trump.
Does anyone reading this comment doubt that the reason Trump has behaved so deferentially to the Saudi Crown Prince MBS after the Khashoggi murder is because Trump knows how much financial help MBS has funneled to Trump's personal coffers???
22
All enabled by the growing cancer in U.S. democracy, going by the name of Citizens United.
Once Trump is in jail and a habitually-decent Democrat occupies the Oval Office, the first order of business.
33
An American Tragedy
Act One - Vaulting ambition.
Intermission.
Act Two - The epic fall from grace.
(Lights flick on and off). Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats, Act Two is about to begin.
8
In America, a black man is wrestled to the ground and murdered by police for selling loose cigarettes, babies are snatched from their mothers' arms and never returned by K. Nielsen, the air and water are filled with poisons as a courtesy to oil companies. We see Jared Kushner shuffling about the planet collecting cash for trump family pockets, Melania morphing through beauty treatments on our dime, Don jr. slaughtering wild beasts for fun and their friends taking a slice of dough because 'everyone else is doing it'. The profound corruption of this family is their lifestyle. The campaign and inauguration were treated no differently than the daily business of a cartel. Get them out now. Every passing minute gives shelter to his rabid, armed fans whom he encourages to turn on their fellow citizens.
45
All together now: "Lock him up! Lock him up!"
27
The Trump Administration..... The best Administration that Money can buy!
11
The best that foreign and dark money can buy.
I'm afraid that no matter the evidence, many people will say, "Maybe he did this maybe he didn't? What are we to know?" These same people have demonstrated they distrust the government, generally, and distrust the facts presented to them by experts, perhaps because they feel they've been given the short end in life too often. I'm not suggesting we should therefore let things pass. We shouldn't, in fact can't, but as others have noted, this situation presents a problem for everyone - Reps, Dems, the non-affiliated, everyone. Nobody with the power to do so actually wants to impeach a sitting president (nowadays). History has proven that doing so enters unknown territory. Ultimately, this situation is just really sad. Its sad to watch this man (DT), who strode into this situation and continues to flail in it, and sad that he's brought so many Americans into the mud with him.
57
@George: My reaction is much more one of disgust, not sadness.
4
@George
Trump descended into the moral degenerate white supremacist nationalist misogynist xenophobic human waste mud that existed before him and will outlast his reign. Trump is a symptom of white European American anger, bitterness and rage. Trump was not and is not the cause.
3
@Blackmamba: i totally agree.
when i see what happens in europe and
elsewhere around the globe these days.
i also keep wondering: where did we, the democrats,
fail to prevent things from taking this terrible course?
will selfish, heart- & mindless kleptocracy really win?
i.e. "human/equal rights for all" totally unachievable?
bitter truth. hard to believe. harder to swallow.
3
This fund appears to be a slush fund for use for anything anyone wants with little oversight or need for accountability. Better than a Superpac and foreigners welcome. Trump knew that, so did Melania, by allowing her friend to manage $25 million with no little record keeping.
The swamp really came to the WH with Trump. Pay for play and quid pro quo's are daily occurrences. And this is the reason Trump wanted to be POTUS, to enrich himself by abusing the power of the office.
20
I can't tell you how much this picture of 45 with a raised fist galls me to the core. He is such a chicken...he'd be the last one on the front lines with the pitch forks and scythes when the time comes...Dear God, when will this nightmare ever be over...
17
You couldn't make this stuff up.
9
Wow. For a guy who is soooo rich that he was funding his own campaign.... just another lie.
17
More like the “growing scope” of prosecutorial overreach and desperation. But what about the foreign donations to the Clinton foundation? No relation to campaign financing by foreigners there? Then why did the foreign donations dry up after she lost?
1
@Ed
If Clinton makes you mad, why are you not upset by the thousand-fold more corrupt Trump? That’s what I thought.
6
@Ed
You do realize that Hillary lost, and that Trump is now president...don't you?
1
It is past time to invoke the 25th Amendment in the Cabinet and to begin impeachment proceedings in Congress. Given that both are unlikely it is our civic duty to vote him out overwhelmingly in 2020 and send a message that we believe in honest public servants, even (and especially) when that servant is the most powerful person on Earth.
10
It isn't just Donald taking foreign cash under the table. He's merely the poster boy. If allowed to dig deep enough federal prosecutors will find the money connections between various foreign governments and our political leadership. Since Citizens united (thanks Justice Roberts), we've been officially for sale. While buyers are mostly corporations, it seems foreign enemies and allies alike are looking to reap the benefits of owning congressmen, senators and presidents.
20
He says “witch hunt” like it’s a bad thing.
5
Wow, a global conspiracy. Who would have imagined?
4
Remember that time President Obama wore a tan suit?
25
Meanwhile, on Fox News:
"Just move along now folks - nothing to see here . . ."
6
"Goin down!
Down down down down down..."
-Jeff Beck
8
Does this surprise anyone? If ever a candidate could be bought and sold it was Trump—now America’s Corrupter-in-Chief.
The swamp never smelled more putrid than this. I pray you drain it quickly so the rest of the country can get on with being thoughtful, caring Americans—and hopefully save Gotham City before this Joker has his way with us much longer.
7
ATTENTION ALL MAGA-HAT WEARERS!!!
Whom should we lock up now?
16
All his false pride, greed, corruption, corrosive narcissism, racism, self-worship, got him to the White House. It's very likely all he wanted was the adulation and a financial boost to his brand. But it looks like God saw fit to put this immoral fool on the pedestal he coveted, expose and humiliate him to the world for what he is, give him a taste of justice, and slap him down. Couldn't happen to a worse man.
As a bonus, we get to see those "evangelicals" who have made a lifestyle out of judgement and hatred fully bared for the craven, power mad, moral relativists that they are.
17
All paths of corruption lead to Individual-1. Everyone in both investigations on both sides knows it.
Most people executed in this country have been executed with less evidence for their criminal guilt than the public already possesses for Trump's criminal guilt.
22
What on earth is Trump's pose in this picture supposed to mean? -- but if that's the response to his Inaugural Fund and Super PAC investigations, we're in trouble..."BIGLY".
5
Is it starting to feel like (the 12 days of) Christmas?
18
@Bigsister - The 12 days of Christmas actually take place after Christmas. I'm hoping for lots of treats as we end 2018 and begin 2019.
"following up on leads from their case against Michael D. Cohen"
I suspect we may be reading this phrase quite a lot in the coming months.
8
Mr Giuliani should try to negotiate Trump’s office for blanket amnesty so that Trump can resign, retreat to Trump Towers and retire from politics, real estate and electronic messages. He has so messed up the democratic process of government and rule of law that his tenure is too inviolable.
20
@Bruce Egert
And Pence too.
8
Remember that "Watergate" was only a limited physical (rather than cyber) hacking of the Democratic party's files by henchmen of the President and look where Richard Nixon landed. It is amazing how history does repeat itself with only minor variations in the details. Trump never heard the admonishment to beware of foreign entanglements and that will probably be his Watergate (Russia gate) We still don't know what connection Trump's henchmen have to the DNC cyber theft which finally was delivered to WikiLeaks. It is only a matter of time before the Russia investigation reveals the Trump campaign's involvement with the Russian hack and Wikileaks. Trump already foolishly revealed that he knew more than he admits to when he asked Russia to release Hillary Clinton's email. (Amazingly/ironically all those Clinton emails that were on her private server were apparently never breached as opposed to sensitive communiques on the State Department server she was supposed to use.) Now, Mr Trump,Whom should we lock up?
13
@RLW "(Russia gate)"? Did you read the article?
"The inquiry focuses on whether people from Middle Eastern nations — including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — used straw donors to disguise their donations to the two funds."
Russia is not in the Middle East as far as I know.
@RLW So true that history repeats itself, and in such fine detail. The reason being that the flaws of human beings remain with us. Sadly for Trump and his minions and his family members, they appear not to be familiar with Greek and Shakespearean tragedies. Michael Cohen, for all his corruption, seems perhaps to have awakened from his own prideful position. Pride goeth before a fall. Perhaps the evangelicals will remember that themselves, and tell Trump.
3
@Ludwig
Russia conspiring with Saudi Arabia and Israel? Why wouldn’t they? It’s not an “either, or” it’s AND. I know it’s tough for Trump supporters to have contemplate more than one idea at a time...
It is amazing how the same stories of DJT’s dirty deeds have evolved, the terms ethics/unethical are being replaced with crimes/criminal.
Many that surround DJT have been indicted but once his own family begins to realize they are facing prison time - he will cave.
He is weak and gets smaller every day.
All this and DJT still has not even received his first subpoena from the Democratic House yet!
10
As ALWAYS with the cheap piker, FOLLOW THE MONEY!
Millions will probably be found somewhere in HIS accounts. It is indeed possible that he MADE MONEY on the campaign.
A crook is a crook is a crook - always was and always will be.
I hope his Republican donors finally call a spade a spade - if not, go after them too!
10
@RealTRUTH. And look for the money flow NOW. Trump announced his campaign for 2020 immediately after his inauguration. So he could keep making money. In addition to the adulation he gets, it is the reason that he loves political rallies. Money. Money. Money. And there are all those legal bills to think about.
2
The perfect storm of corruption and influence buying both inside the United States and without. That’s the swamp creatures like Trump swims in, he never intended to drain the place because he thrives in it, its his home. Sad
3
It's sure starting to look like Trump turned the Presidency into a mere appendage of the Trump [Crime] Organization. Money-making for la familia has continued in step with Trump's progress through the primaries and the Presidency. And yet somehow the forces of lawfulness have tied their own hands by insisting that a sitting president cannot be indicted. Think for a moment how ludicrous this position is: If Trump came into the White House briefing room and shot Jim Acosta, the Department of Justice would just shrug because they can't indict a sitting President? This DOJ policy is not only wrong, it's extremely dangerously wrong.
24
“While Mr. Trump insisted that he could finance his own campaign, he refused to dig too deeply into his own pockets.”
If nothing else in this story is true, we know that must be true. The skinflint in chief sinks to every occasion.
