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solarbirdConsolidating power and corruption of justice edition, no COVID-19 here.
Dropping a case against a man who has already pled guilty is a real "fuck you" in the face of everyone not part of the cabal, and straight-up pissing in the face of Lady Justice.
Also, the Adam Schiff article and statement are long and important, as are the materials linked to within the story. They colluded. Trump said he'd do it again. They tried it again, in Ukraine. He'll try it yet again, only this time, without even the pretence of a Department of Justice, and knowing that the Republican Party will back him to and past the limit.
Barring a COVID-19 death, this only get worse, kids. Sorry.
COVID-19 edition is next.
----- 1 -----
Trump Taps Point Man to Remove Pentagon Officials Seen as Disloyal
Officials fear the arrival of a former top aide to Vice President Mike Pence who could undercut Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
By Jack Detsch, Robbie Gramer | May 6, 2020
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/05/06/trump-pence-pentagon-point-man-disloyal/
In another move aimed at consolidating control over policy and messaging, the Trump administration is sending a White House loyalist to serve in a key Defense Department policy role that officials are worried is aimed at weeding out civilians not loyal to the president, Foreign Policy has learned.
Michael Cutrone, who has been detailed as Vice President Mike Pence’s top national security aide for South Asia, is set to arrive at the Pentagon to serve in a behind-the-scenes role vetting Defense Department officials for loyalty to the president, according to two current administration officials.
Some officials fear that the arrival of Cutrone and other planned personnel moves at the Pentagon could undercut Defense Secretary Mark Esper as the White House has looked to put in place more defense officials loyal to the president, headlined by the reported pick of retired Army Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata as the agency’s top policy official, who caught President Donald Trump’s eye as a Fox News commentator.
“He is pushing to replace and remove civilians in OSD that are not aligned with the White House,” one current senior administration official told Foreign Policy of Cutrone’s plans to reshuffle officials in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. “Esper has no say in who the key people are going into senior positions.”
----- 2 -----
Justice Department Is Dropping Flynn's Trump-Russia Case
The Justice Department says it's dropping its criminal case against President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser Michael Flynn.
By MICHAEL BALSAMO and ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press
May 7, 2020
https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2020-05-07/ap-exclusive-justice-dept-dropping-flynns-criminal-case
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Thursday said it is dropping the criminal case against President Donald Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, abandoning a prosecution that became a rallying cry for the president and his supporters in attacking the FBI's Trump-Russia investigation.
The action was a stunning reversal for one of the signature cases brought by special counsel Robert Mueller. It comes even though prosecutors for the past three years have maintained that Flynn lied to the FBI in a January 2017 interview about his conversations with the Russian ambassador.
Flynn himself admitted as much, pleading guilty before asking to withdraw the plea, and became a key cooperator for Mueller as the special counel investigated ties between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign.
Thursday's action was swiftly embraced by Trump, who has relentlessly tweeted about the “outrageous” case and last week pronounced Flynn “exonerated." It could also newly energize supporters who have taken up the retired Army lieutenant general as a cause.
----- 3 -----
William Barr’s DOJ Is Now Covering Up Crimes for Trump in Broad Daylight
By Jeremy Stahl
May 07, 2020
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/05/barr-department-of-justice-dismiss-michael-flynn-charges.html
On Thursday, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Timothy Shea, filed a motion to drop the charges against former Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn, who, in the course of the special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, pled guilty to making false statements to the FBI but later withdrew that plea. The move came hours after the lead prosecutor, Brandon Van Grack, withdrew from the case, placing it in the hands of one of Attorney General William Barr’s former top advisors. President Donald Trump has pushed for years through his tweets, public statements, and personal interactions with top DOJ officials for Flynn’s case to be dropped.
In the extraordinary motion, Shea argued that the FBI’s investigation of Flynn was based on “frail and shifting justifications” and that the case against him was too thin to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.
The effort on behalf of the president by Barr and Shea to cover up already confessed crimes is a further step toward the complete corruption of the Department of Justice. The department was left reeling earlier this year when, after Trump’s urging, the same U.S. Attorney’s office changed its sentence recommendation for another Trump associate and felon, Roger Stone, prompting the public withdrawal of all of the attorneys previously working on the case. All that’s left, really, is for the department to start prosecuting Trump’s political enemies.