13
I'm glad to see Qatar in the mix. It was a Qatar based company that rescued Jarad from his dopey 666 6th Ave. purchase. After most of his tenants moved out, he managed to find an investor who took a 99 year lease and paid for it up front.
I guess it's easy to be a "business man" when you have the taxpayers to fund your return favors - and the largest military on the planet to help your buddies.
Lock him up. Lock him up. Lock him up.
10
This is just the latest potential scam from the man who bragged that as a billionaire he could "self-finance" his campaign to independent of outside influence. For this notorious Scrooge, 'tis the season for "Bah, humbug!"
1
So it must be that the NYT and the rest of the MSM have finally waved the white flag on Russia, Russia, Russia. Now it's "conspiratorial" campaign finance and inaugural donations. Oh my! I guess once this batch of stories have been rehashed for a year or so without any real impact on the President, something else will be found to chew on leading up to the 2020 election. If a large part the general public, reflected in the views of most avid NYT readers, do not begin to acknowledge that from Russia to Stormy Daniels we have been witnessing an attempt to criminalize politics then we are inviting real fascism of the left-wing variety. The Kavanaugh hearings were a preview and it is truly sad that so many on the left now believe that the law should in any way possible be utilized as a weapon so long as it is the interest of their political goals and beliefs. The danger in this view should be apparent. That it is ignored for political purposes is one thing. That so many don't even recognize what has been going on is deeply frightening.
2
Check back here when the latest Russiagate news breaks. We’d love to hear your explanation.
8
@Allen I hope you wake up, and soon. Enforcing the law is not using it as a weapon. Not enforcing the law IS certainly the road to authoritarianism and fascism.
1
@Allen We are all so sorry watching a criminal go down is so frightening. Stop watching.
1
And don’t forget the money Russia funneled through the NRA, into a branch that can’t disclose its donors.
12
We are finally getting to the real election influence by foreign entities. And almost all of Washington are doing it. A foreign country or business hires a US citizen as a lobbyist. Then gives that lobbyist money to donate. The money is then used to finance campaigns. Congress is doing nothing to stop this. They like the money.
18
@Jim Since the practice you describe is already illegal it's the FBI and Federal prosecutors whose court the ball is in.
Congress does need to appropriate enough funds. We should, in fact, spend lots more money chasing high level white collar criminals.
There's a corporate apologist who's going around saying the laws are so complicated that the poor CEO's can't possibly avoid breaking the law. Balderdash! They've gotten used to making more money by committing crimes with impunity. Time for them to face the music.
5
Has anyone explained all of this to mitch?
For a sitting GOP president that has been involved in so many crimes that are now publicly being corroborated mitch is awfully quiet.
.... mitch?
Anyone seen mitch?
103
He’s busy searching for his spine.
16
He's busy pushing through as many judges as he possibly can before his majority collapses.
2
Excellent post.
And if William Barr has a grain of common sense and integrity, he would decline the nomination for AG.
Oh and Gorsuch and Kavanaugh must be so proud to have been appointed by a criminal.
And the Republicans will do absolutely nothing.
40
@Sparky: Well, that's not strictly true. The Republicans are very busy excusing him, covering up for him, and playing patsy for him.
4
Is there any doubt whether this collection of grifters could keep their fingers off of tens of millions of dollars? Follow the money.
46
The plot thickens. Like the US House of Cards, Trump may well go the way of its erstwhile lead actor, disgraced, isolated and irrelevant.
33
Was there ever an investigation of the Clinton Foundation Donors ?
This is the theater of the absurd fed by the media. Now it's the New York "Law Enforcement" trying anything to get Trump. Has anyone watched "Billions on HBO"? I'm sure the next season will be over before these investigations.
1
@John - Financial crimes invested by NY courts in the finance-hub of the US; I'm good with that.
4
@John The GOP would be all over the Clinton Foundation if they had the slightest shred of credible (or non credible) suspicion.
You're barking up the wrong tree.
12
@John So you're not actually saying that Trump and his minions haven't committed multiple serious crimes. You're simply alleging, without any evidence, that Hillary must have done worse.
Pathetic.
BTW the Times & The Washington Post did such an investigation and turned up some possible corruption but failed to find any serious evidence of actual corruption. The did damage Mrs. Clinton's campaign since many people assumed there was actual corruption. Assuming.
If we used the same standard to judge Trump...
7
The extent of illegal money finding its way to the Trump Inaugural Fund will be fun to follow, but in preparation for that here's a list of the legal money that Oil&Gas interests alone contributed to candidates in the last election cycle:
1 Cruz, Ted (R-TX) Senate $505,163
2 O'Rourke, Beto (D-TX) House $429,752
3 Barrasso, John A (R-WY) Senate $412,650
4 Ryan, Paul (R-WI) House $391,763
5 Cramer, Kevin (R-ND) House $374,901
6 Heitkamp, Heidi (D-ND) Senate $355,542
7 Brady, Kevin (R-TX) House $339,200
8 McCarthy, Kevin (R-CA) House $338,275
9 Cornyn, John (R-TX) Senate $305,709
10 Hurd, Will (R-TX) House $289,141
Beto O'Rourke, second in line at the trough?! My, my.
Oil, gas and coal companies also wrote big checks to Trump’s inauguration. They included Chevron ($525,000), Citgo ($500,000), ExxonMobil ($500,000), BP Corporation ($500,000) and coal mining company Murray Energy ($300,000).
In case that wasn't enough the executives for these companies also gave oodles to the fund as well.
It's heartwarming to see our democracy so well supported, isn't?
66
@GerardM - Put into the context of oil & gas company profits, the amounts you listed are, truly, "pocket change". Still, wouldn't it be great to have the truth decreed once and for all: big corporations are NOT people.
35
@GerardM And don't let anyone convince you that donations don't create obligations. These oil companies are not charities. In fact, one might argue that they are not properly serving their shareholders/investors if they are getting something for their money.
23
@GerardM and recall Gerard, that Mr Murray of Murray Energy gave a list to Pruitt of things he wanted done to get EPA off the back of the coal industry.....and Pruitt did each one....yes, democracy works well...a finely tuned machine.
23
I am hearing a rumor that Mueller now has finally obtained collaborative evidence of Russian collusion, with numerous witnesses indicating that when dining Trump has always, without exception, chosen Russian dressing for his salad, even when other options were available. Impeach now!
6
But doesn’t Trump surround himself with the best people! How many indictments?
@Allen A silly attempt at deflecting. How many convictions and guilty pleas?
Your alleged rumor does remind me of "Benghazi!".
3
It's so disturbing that plain and simple criminal like Trump is still outside the jail and then became the president of this country which pride itself as the most free with best democracy in the world, in the first place.
I'm confident that Trump is not alone in American corporate and political world, many of whom are like Trump while some are worse, far worse. Yet, American laws, that our politicians and many "patriotic" but ignorant citizens boast, harrdly can touch such people. Trump is getting such attention only because he became the president and infuriated so many otherwise powerful people. But it's safe to say that our core democratic institutions totally fail to ensure justice and prosecute such criminals when they were omitting grave crimes.
The laws of the land seem to be written or enforced in a deliberate way that favor such rich criminals. That's the biggest challenge for our law makers to reform if they want our democracy to survive in future and people keep on trusting our core institutions and rule of law.
64
Once again, the problem is that by focusing on so many relatively small "violations,”you are making it more difficult to take seriously any real crimes that take place. It's very difficult to avoid that this "journalism” is essentially a coordinated attack on the Trump Presidency. So far, it has accomplished little.
4
@Mike Livingston,
Those “violations” are actual violations and they aren’t small. The sad thing is that you know it and still defend Trump.
80
@Mike Livingston
It's this kind of thinking that allows people like Donald Trump to get away with criminal, antisocial, childish, and dangerous behavior. The bar is lowered for him, while countless "regular" people pay a bigger price for crimes not half as bad.
I want to know every illegal act associated with Donald Trump, no matter how trivial you or anyone else thinks it may be. He is the worst thing to ever happen to the Presidency, which he has turned into a criminal enterprise.
41
@Mike Livingston - "Relatively small" violations add up. They start to present a pattern of deceit, corruption and lack of ethics. They start to define the character - or lack thereof - of the parties involved. However small you choose to see them, such violations represent an abuse of power, and when they break the law they are no longer small at all, except perhaps for the associated penalties and jail time.
Journalism is not intended to report on only those things that make you feel good. It seeks the truth, which it seems is very inconvenient to some people.
17
Over-turn Citizens United.
Outlaw all political action committees.
Publicly fund ALL election campaigns. 100%. No donations of any kind from any person or entity.
142
@Gusting
Plus restrict campaigning, including running advertisements, to only three months akin to other advanced nations.
But alas, the US is hardly advanced anymore.
47
@Gusting,
Yes. And this could easily be fully funded from accounting errors made at the "Defense" (War) Department.
4
@The Poet McTeagle
Love your sense of humor!
2
While the no doubt upstanding Fed prosecutors in the 2nd district are yet again going after the Trump crowd in a pay to play investigation how a bout a parallel look at the Clinton foundation which many believe did the same thing.
2
Was there ever any doubt the “what about them” crowd would bring up their favorites?
46
@John
According to the article, "Federal law prohibits foreign contributions to federal campaigns, political action committees and inaugural funds." Doesn't say anything about private foundations.
6
@JohnYes, let's look at the Clinton Foundation, an "operating" foundation whose donations went straight to program support (pediatric AIDS vaccines distributed across Africa saving - literally - millions of lives, etc. etc.) and which was consistently given a clean bill of financial health by all the major charitable watchdog organizations).
I expect any investigation of the CF will go as well as the EIGHT investigations of SOS Clinton's actions regarding Benghazi, which ended up with not one investigation finding her at fault. (Yes, right winger Trey Gowdy absolved her of ANY wrongdoing at the end of investigation #8.)
So I support an investigation of the CF. .Apparently most Republicans have no idea of what the CF has accomplished. They should be pleased to find out!
7
The Trump swamp keeps getting murkier and the stench overwhelming.
Yet, many will brush this latest piece of news aside, and should the allegations bear fruit, will still screech about Hillary, the Clinton foundation, the servers and the emails to justify what Trump and his ilk have done.
In politics, particularly today's politics, I suppose the means does justify the end-so long as no one is caught.
21
Every single day another investigation. Isn't it time, actually past time to have "t" turn over his tax returns....they should be very revealing to say the least. It will be a breath of fresh air ( in spite of climate change ) to have our country go back to business as usual as soon as we rid ourselves of this administration.
46
Knowledgeable people on television news agree that Mr. Mueller has them, Sari. Won't be long before the whole world will see what a thief he is.
30
@njglea
Thank you. Mr. Mueller is our hero, steadfast in his quest for justice.
13
So trump lied? He didn’t finance his own campaign, like he bragged about being a billionaire not needing any donations? No!
43
Does anyone really believe that foreign money isn't being funneled into almost every political race in America? Do you really believe that British, French, Israeli, Mexican, Indian, Pakistani, and Chinese money doesn't get to political campaigns? I know that two wrongs don't make a right but if 10,000 people break a law but only one is prosecuted and he is targeted because people don't like his political agenda it violates the principal of equal protection and due process. I doubt very much that Nancy Pelosi, Jerry Nadler or Chuck Schumer and his wife could survive an investigation like Trump has been exposed to. What I really don't understand is since it is now ok to weaponize the Justice Department to attack your political opponents, why hasn't Trump instructed his Attorney General to appoint a Special Investigator to go after the Democratic, and Republican, leaderships. Sauce for the Goose, Sause for the Gander.
3
@Mike
You forgot to mention that a plethora of money from Monaco went into American political campaigns. They made up all of which the British, French, Israelis, Mexicans, Indians, Pakistani and Chinese didn't give us.
@Mike
Trump has called on Congress and the Justice Department to investigate Clinton's emails and the Uranium One deal over and over again. If there was something 'to investigate' about Pelosi or Schumer, don't you think he would be yammering about it by now?
BTW, some months ago a right-wing group attempted to set Schumer up with some made-up sexual harassment incident. You know what Schumer did? He turned the matter over to the FBI for investigation. There's nothing to fear if there's no there there.
Believe it or not, a lot of people in Congress will just shrug and say--'you want to investigate me? You want to investigate the legality of my campaign contributions? Be my guest.'
It's irritating in the extreme that Trump supporters just assume everyone in government is just as corrupt as their guy.
11
@Mike
Trump and equal protection and due process? Please! He has assassinated the character of people with little more evidence then, "people are saying." Funny how we never find out who those "people" are.
If you want to champion the rights of people prosecuted and persecuted unfairly, there are thousands of better examples than DJT!
6
In 1875, during the Grant administration, America went through the "Whiskey Ring," our first massive political scandal. Not quite a half-century later, there was our second scandal, the Harding Administration's "Teapot Dome." A half century after that, there was "Watergate." And now, 44 years after Watergate, we have our current scandalous atrocity.
What in the world will this scandal be called? In comparison to the first three presidential scandals (and leaving out for the nonce, the "full of sound and fury signifying nothing" folderol of "Lewinsky Gate") this one is so multi-dimensional, so incredibly hydra-headed," as to be impossible of nicknaming or characterizing in a single word . . . or two . . . or even three.
Any suggestions out there?
14
@Schimberg
this corruption shouldn't be dignified by a nickname, just called out for the criminal action it is
don the con promised to drain the swamp: he's installed a manure lagoon. He called for people to be locked up: I say start filling the jails.
2
@Schimberg Trumpgate, with Russiagate as a part thereof.
Can't help pointing out that all the big scandals you allude to occurred under Republican presidents.
During Teapot Dome the Justice Department tried to smear the politicians who were exposing it with made up evidence. It didn't go well.
2
It will be called The Hillary Protection Scandal.
Get on with the impeachment and Senate trial. It will be the first Trump fact based reality TV programming Trump has ever played a part in. I have only two requests, Giuliani to lead Trump's defense in the Senate and Trump is force to attend in person, both merely to insure incompetence to the spectacle.
17
The real corruption stems from our system of legalized bribery made so much worse by the Citizens United decision. Why would a corporation want to contribute to an inaugural fund? To help the President have a nice party? The only reason for such a contribution is to increase profits by influencing policy. That's all very legal.
It is the foreign influence that is illegal, and it is no surprise that the criminal Trump went there.
54
The swamp is beginning to look remarkably like any of trumps other properties.
17
“Drain the swamp” was a campaign slogan proffered in the end days of the Trump campaign by Steve Bannon. Trump sold it, but like a lot of what he says, it is empty rhetoric. Thomas Barrack needs to be questioned under oath to explain what exactly was going on with those campaign donations, and every record must be produced. Every hint of quid pro quo must be exposed as must funneling of foreign monies into that fund. The American people deserve the truth.
23
@Rose. We can start with Saudis Arabia. Trump gave the prince a “get out of jail free” for murder!
4
I feel like reporting on this investigation is a little premature. I'm glad to know it exists but prosecutors are clearly still in the discovery phase. There's no obvious connection from A to B yet. I should say A to B to C. There are really three investigations here.
a)The campaign's relationship with Trump's super PAC.
b) Fundraising for any and all of Trump's political entities.
c) Expenditures from said entities.
The meeting with Jassim bin Jaber Al-Thani is obviously the most suspicious activity. However, there's nothing here stating Jassim actually donating anything any of Trump's various political organizations.
The financial records shouldn't be that hard to track. Unless Jassim was paying in Bitcoin, there should be a paper trail from fundraising to straw man to Jassim.
Go get those documents and we can talk more. The only news right now is prosecutors separate from Mueller are working on the case.
2
@Andy - So...stop reporting the news until everything is sorted out? Tamp down investigative journalism because its somehow inappropriate? Should I stop following the weather forecast because it might not rain after all?
19
@dean bush
You don't need to sensationalize the mundane. Today: partly cloudy, high of 41, zero chance of rain. That's the weather. Trump is under investigation for something new. That's the story.
How about an accounting of how the $107 million was spent? Trump had much smaller scale events compared to previous Presidents. There’s no way they legitimately burned through that money on “events”.
22
Rachel Maddow (MSNBC 9 pm ET weeknights) has been reporting on and asking about this for months. Why did The Con Don's boys raise so much money - twice normal amounts - and have such cheap, low key inaugural events? Where did the money come from? Where did it go?
Thanks to the Wall Street Journal investigating we are now learning the answers. Of course, anyone who has been paying attention knows the answer - the International Mafia planted him in OUR white house so he could appoint their brethren to every cabinet, judge position, regulatory agency and other government service and rob us blind. They are doing it 24/7 and would love to start WW3.
Good Job, Ms. Maddow, Wall Street Journal and every other news entity that is going after these thugs.
WE THE PEOPLE, armed with this information, will NOT let this stand in OUR United States of America.
Not now. Not ever.
74
Grifters surround themselves with grifters.
In a circuitous way Trump is draining the swamp. He and his grafting cronies are providing road maps to the hidey holes the corrupt use to buy influence.
Next year the Democratic House better initiate legislation to remove these paths to corruption.
37
Wait for Don Jr. being summoned by Mueller to explain what he means by “A lot of money are coming in from Russia.”
Donald, the so-called “billionaire” (despite the hidden tax returns that may prove otherwise) is so impoverished that he want to monetize any and all that he touches, dispatching Don J., and JaVanka for it.
In simpler terms, these are called corruption and nepotism.
30
@Opinioned!@Max @Joseph Huben@Patty O
Can you believe Comey told MSNBC Wallace that he "sent Strzok to White House" to interview Flynn because he "could get away with because it was Trumps first week in WH and they weren't organized with no controls. I would have never done it with Obama or Bush." UNBELIEfVABLE!
Then Strzok testified that Flynn DIDN'T lie. But sentencing 302 at trial was dated 8 months after the interview?
Now judge Sullivan wants all 302s on Flynn by 2PM TODAY.
He knows something is wrong and has recently dealt with something similar. He further ordered Mueller to provide all exculpatory evidence on Flynn.
Stay tuned.
Jr. will soon be popular amongst cigarette-wealthy convicts in the hoosegow.
1
Sounds like RICO Statutes may be the best way of proceeding.
19
"A press officer said at the time that the committee violated no rules because the campaign never paid the two men."
Emphasis on "the campaign."
What this article proves is, the American voter has been played as a dupe. From candidates to ballot initiatives; someone else is determining what and who we should like, dislike, want or discard. The message is formed by money- and we are left to figure out how to decipher the lies, exaggerations and possibly the truth.
Other Democracies do not "do it" this way; why are we?
13
@Candlewick "Other democracies do not do it this way.". Interesting sentence. Why do we? Perhaps our founders never envisioned a political system that allows the candidates to be purchased by BIG money using the first amendment as the justification.
Or, perhaps the other democracies don't allow their candidates to be purchased by big money-you know, that collusion and conflict of interest thing.
9
The Dems should come up with some way of legislating a solution to the money in politics problem. It could really have some universal appeal to have that on the 2020 platform.
19
We Americans are just waiting with bated breath to hear the news that our 5th president will be convicted of campaign finance violations and far worse. Or "crimes of interpretation" as Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani (he of the claim that "truth isn't truth!") is bellowing. Years of dirty deeds have grown into poison trees in Trump's garden of evil. The Michael Cohen prosecution is leading the "Witch Hunt!" (DJT) of justice and the rule of law to the gingerbread cottage of Mar-a-Lago. Michael Cohen -- who was Donald Trump's personal lawyer for 12 years during his campaign and his presidency until April this year -- knows where all the bodies are buried and is not out to "embarrass" Trump, his boss, but to help remove this human stain from our American presidency. Mr. Cohen won't be finished paying the price for his association and loyalty to Donald Trump, even after he spends the coming 3 years in a prison.The big fish that has been rotting from the head down since 2015 is our 45th president. We are hoping he'll be an indicted co-conspirator soon.
23
The deeper you dig, the more illegal foreign money and influence you see funneled towards buying our country from a criminal president who thinks he owns the place.
The only thing missing is what Trump wanted most of all. Gigantic, cheering crowds. But I guess having millions of Saudis and Russians and whatevers fly into D.C. would have been just too obvious.
26
@KJ Indeed, the foreign money is very problematic, so problematic that Trump yelled loudly about the allegations made against Hillary, influence peddling and uranium.
4
“in hopes of buying influence over American policy, according to people familiar with the inquiry.”
So, just like donating to the Clinton Foundation, especially while Hillary was actually running for President. The dirty $$ in our politics must stop. Full stop.
6
@Midwest Josh
Even if the allegations about the Clinton Foundation were true, Trump makes Clinton look like a rank amateur.
14
@Midwest Josh
Hillary divested herself from the foundation when she ran and never received a salary in the first place. It is a legitimate foundation that has been effective in eliminating river worm disease, AIDs in Africa and seeding programs that re so effective for farmers in Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana that Iowa has adopted them. No donations to TCF were used to affect our election - but why am I wasting provable content on you?
5
@JtatI - very provable content: 85 of the 154 private interests who met with Clinton during her tenure as SoS were Clinton Foundation donors. Sure, Trump stinks, I agree. But let’s not fool ourselves into thinking HRC isn't as corrupt - she’s just smarter at being so.
https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/clinton-foundation-donations/
1
I look forward to the day we see a photograph of Donald Trump in The Times with whatever his hair and face look like without dye, makeup and weaves and in an orange jumpsuit.
24
i too, long for that day. If you want to get a good idea, Google "Phil Spector mugshot." A different guy, but with the same desperate desire to maintain some modicum of physical attractiveness.
2
I am sick and tired of the persecution of my PResident by the left wing in the US. This is not a true investigation - it is a witch hunt nothing more and nothing less.
People feel that Trump should not be President and are doing their level best to get him out of office. I think this conduct is disgraceful.
These investigators need to be investigated for bias themselves. Their hands are NOT CLEAN>
3
@judyweller
Will the investigators who will investigate the investigators have clean hands?
2
@judyweller
Can you provide evidence that Trump did nothing wrong? How are these investigators NOT CLEAN? Explain.
7
@judyweller
Please don't worry. Trump is innocent until proven guilty. You should be proud that the DOJ headed by Whittaker & Co, the confidant of the president is upholding the rule of law of the land by doing their job. We, including you, expect the most honorable people with integrity to run the country. The people elected Trump with that trust, and I'm sure he will live up to that. For an innocent man like Trump, these are non issues.
1
By the time Trump's Presidency (or reign?) is over, hopefully before 2020, he will make Teapot Dome (Warren Harding) look like kindergarten as far as corruption and scandal.
The right in their inimitable way will try try to distract us by saying the Clintons (what aboutism) were just as corrupt, which of course is not true or they will say that the "deep state" is inventing all these scandals so they can get rid of Trump, which is part of their conspiracy defense.
Make no mistake, the 2020 election will be a fight for democracy whoever the Dems nominate. Trump and his party will use every trick in the voter suppression book to maintain power. We are seeing this in North Carolina, Wisconsin and Michigan right now.
We need to be vigilant and do whatever we can to fight it.
54
We are seeing it in Florida too as the Governor-elect and his minions are trying to thwart the will of 65% of the electorate by attempting an end run around the approved former felon voter registration law scheduled to take effect Jan. 8, 2019.
3
I suspect that this culture of fraud is more pervasive and far deeper than any of us realize. I also believe it is much more pervasive and deeply rooted in one political party and those it mainly serves. The stench fouls our ethical air from sea to shining sea.
21
"Barrack step into the void by creating and raising funds for the political action committee, which could collect unlimited amounts of money as long as it [avoided coordinating closely] with the candidate,"
So, who (and what) is the catalyst for determining what "closely coordinating" means and looks like? It seems our entire electoral process is run by PAC's with a Candidate inserted merely as a prop.
Is this the best America can do?
9
Rachel Maddow has been asking questions about this Inaugural Fund for more than a year. When a committee won't release what it calls its squeaky clean audit, we should all know that things won't bear the light of day. Just ask yourself, what would a criminal organization--especially one beholden to a foreign power--do if it has the opportunity to raise funds pretty much in the dark? And there's your answer.
24
One great big huge enormous ball of Crime. Touch any point on it, and the whole thing unravels...
17
I've always despised this photo of Trump, with his fist raised, Fascist salute. I wake up everyday in shock that he is president. What has happened to this country? How could 60 million of my fellow Americans have voted for this horrible man?
It looks like the chickens may be finally coming home to roost. January 3rd gives me a small glimmer of hope that this is the beginning of the end of this national nightmare.
46
Linda McMahon donates $6M to Trump's shady PAC and - boom - appointed to head the Small Business Administration (this alone is beyond laughable). Gov’t appointments for sale to the highest bidder. How is this legal in our country??? Oh right Citizens United, which will be remembered as the watershed moment in America’s fall from grace. Sickening.
55
Remember Trump's comment about shooting someone on Fifth Avenue.... etc.? He's right. Just more water off of a duck's back.
10
Another reason why Super PACs are a really bad idea. Just another opportunity to hide not only big US donors, now foreign backers, and other illegal funding. When will this digustingness end? How do these people sleep at night?
12
I’d sure like to know what Mike Pence knew and when he knew it.
43
@Celeste - And our new Dem congress needs to put him under oath to find out. And when tRump's publicly found to be the criminal that he is, his entire administration and everything they've done should be immediately voided and the status of where things were when Mr. Obama left office should be immediately reinstated.
2
If it walks like a duck... The sooner we convict and remove Trump from power, the sooner America will be great again in the eyes of the world. In my eyes, what he and his coven have done is high treason. Kremlin infiltrating the NRA and destabilizing our society by promoting guns? What is the punishment for treason?
26
I'm not a lawyer, but I wonder if the Inaugural Committee isn't a separate legal entity than the presidential campaign, and if so, whether the campaign or the president can be held culpable for foreign contributions to the Inaugural Committee? If, however, it can be shown that foreign contributors to the IC have received U.S. governmental compensation for their contributions, that's a different matter entirely.
2
Every nook and cranny of Trump's swamp of an administration is corrupt. What is astounding is that there are patsies out there who still support this national disgrace.
55
The confidence man's rot is being exposed. The putrid stench of his rot can no longer be perfumed-up or covered by his ridiculous costumes. The free press and our constitution is prevailing.
Watergate brought a cancer to the presidency. Trump's enterprise brought pus to the presidency.
Every day we see a different facet of his corrupt organization, his criminal business empire. Hold your nose and stand back--it will get worse as the djt abscess gets lanced.
The republican party owns every bit of the rot into which they bought. They went all-in with djt. Have at it folks, he's all yours.
34
"A press officer said at the time that the committee violated no rules because the campaign never paid the two men. Neither man returned repeated phone calls seeking comment."
This is the same argument Trump repeatedly makes, that attempts to break the law don't count unless you actually do so. Apparently he doesn't realize that breaking and entering a home to rob it and finding nothing, doesn't get the thief off the hook.
None of this should surprise us. Particularly people on the East Coast, familiar with Trump's grandstanding and propensity for lawsuits.
I'm thrilled the Feds are on this case. It explains a lot about Trump's passion for the autocrats who apparently keep him afloat with funding.
Great reporting, as usual, from the New York Times.
77
Tp borrow from the Watergate era .....”follow the money”. Sooner or later this house of cards is going to fall apart. The amazing thing is that so many Americans still believe in this guy and his posse of thugs.
39
Where is the outrage from Republicans?
110
@Robert Gorman
those who are silent are complicit
12
@Robert Gorman Exactly! There is so much criminal malfeasance piling up that it is hard to imagine that at least 10 Senators wouldn't call it on this President.
Given all that has emerged and with more emerging the Democrats shouldn't hesitate to impeach and send the "indictment" on to the Senate.
Let the Republicans show where they stand.
5
@Robert Gorman this should be the top comment. Where are they? Each day, each minute they stay silent they become co-conspirators with the most corrupt American President of all time. Since the 60’s when the Republicans were the American love it or leave it Party I knew they weren’t true patriots. Waving their flag, suppressing free speech and civil rights. And now they are silent while Donald Trump used class division, racism and every illegal trick in the book to become and remain president. I try to remind myself everyday that most Americans are horrified by what is going on but I can’t wrap my head around the fact that Republicans overwhelming still support Trump. Where are they?
45
“Make America a bigger swamp”, 2020 Trump tag line.
19
“Oh The Places You will go”. I think we have an octopus with cancers by its tentacle(s). Is there no end to the depth of the ocean we are in? If it looks like bad fish, smells like bad fish, it may be bad fish. Note to all prosecutors, keep fishing. We need to know the truth and what to do about this And others octopuses. Time to look up the serenity prayer. Could making America Great Again* mean combing full circle by curing this cancer.
* America is great, can be greater, does not need to be made great again!
12
Trump is corrupt. He's corrupt from head to toe. He's corrupt through and through. Always has been.
38
Our president is a crook. Face it, Trump supporters, you’ve been had. Face it Republican Congressional supporters, you’re fools. Face it America, there’s a reason why Mike Pence sat silently in the big gold chair with Chuck and Nancy - he’s preparing himself, and with reason.
It’s been hard on us senior citizens, these days these last two years, watching our country turn into one which we cannot hardly recognize under Donald Trump, but we won’t give up hope.
Times, keep reporting, Mueller and team, keep investigating. Country, keep hanging on. We’re getting there......
154
@MIMA We will be lucky to live long enough to see the end and the Republicans or faux Repubs will never admit wrongdoing. People still defend the great criminal called Nixon.
3
Can we please overturn Citizens United now?
84
Just peachy, ... im-peachy
12
And now, back to Russia. Never mind.
4
This administration is bought and paid for by foreign and domestic billionaires. By extension the GOP and trump voters are also in the package.
How does it feel to do the bidding of your masters?
38
@CC
Why has it taken people so long to realize this? It was obvious at all points before the election!
8
@RealTRUTH, it's still obvious to the same people now who realized it then, and it mostly remains not obvious to the same people who couldn't see it then. Call it partisanship, call it the Dunning-Kruger effect, call it racism. The roots are deeper than Trump. He's the scab on a festering wound.
Pogo was right.
So was Chicken Little.
1
Let us not forget that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has violated his oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution by being the chief enabler of Trump.
He is equally guilty of these nefarious deeds and should be thrown out of office.
60
Is there anything that this president hasn't done or touched that he hasn't contaminated? The presidency and its once-exalted place in America and the world, law enforcement, the Constitution, the rule of law, common decency, the Republican Party. He inherited millions from his father and yet had to file six bankruptcies. He's an evil sorcerer who hoodwinked American voters in 2016...and he means to do it again in 2020.
51
After decades of corruption, tap dancing around legalities, serial, bankruptcies lies and adultery it is well past the time for this man and his syndicate to be brought to justice. When he was New York’s king of the tabloids, we were angered or we often laughed at the antics of self-aggrandizing buffoon.His feuds were sophomoric yet legendary.
Perhaps this time he will not escape facing the charges he so truly deserves. He must cut his losses now and resign with the hope that he can just slither away quietly. This latest and most egregious acts of his fraudulent career must be punished
40
Donald Trump ran for president on the platform that he would "drain the swamp". He didn't drain the swamp: he created it, he filled it with swamp creatures, and he now wallows in the mud. The guy does not have a clean cell in his body.
Draining the swamp starts with throwing this pretender out of office and letting the prosecutors have their way with him.
31
In addition to getting rid of Trump, perhaps one good thing to come from all this will be getting rid of the ridiculous notion that a president can't be indicted while in office. For grifters like Trump, that's an open invitation...like telling a bank robber you left the vault door open for him.
52
When do we get to hear Trump's "I'm not a crook" moment.
11
@Stan Carlisle
He's been saying that all along.
3
So please tell me again why we even need these multimillion dollar inaugural festivities? Have the tax payer funded swearing-in at the Capitol building and be done with it.
45
Trump is going to repeat the same lines for this as he did for campaign payment violations.
We never received donations from foreigners
I never approved donations from foreigners for my inauguration
I didn't know donations were received from foreigners for my inauguration
I knew we received donations from foreigners but everybody else gets them too
My lawyer told me these donations were OK.
51
I guess this explains why Trump is funding Saudi Arabia in Yemen, and Bahrain, genocide and kissed the ring of the Saudi Prince. Also, danced with them, after he was elected. And, why he is selling billions of dollars of military aid to pull the Us into the Sunni - Shi'ite war., which will ultimately be against Iran. One has to wonder how much did Israel give, as their leader is under investigation for corruption.
36
Trump's entire life has revolved around making money and feeding his narcissism, and it's clear he saw the Presidency as just another opportunity to combine those two needs.
The Americans who still support him are either blind or in complete denial about who this man really is and what he is up to. Unfortunately, that includes a significant percentage of the tattered remnants of the Republican Party.
36
"The Americans who still support him are either blind or utterly stupid."
FIFY
1
President Trump promised to bring jobs. He didn’t realize that most of those jobs would be for the myriad of investigators and prosecutors working diligently to uncover the wide path of corruption spread by him, his associates and his family.
76
Despite the HUGE crowds, Trump's inauguration cost almost 50% less than the $107 million raised. And everyone has been asking since where are the approximately $50 million unspent funds ? I seem to remember a pledge from Trump & Co. to donate the funds to various charities. Where are the cancelled checks?
Despite all claims by Mr. Barrack or Rick Gates, the inaugural funds have NOT been accounted for and the public deserves to know where the money was squirreled away and by who.
46
@Elizabeth
Anyone remember Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder in the original PRODUCERS?
1) find a flop
2) raise more money than you need
3) the show fails
4) we go of to Rio ... Rio by the sea-oh
I WANT THAT MONEY
Only this time it's not the "little old ladies" contributing, it's a bunch of folks expecting favors....
5
I'm shocked.
Shocked, I say.
Trump has always been the quintessential Boy Scout.
Everyone is saying that.
Sad!
31
Ya think? Of course money was being funneled to this inauguration and any other aspect of the Trump government. It is all for sale. Trump is corrupt to his core- Kushner is sadly cut from the same cloth minus the PT Barnum rants and circus. The hard parts in stopping the rampant corruption are 1- proving it in a court of law and 2-prying the retched emotional claws of his base from the hem of his fraudulent garment and 3-super saddly, waiting for the GOP Senators to turn away from Trump even if just to clutch the next shiny golden calf they believe will get them re-elected. What will be inspiring is when the disenfranchised: people of color, women, the poor, young 18-25 year olds (ok 30), southerners, immigrants, mid westerners, the ailing, the sick, the middle class and teachers all turn out and collectively speak out to reclaim what is great about the citizens of this country and the ideals of this country. As happened during the midterms. Hope springs eternal and god help us til them.
92
@Lori, beautifully said. Thank you!
5
It's called bribery, plain and simple. And the most laughable defense of the so-called "inaugural fund" was that it had been "audited." Bribes are never audited and no one has seen the audit or even knows who performed it. In other words, the "donations" were pocketed by Trump, his family members and the super PAC. Now let's investigate those "opportunity zones" created around Trump's golf courses and Jared's condos. And let's investigate Trump's other violations of the emoluments clause; foreign spending in his D.C. hotel; kickbacks from oil and coal moguls and those tax returns seemingly under a never-ending audit by the IRS.
77
The Koch brothers probably realized what a gift Citizens United was when Roberts delivered it, regardless of his vote in favor of Obamacare!
30
The wheels are coming off the train
39
Federal and state authorities are seriously investigating Trump’s campaign, his presidency, his businesses, his personal finances, his charity, and now his inaugural. Literally everything he does or is involved with is tainted with corruption.
Lock him up!
107
Yes, the left has finally come out in the open to declare their belief in the Stalinist approach of equating allegations, in this case by obvious political enemies of the President, with guilt. These politically-driven "investigations" are our biggest threat to our democracy, which liberals have in so many ways now indicated they believe in only insofar as it advances their interests. otherwise, the Senate, electoral college, one-person, one-vote, due process, and other niceties of American democracy can be discarded, altered or ignored to ensure that Democrats rule as they were meant to.
3
@Demosthenes, right! In spite of the incredible high he got off being elected and having all the power that comes with the position, I think he will rue the day he ever got into this, since his thoroughly corrupt existence is going to be exposed for all to see. I hope he sees jail time. That would totally make my day.
15
@Allen - I'll bite. Explain in detail how each and everything Trump is being accused of is false and please cite actual laws to back up your assertions.
15
It's so weird and unexpected that someone elected president has no trouble raising money immediately thereafter yet someone who fails to be elected can see donations (to their foundation) fall off a cliff. What could explain such a phenomenon?
6
Again the argument that Trump's corruption is okay because we knew that he was a crook when we went to the polls...
4
I am curious if Trump has ever been caught in a legitimate by the law transaction of any kind. If so I can not remember it. Seriously.
31
@Rick Beck
Unlikely, if so it was a mistake. He is usually stiffing the people who have worked for him.
He has yet to pay his sewage bill, which is astronomical from all the stink he generates on an hourly basis.
5
The Trump corruption cesspool overflows.
27
“Tom has never talked with any foreign individual or entity for the purposes of raising money for or obtaining donations related to either the campaign, the inauguration or any such political activity,” said Owen Blicksilver, a spokesman for Mr. Barrack.
If it has been established money flowed through that channel, then that statement is basically saying that he conspired in a premeditated manner by delegating the crime to someone else in the organization. He merely is trying to wash his hands in fake innocence. There is no way that such payments would have happened without the sheiks making him - and Trump - acutely aware of the obligations that come with that kind of money.
That's classic mob tactics and exactly what one would expect from Trump and his supporters.
43
@Kara Ben Nemsi: Good observation. Also note that the spokesman uses the verb "talk." It could very well be that "Tom" never "talked" to any potential foreign donors, but he may well very have corresponded with them via emails or even old-fashioned letters. Either that, or he simply delegated the communications end of the deal to someone else, as you say. Just as he's got someone else "talking" to the press for him. It must be nice to be so rich that you can afford to have someone else not only do your dirty work for you, but also take the fall for you, if necessary.
1
Just more for the "cahiers de doléances" (lists of grievances) that brought down the French monarchy and will likely do the same for our would be "King Donald." When the grievances turn into prosecutable charges of crimes, he will be finished. I'm waiting especially for the tax fraud charges, Remember his debate line, "Why didn't I pay any taxes? Because I was smart." Well, as the placards (a French-derived word that inspired my reference to the French Revolution) said at the Women's March back in January 2017, "Grab Him by the Tax Returns!" That one will do him in for sure, something all Americans can understand, along with the collusion, obstruction of justice, money laundering, campaign finance violations, emoluments benefiting, etc., etc., etc.
40
Of course they funneled money. If nothing else Trump has proven that when it comes to money there is no such thing as bad money. That is as long as it ends up in his coffers. Truth be known, the bulk of Trump’s wealth was most likely derived illegally or unethically. It is what he does, why would anyone expect any different?
30
Man, was Citizens United an awesome decision or what.
201
@Dan
It was so bad, Roberts may have suffered from amnesia rather than live with his hideous decision.
4
The best comment ever about the "record breaking" number of people who turned out for Trump's inauguration - "There were more people at my Bar Mitzvah and I'm not even Jewish."
94
The irony is now it becomes apparent what inaugural parties mean to a new president..... It is for all the pigs who want to feed at the federal trough for the next 4 years to come and kiss the ring and bring their gifts so the king knows who donates what! Then the king, sorry the president, knows what political jobs to give back based on teh size of the gifts!
Obviously!
9
“Tis The Season To Be Giving” just got taken to a whole new level
18
I assume that when the democrats finish their investigations into whether foreigners illegally funneled donations to President Trumps campaign that they will do the same with the Clintion campaign's pay to play scheme. After all what is the difference? Except of coarse that the Clintons are above the law in the democrats world.
7
To quote my mother : " Just because someone else got away with it, that doesnt make it right" Its time for our country to stop giving out free passes for unethical behavior because its perceived someone else was treated lightly. Instead of constantly pointing to bad behavior in the past, lets look ahead and try to thwart unethical behavior.
With Citizens United, we have set the stage for even more bribery and graft than ever before. Congress needs to act because the Executive Branch is busy golfing, getting spray tans and holding rallies.
27
It is not the Democrats that are conducting the investigation. Rather an independent counsel and federal prosecutors. They are investigating these people to determine just how many traitors took part in getting Trump elected. Those of you who voted for Trump will have to conduct your own self examination
27
@Fred Except for the fact that "pay to play" Is a figment of the right-wing imagination.
9
The moral corruption of Donald Trump and his underlings continues to unfold. So Paul Manafort convinced Trump to skirt the law with his super PAC in 2016. What a surprise.
When you step back and look at the totality of the Trump Team transgressions and the legal actions that have resulted over the last 2-1/2 years, it adds up to a witches brew of moral decay.
How many more revelations will it take before the American electorate has had enough?
80
@Larry-Should be pointed out that Trump, Manafort, Roger Stone go back decades. All learned dirty tricks from Roy Cohn, Joseph McCarthy's back scratcher. Like a boil on the body politic, finally their evilness stands the chance of getting lanced.
The Story of Roger Stone, Paul Manafort and Donald Trump
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2018/02/23/the-story-of-roger-stone-paul-manafort-and-donald-trump/
7
So:
1. The Russian government hacked the DNC, and gave the emails to Wikileaks to release.
2. The Russians had agents who infiltrated groups like the NRA to offer Trump direct links to Putin.
3. Trump had a major media outlet but up every negative story about him and bury them, which he knew about, was directly involved in, and lied to the American public about.
4. The Trump campaign opened sham fundraising organizations that illegally coordinated with his campaign to take illegal foreign donations, likely including from the Saudis.
But her emails!
205
@Mike-Don't forget the millions of U.S. voters targeted precisely with social media blasts promoting fake stories negative to Clinton. The purveyors: the UK-based Cambridge Analytica (via Robert Mercer, Steve Bannon) which boasted possession of 500 data points on 230 million Americans and could influence elections; Brad Parscale's firm that got access to voter data and ran similar and parallel social media/ad campaigns to the Russians who sent out millions of targeted bots with the help of Facebook and Twitter. After the election, the RNC announced its own breach which exposed 198 million Americans data. Likely to cover up collusion--that ALL parties shared and exploited the same voter data.
15
@Ann Great points! Also consider that the NRA is supposed to be famous for getting out the vote. What kind of voter information was doled out to Russia from the NRA after they got dark money donations?
As more and more revelations of this nature bubble to the top, Trumps power to intimidate shrinks.
1. His behavior will become ever more erratic and desperate.
2. Trumps allies will become more and more silent as they realize the danger of contamination.
3. The "base" will quietly begin to shrink as the evidence of foreign influence and meddling in our country become apparent.
4. Do not underestimate the power of personal ambition within the Republican party. There are several prominent Republicans straining at the leash who would like his job and want their influence restored.
5. Pence, Ryan, and especially Graham - given the right circumstances - would be thrilled to hang this nightmare of a human out to dry.
You can't make as many mistakes as Trump has and not pay the price. You can't insult, demean, humiliate and and fire that many people without some of them ultimately flipping on you. Michael Cohen will be viewed as a leader in the revolt.
This presidency is essentially in a spiral dive and will destroy many on it's way down. The fools who don't abandon ship early enough deserve their fate.
129
@Bob Bruce Anderson I am waiting for Trump to have his, "Captain Queeg moment" on the witness stand. Quick, get this man some ball bearings!
1
That gesture of raised right fist is repeated by Trump at the end of his inaugural address and directly behind him Melania raised her right arm. Not accidental or spontaneous gestures. Instant warning of horrific doings to come. Warning: AUTOCRACY AHEAD! First lie: size of the crowd. How many alternative facts over the two years since?
51
The voters that put Captain Twittler in office can be proud of so many accomplishments he has done. Immigration reform, tax cuts to the top 1%, trade wars (The soybeans on piling up. Did they accept financial help by the American taxpayers. These same individuals think any help is welfare and no one should receive it. Did they take the money, while they soybeans are rotting.) rolling back financial safety laws, environmental protection, bring back those coal jobs and the list goes on. He operates scam organizations such as Trump University, Trump Foundation and has gone bankrupt to many times to count leaving many of his vendors unpaid. However, I am surprised but should not be that he did not use his personal fortune as he said he would, but contributed nothing. He is the flim flam man.
54
Just a side note; the Koch Network spent $400 million influencing your democracy over the past two years.
It’s time we wrapped a “Green New Deal” into an “Ending Dark Money New Deal”. Squashing the latter will have huge positive effects on our environment, political and otherwise.
118
"This American carnage stops right here and right now.” As he stood among members of Congress, past presidents and Supreme Court justices.........The picture brought back memories of watching the inauguration and the horror I felt hearing it. God, please let his words (symbolically, not literally!) come back to haunt him and his crew and they are effectively removed from running this country.
35
@M - In a way he was right, his inauguration ushered in the Russian carnage.
1
This proves one of Trump and Conway's alternative facts. His inauguration was the largest ever. More money raised than any other. We just needed to look at this from Trump's perspective.
Soon Trump and Conway will be able to reiterate this claim from another perspective. The largest inauguration ever in terms of criminals in charge.
33
America will one day look back at all of this and wonder how it came to be. It had been assumed that Presidential candidates and parties were essentially honourable regarding their intentions and motivations, but Mr Trump and the Republicans have demonstrated that such trust is misplaced. If they can be thanked for anything, it will be that.
37
Bought and paid for by some of the worst international players in the world, Trump is corrupt to the core of his being. Only in the USA could he get away with this and not be concerned about being imprisoned or killed. He's never respected the law, but has continuously used it to shield himself. Maybe his time is finally coming.
144
There are so many investigations, indictments, etc., going on around Trump that I can't even keep track of it all.
Does he ever not lie, cheat or break the law?
166
@Somewhere
That's the problem. Too much noise, and "group-think folks who reside in echo bubble" are getting all bent out of shape.
Dems can win 2020, but there are no high crimes here. Don't overplay it.
But folks here are in a bubble who feed on Krugman/ Charles Blow, who are just flame-throwers.
3
@Somewhere Lying, cheating and breaking the law is who Trump is.
18
@Mehul Shah - There sure are a lot of convictions and guilty pleas going on if no crimes were committed.
Can you explain how that works?
16
The U.S. Senate is Trump's "Maginot Line." (And how did that work out for France?) You can start to see a few cracks in the facade, coming from Senators like Marco Rubio who still have their own eyes on the prize and need to start finding some space between their ambitions and the daily spew of illegality.
25
@Cheeseman Forever
Never, ever, count on Marco Rubio to do the right thing.
3
Once again, Citizens United paved the way to make untrackable money easily available to corrupt our campaigns. Thanks Kennedy!
316
@Mball572 No, thanks Ralph Nader voters who elected W and gifted the GOP a Supreme Court majority.
7
@Mbal
I employ everyone to read the central sections of that opinion and see for yourself how easily it's logic dismantles. It's a poorly written and argued position and it's helped corrupt America
4
@Mball572-"Trump's business career is more connected to Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy than we ever knew:
* Deutsche Bank loaned President Donald Trump over $1 billion for his real-estate projects while Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's son led a real-estate division there;
* Justin Kennedy was the global head of the real-estate capital markets division of Deutsche Bank, which loaned to Trump when other banks wouldn't.
* Anthony Kennedy's retirement gave Trump the opportunity to shift the balance of the Supreme Court to the right."
https://www.businessinsider.com/anthony-kennedy-son-loaned-president-trump-over-a-billion-dollars-2018-6
13
So after reading the article it makes total sense why trump went to Saudi Arabia first. This article along with what is being investigated is bringing into focus why he has gravitated to Russa and the middle east. They paid him to visit. They paid him to lower sanctions. Now what needs to be done is to tie this to a quid pro quo situation and he is toast. Mr. Mueller III has indeed been busy.
155
This line of thinking is reasonable because “Individual 1” has proven over and over and over about how transactional his thinking is... “they helped fund my ads and my “biggest inauguration ever” so I need to go there first! They are buying weapons from us so I won’t denounce the killing and dismemberment of someone who was a ‘critic’ to my friends.
You know, maybe his line of thinking was that his crowds at inauguration WERE the biggest by the number of tickets sold... too bad most of them were to foreign governments who couldn’t actually show up so by pictures it didn’t look the way it seemed to his line of reasoning.
27
Uh, sorry to break it to you, but the President has increased sanctions on Russia and for the first time provided Ukraine with lethal force.
@Allen. Trump's administration has been tough on Russia. Trump has not been enthusiastic and supportive about imposing sanctions.
The crimes are numerous and exposed daily- at what point does Trump make a deal and step aside to allow 2020 primaries to begin?
20
@Deirdre
That seems like the most plausible outcome at this point. You know the pushing and pulling and horse trading pace is picking up...who will get a shot at the top spot after Trumpty's fall.
1
As The Great One broadcast Sunday nights, "And away we GO!"
10
The Russia thing just became the Saudi, UAE and Qatar thing. Trump's been for sale ever since he threw his hat into the ring. Form his actions defending all of his "contributors", I'd say he has been fully bought off.
All investigators have to do is examine each nation that Trump unyieldingly supports and low and behold, a money trail emerges.
This is why Trump has vehemently maintained from the day one, do not investigate the Trump family finances. It's looking more and more like Trump has sold out America to line his pockets. Looks like it's time for another Hillary email server investigation.
270
@Bruce RozenblitBruce, love the middle paragraph but must wonder why everyone, including you, did not see that Trump has the inherent need to line his own pockets at all times. Not just the selling of America. He has been doing this stuff for 50 years!
29
@Bruce Rozenblit
As a Canadian citizen, I'm proud that my home country hasn't bought into the Trump mob.
As an American citizen, I'm appalled and embarrassed by the groveling and complicity of the Republicans among our elected leaders.
51
@KJ
With so much focus on Trump, most people will only simply wonder at "the groveling and complicity of the Republicans". Perhaps it's time to take a closer look into what's lining the pockets of these Republican leaders, especially Mitch McConnall. Is there Russian money in their pockets too?
31
Each new brick in the structure of the massive legal case against Donald Trump also seems to be a brick in the wall between his supporters on one side and reason, logic, decency, and honesty on the other side.
104
@Edward C Weber
As long as Fox News is in business he will not lose his supporters. Their audience lives in an alternate reality. Most of these people watch or check on Fox all day and read their local papers that do not report on any of this information.
84
@scott k.You could not be more accurate. I icheck on FoxNoise froom time to time and the day of the Cohen guilty verdict where that was the headline everywhere, Fox reported on a woman sclaing the border wall near San Diego. Guess that what the Fox people see and hear. You are correct.
9
@scott k. this is true, and I wish more people realized the full implications of this. When we have clear historical insight into his period of time, Fox News and the other right-wing outlets will be seen as the engine that made Trump possible. He's just a symptom of the real problem. Hopefully he's the culmination of it - the final stages of the disease - and not just the first of his kind.
2
And the saga goes on: "America first" seems to be the translation for "Pay me first". Not surprising for anyone who took a few minutes to review the history of the republican candidate back in 2016. Nobody is changing old habits at the age of 72 and why would anyone have expected that it could happen in the case of the current President? That is called "projection" or simply "wishful thinking" - and it obviously failed completely back then and continues to do so now. The daily monologues of pundits like Mr.Hannity are becoming more and more absurd on the background of the daily revelations about the Trump "team" multilevel corruption scheme.
75
When you can't make Money or get elected the old fashion way.
Lie a tiny bit. Almost not even a lie. Just unTrue in the smallest part possible.
I have been pondering the perils how/what happens when an actual talented American Business Person wants to run for President? Do we exclude the best. Perhaps we do indeed need too.
4
Don’t confuse trump with anything like the “best.” He’s a thrice-bankrupted, trust-funded crybaby of a failure. He’s PT Barnum without the charm.
4
@Robert Chambers No I do not that is why I asked if 'actual talented American Business Person' wanted to run.
It is hard to see where large scale business executives will not run into conflict of interest situations.
Will Blind trusts work if Bloomberg for example runs?
And Lobbying vs corruption how wide or the grey lines?
You might add to the list of things that Trump is, in my opinion, is a User.
I think the Federal Prosecutors new motto should be, "Leave No Stone Unturned"
Busy little beavers those folks are, and they haven't gotten to his swampy business dealings yet. And no end in sight.
124
"Leave No Stone Unturned"
Roger included.
14
@cherrylog754
Provided that motto includes Roger Stone, yes....
5
For someone who espouses Nationalism, Trump oddly depends on Globalism.
624
@FJR-Righto! More to come. Former RNC deputy finance chairman Eliott Broidy, one of Trump’s—and the GOP’s—biggest campaign fundraisers, is under investigation by the Justice Depart. for allegedly trying to sell his influence in the Trump White House to Chinese and Malaysian officials. The same Broidy that set up, with Trump fixer Michael Cohen's help, a $1.6 million payment to keep his affair with a former Playboy model and the abortion he pressured her into--secret.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/doj-probing-gop-fundraiser-elliott-broidy-for-allegedly-trying-to-sell-his-influence-with-trump-white-house
https://splinternews.com/ex-playboy-model-accused-trump-donor-elliott-brody-of-s-1828910217
Broidy Ending Playmate’s Hush Payments Doesn’t Add Up — Unless He’s Covering for Trump
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/07/broidy-ends-hush-payments-trump-cover-up.html
Here’s a Theory About That $1.6 Million Payout From a GOP Official to a Playboy Model
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/05/theory-playboy-model-had-affair-with-trump-not-broidy.html
6
It was best said in 2016 when this embarrassment all began . . ., “Follow the money.”
209
Donald Trump's Presidency is basically over. For all relevant purposes, his credibility is nonexistent. During the next two years he will be just occupying space in the White House…..hopefully just that.
130
You're forgetting the base and the Republican-majority Senate. The former will remain faithful, and the latter depends on them to get reelected. I predict no change.
29
You are both right. He is just occupying space (and the air waves) and there will be no change.
13
@Kathleen "The base" watches Fox News and there are a few cracks appearing in that facade. (See Chris Wallace's and Andrew Napolitano's appearances yesterday.) As to the Senate -- at least some Senators interested in their self-preservation or with ambitions of their own will start to see the writing on the wall soon. There is just too much to ignore willfully.
51
The raids on Michael Cohen’s home and office will be the gifts that keep giving for a long, long time. What other species of swamp slime and mold might lurk in the documents and recordings discovered there?
128
I cannot think of any good reason other than to gain some access to the administration for anyone, foreign or domestic, to give money to further inaugural festivities.
61
@MIKEinNYC
True, that many donate to inaugural committees for influence.
However, the rules prohibit foreign donations. It is therefore the responsibility of the recipient to report the illegal donations to the proper authorities and then to promptly return the money.
The Trump administration allegedly did neither.
63
Before Nixon was impeached he had won 49 states and was incredibly popular. As the hearings began and the
in May of 1974 the sordid tales of his Presidency steadily came out , his popularity declined and his party turned against him.
I am confident history will repeat itself.
Let it all come out. Obstruction of Justice, Campaign Corruption, Money Laundering,Tax Evasion and of course
Russia Russia Russia. Trump will be
gone within a year.
280
@Joe
It is my fervent wish that your prediction for this awful sham of a presidency does comes true, and that some modicum of normalcy returns. But while history sometimes does repeats itself, I somehow do not think it (normalcy) will return in my lifetime. America will come to her senses and learn sometime later in the future, but the damage done by this man and his enablers is huge in so many ways, from rejecting climate change, giving huge tax breaks for the wealthy, weakening consumer protections, all the way to weakening regulations for ensuring clean water for our citizens.
During the Nixon era, his party had the moral fiber to turn against him; unfortunately our country has turned in a different direction, and the party of Trump will stick to him like glue, along with his uninformed base.
However, I say let the investigations continue, to its final conclusion, with each and every stone not left unturned. We need to "follow the money" and see where this all leads. As my mother used to say, "all the dirt comes out in the wash."
46
@Joe -
Nixon did not have cult following. Trump does. That is the difference and why the outcome will be different for him.
14
@Joe
Nixon didn't have Fox news to back him up and help perpetuate the lies.
30
During the campaign Trump would accuse his opponents of being bought off by special interests. He said that he couldn't be bought because he was oh so wealthy. People who understood Trump at the time knew his proclivity for lying, often employing projection. They knew that this was Trump-speak for “I can be bought, make me an offer.” Unfortunately, far too few people understood then. I hope that's beginning to change.
309
@syfredrickp--Speaking of being bought off...Why did Trump make Saudi Arabia his first foreign destination after gaining office? Rich Saudi's bailed him out financially several times over two decades. Saudi's own quite a bit of Trump as does the UAE. Qatar has been a loan destination for Kushner.
Trump Jr. and Other Aides Met With Gulf Emissary Offering Help to Win Election
Donald Trump Jr. met in Trump Tower in the summer of 2016 with a representative of two wealthy Arab princes who said they were eager to help his father win election.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/19/us/politics/trump-jr-saudi-uae-nader-prince-zamel.html
Jaren Kushner's Real-Estate Firm Sought Money Directly from Qatar Government Weeks Before Blockade
https://theintercept.com/2018/03/02/jared-kushner-real-estate-qatar-blockade
The Kushners are Finally Getting that Sweet, Sweet Qatari Cash (to help bail out their 666 Fifth underwater property).
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/05/kushner-cos-brookfield-qatar
14
@syfredrick - He projects unlike anyone I've ever observed, to the extent I don't think he realizes it or may not understand the concept. He practically tells on himself. With regard to his claim he can't be bought because of his wealth, I'd be willing to bet he's not worth anywhere near what he claims, which he stated at one time to be between 8 ad 9 billion.
9
The walls are closing in. Starting to actually look forward to dinner conversations over the holidays now, keep up the good work!
170
Yes, because the Russia collusion evidence is. . .oops, I meant to say, well, something will be found, for sure.
1
As bizarre as it seems, I'm connecting the dots here to the Jamal Khashoggi killing as someone or some people lured him out of the safety of the States to murder him. He was a thorn in the side of the government for his writings in the Washington Post.
30
I'd be surprised if Individual-1 didn't get involved there, or even do planning. He'd never let "FAKE" actual journalists ("THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!") and their facts get in the way of his gut-based arguments or his well-moneyed foreign contributors.
4
Read this segment of the article in the NYT from 4/23/15 and transpose the name "Trump" in every where you see "Clinton".
"As the Russians gradually assumed control of Uranium One in three separate transactions from 2009 to 2013, Canadian records show, a flow of cash made its way to the Clinton Foundation. Uranium One’s chairman used his family foundation to make four donations totaling $2.35 million. Those contributions were not publicly disclosed by the Clintons, despite an agreement Mrs. Clinton had struck with the Obama White House to publicly identify all donors. Other people with ties to the company made donations as well.
And shortly after the Russians announced their intention to acquire a majority stake in Uranium One, Mr. Clinton received $500,000 for a Moscow speech from a Russian investment bank with links to the Kremlin that was promoting Uranium One stock."
Can anyone say there is a difference between these grifters? Seriously. Trump is corrupt as they come, but as is his habit, he's incompetent, a failure at it as in everything he touches from his businesses to his marriages to our government, and it's mostly small potato stuff like ripping off students from his "university" and the likes. But the Clinton's are actually very well accomplished and successful grifters. They're smart. They've done their homework, strategized, planned. And they know how to avoid scrutiny. What a contrast in malfeasance. You just got to admire it on some level.
8
One crime does not negate another. There is no point in comparing ‘crimes’ - multiple federal investigations & countless inquiries have cleared the Clintons from any wrongdoing, and over 11 federal agencies had to sign off on Uranium 1- but keep trying to justify your support of Trump.
You were conned. Welcome to reality.
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@FXQ
Clinton, blah, Clinton blah, Clinton blah....seriously, when do you folks not realize that these are 2 separate issues. The Clinton’s were cleared and as far as I am aware, at no point did either of the Clintons, publicly or privately, say Russia, if you’re listening, get information on Trump. Trump is very close to treason, corruption, and his family, grifters all, are not far behind. The banality of evil.
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@FXQ
Avoid scrutiny? Hillary Clinton spent most of her time being investigated. Uranium One, emails, Benghazi. Regarding Benghazi, the Republicans even persuaded relatives of the Benghazi victims to sue her personally. How low is that? Anyway, they lost in court. Clinton was doing her job as SOS, people unfortunately died, that's life when you're stationed in a nasty place. It was despicable that the Republicans fueled the grief of survivors for years for political purposes. Disgusting and despicable.
Uranium One? Investigated to death. Also, multiple government agencies are required to sign off on a deal like that. Whatever money Russians were paying the Clintons wasn't buying them anything regarding Uranium One. Read this: https://www.factcheck.org/2017/10/facts-uranium-one/
If you haven't figured out that all Republicans want to do is investigate the Clintons just to give the appearance of wrongdoing at every turn, then you haven't been paying attention. Ex-Representative Jason Chaffetz, who left the House to work at Fox Fake News when Trump was elected, vowed to do nothing for four years but investigate Hillary Clinton if she was elected.
The only reason the Clintons look corrupt to you is because the Republicans keep saying they are corrupt. Even James Comey, a pretty unflappable guy, looks pretty fed up with this nonsense now. You should be too.
51
Is anyone surprised? Donald has always been a paragon of corruption.
He spent the last four decades of his life hanging on at the fringes, a third rate real estate developer, a failed casino boss, a reality show star, a beauty pageant operator, a steak salesman, a serial philanderer, a phony philanthropist, etc.
But suddenly he vaults into the most powerful position in the world. After seven decades of flailing about, he hits the jackpot. What are the odds?
You can bet every corrupt regime, organization, individual in the world wanted in on the action. And he was ready to play. The feast he spent his whole life believing he was entitled to was suddenly laid before him.
These investigations ought to be interesting.
804
Well said! DJT has never been accepted by the “old money” crowd, and for good reason - he always resented the “elite” and convinced his red hat supporters to resent them too.
30
@NJLatelifemom - It's easy to picture little (handed) Donny Trump standing on a NYC street corner in his knee britches, watching a grifter milking the rubes with a shell game, thinking, "Cool!"
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@PegnVA
Among other reasons, the "old money" crowd never accepted him in his circles because of his bad manners, lack of taste and vulgarity.
Manners nor good taste can't be bought.
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I do not think that charging president Trump will go easy with his universe sized ego. The best way is to make one of his deals, but let the world know that he made it. On condition he leaves office no one will be charged neither him nor his family but he must pay back all monies made illegally whilst in office, he must also keep off twitter lose the title of President and keep quiet.
15
Fascinating to see how oil is at the base of the American/Saudi Arabia friendship.There is so much power and money involved and no virtue or compassion. Human beings at their most disgusting. Not my definition of friendship.
51
One thing is clear: Mr. Trump has the Midas touch. Everything he touches turns into a muffler.
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@Ben Morris
What a great comment Ben.
And the tailpipe hangs out of Trump's mouth.
17
@Ben Morris This line made me laugh out loud in a crowded Starbucks.... The strange stares were worth it.
5
Let’s face it: Absolutely everything associated with Trump is corrupt – from his Foundation to his businesses to his campaign. He is an undisciplined and weak man seemingly without an ounce of virtue. His “time in the barrel,” though, has arrived.
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@Orange Nightmare
Indeed, but even among some NYT commenters all this is still only a witch hunt.
My guess is that they don't even read the whole articles but only the headlines.
8
Spot on and simply stated.
1
@Orange Nightmare
Back in the day oranges were good for you. But not this one.
1
The Trump Foundation and its use presaged these findings. Would you expect any different?
21
"Mr. Manafort dispatched two friends from the campaign, Laurance Gay and Ken McKay, to run the operation."
"A press officer said at the time that the committee violated no rules because the campaign never paid the two men."
Prosecution will demonstrate that they exercised discretionary control over their organization and in doing so, they violated the "cooling off" period.
Andrew Perez, writing for NBCNEWS, on August 16, 2016, writes in this NBC News piece:
"Rebuilding America Now began paying McKay for “political strategy consulting” only days after it was reported that he was leaving the Trump campaign, according to the group’s filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). "
Two years later, we are out of the dog and pony show phase, and moving towards prosecution.
It is very disturbing that illegal foreign donations fueled this Super PAC, and primed the way to distort the premise of American Democracy for the years, that followed.
37
Mueller’s office has scored 7 guilty pleas and counting. I suspect, soon enough, he will show the cards he continues to hold, and bring down Individual-1.
153
With Mueller digging deeper and deeper into the Trump organization, the boy who put his finger in the dike to save the town, is going to need a big boulder to plug that hole!
20
Now that Butina has pleaded guilty to conspiracy, is there any investigation into the NRA's $26 million contributed to the Trump campaign?
Where did their money come from? Russia? Isn't that foreign contributions as well?
And where did other NRA money? Which Senators and Congressmen? Isn't that possibly Russian as well?
897
No, we’re supposed to believe the annual membership dues paid to the NRA by rural hunters and gun hobbyists provided the many millions that bought the GOP. Sure, sounds plausible.
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@Mimi
Russia is the most populous ethnic Slavic nation. Maria Butina is an ethnic Slavic Russian.
Vladimir Putin is an ethnic Slavic Russian communist atheist KGB agent who hacks and meddles in our socioeconomic educational and political civil secular matters.
Ivana and Melania Trump are both ethnic Slavic Czech/ Slovenian communist atheist who are both alleged to have illegally entered and worked in America then been naturalized by fraud. During the campaign Trump promised to prove that Melania Trump legally entered America and was legally naturalized. When?
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@Mimi
Good questions...I hope Team Mueller will explore this thread. At one point, reports have been made the Mitch McConnel's election PAC, or one close to him, received disbursements from Russian funded NRA PAC.
Who else has benefited from this money?
12
Although the unraveling of an American Presidency is sad to see, this president deserves every charge that can be brought against him and his cohorts. Never has such an egregious disregard for American trust been displayed by an American president. The more we learn of his and his supporters' mechanizations the more I dispair of the ability of our election process to ensure that we will ever be able to have a say in how we will be represented by the representatives of nation. Rather than making America great again, we have made America the fools of the world.
973
@Angelsea I am very sorry that for the moment this is true, however, if you look at it another way, this vile man has shown just how corrupt the system is. So he may go down in history not only as the most corrupt, criminal and inept President of the United States of America, but the one who saved American democracy after it is rebuilt.
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@David
I so hope you are right. Our future depends on it. But the fight goes beyond swamp politics — swamp banks, swamp oil companies, swamp racism, swamp Climate-deniers ... the list goes on.
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@Angelsea
What " unraveling" ? What is "sad to see" ?
Trump is still President of the United States.
Mitch McConnell, Benjamin Netanyahu, Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin and Mohammed bin Salman are still smiling and smirking.
What " we" and "our" ?
Donald won 58% of the white vote including 54% of white women. Hillary won 92% of the black vote including 98% of black women.
What " American trust" and "great" again" ?
If America were a great democracy then why weren't Al Gore and Hillary Clinton elected President? If America were a democracy California and Wyoming would not have the same number of Senators. If America was a democracy then why don't we vote for federal judges and justices? If America is a democracy then why hasn't the size of the House and Electoral College increased proportional to population?
America's white Trump majority is getting exactly what they deserve and have earned. MAGA!
42
It seems everything Trump does breaks at least one law.
341
@NewsReaper
All Ten Commandments are routinely broken by Trump. Along with Trump abusing the most beloved and blessed of Jesus Christ. See Matthew 25 31-46. Trump loves and worships money. Trump is full of hubris and pride.
12
@NewsReaper It's not a bug it's a feature of Trump enterprises!
11
It's insufficient to investigate the alleged foreign donations if no caps are brought on campaign donations period. America's political system runs on bribery, plain and simple. Trump is just taking advantage of what has already been allowed for years.
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@Deborah
Foreign contributions are illegal.
14
@Deborah - Citizens United, supported on a 5-4 vote by 5 (R)egressive Justices who were nominated by (R) presidents.
Wonder who sold our government to the pluto-corporatocacy? Look no further than the (R)eprehensible, (R)egressive (R)s.
41
You are so right, Deborah. If these investigations bring about the end of Super PACs, these last two shameful years for the US may not have passed in vain.
19
I don't think there is any doubt it happened.
If only question is whether the FBI can collate sufficient evidence to take to court.
44
The Independent and New York Investigations have focused on peripheral individuals and circumstances surrounding Trump but not he himself, and the indication is to me that the Mueller and New York Teams will not penalize Trump himself. As much as we think of Trump's possible big time crimes in our own minds, I don't see any actions that way in the future. Everything seems to be fizzling out or the past disclosures would not have been made in my view.
5
The more threads that prosecutors pull, the more we see the unraveling of the web of lies spun by Individual 1 and his band of corrupt cronies. What is unusual in this case is how all the behind-the-scenes machinations are mirrored by highly public statements and tweets from the leader of the cabal himself. Trump appears to have set traps for himself, and is likely to fall hard into one of them, hopefully soon.
314
I view this as "Par for the course" actually. If this is any indication of the outcome of the Independent Investigation by Mueller, I don't think the final report will be so surprising.
15
I just can’t even.
I follow this stuff closely, very closely, and to be frank , I just don’t even understand the magnitude of one allegation, crime or conviction versus another.
I guess that’s the nature of all of this these days. Absolutely everything is lost in the weeds anymore.
31