“The fact that DOJ has reversed itself 180 degrees to let a presidential ally off the hook—after he pled guilty—is a yet another among the slinking cavalcade of humiliations Trump and Barr have inflicted on the [DOJ],” former federal prosecutor and University of Missouri School of Law professor Frank Bowman told me.
----- 4 -----
Matthew Yglesias
twitter.com/mattyglesias
11:57 AM · May 7, 2020
https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1258470985000509441
I think you have to see Bill Barr dropping charges against someone who already entered a guilty plea as a preview of what kind of abuses of power we’ll see as the election heats up this fall.
----- 5 -----
Retailers launch ad blitz opposing Trump's demand for higher Postal Service delivery rates
By Zack Budryk - 05/06/20
https://thehill.com/policy/finance/496504-retailers-launch-ad-blitz-opposing-trumps-demand-for-higher-postal-service
An Amazon-backed alliance of online retailers has launched an advertising campaign pushing back on President Trump’s calls for the U.S. Postal Service to increase delivery rates for packages, planning to spend over $2 million to marshal Republican opposition to the idea.
The group, the Package Coalition, will run its ads Wednesday night on Fox News’ “Hannity,” one of the president’s favorite shows. It does not single out Trump by name but says the proposed 400 percent rate increase would constitute a “massive package tax” that would affect small businesses and individuals who receive prescription drugs through the mail, according to The New York Times.
“All of these companies know that in order to keep that market competitive and to keep operations most efficient, an affordable U.S.P.S. involvement is absolutely essential,” former Army Secretary John M. McHugh, who serves as the group’s chairman, said in a statement, calling Trump’s proposal “dangerous.”
----- 6 -----
READ IT: Adam Schiff releases all declassified transcripts related to investigation into Trump’s Russia scandal
May 7, 2020
By Sarah K. Burris
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/05/read-it-adam-schiff-releases-all-declassified-transcripts-related-to-investigation-into-trumps-russia-scandal/
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) has wanted to release all of the information heard in a classified setting about President Donald Trump’s involvement in the Russia scandal, but the director of national intelligence had been dragging their feet on declassifying it.
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) went on Fox News Thursday, to blame Schiff for the slow release. Schiff, along with the staff, have been off of Capitol Hill due to the Washington, D.C. stay-at-home order due to the coronavirus. Schiff advocated for the release of the transcripts, but that wasn’t enough for Nunes, who whined about it taking too long.
In a statement released Thursday, Schiff released everything that had been declassified by the DNI about the investigation into President Donald Trump’s collusion with Russia.
You can see the full list of transcripts released here.
You can read Schiff’s full statement below:
“From 2017 to 2018, the House Intelligence Committee conducted an investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. Despite the many barriers put in our way by the then-Republican Majority, and attempts by some key witnesses to lie to us and obstruct our investigation, the transcripts that we are releasing today show precisely what Special Counsel Robert Mueller also revealed: That the Trump campaign, and Donald Trump himself, invited illicit Russian help, made full use of that help, and then lied and obstructed the investigations in order to cover up this misconduct.
“Unfortunately, the President’s misconduct did not end with his election in 2016 or his attempts to cover up that effort. Rather, in the course of his presidency, he continued to seek illicit foreign help in his campaign by coercing another nation, Ukraine, to smear his opponent. After making use of Russia’s help with his first presidential campaign, President Trump pressed the Ukrainian president to help him in 2020 by withholding critical military aid to that country and a coveted head of state meeting.
“These acts ultimately led to the President’s impeachment in the House of Representatives and the first bipartisan vote in the Senate in our history in support of a conviction of a President of the United States. The President’s efforts to make use of the help of a foreign power to win an election, and then to extort yet another foreign power to try to win again, represent a grave threat to the health of our democracy now and in the future.
“The transcripts released today richly detail evidence of the Trump campaign’s efforts to invite, make use of, and cover up Russia’s help in the 2016 presidential election. Special Counsel Robert Mueller identified in his report similar, and even more extensive, evidence of improper links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government. A bipartisan Senate investigation also found that Russia sought to help the candidacy of Donald Trump in 2016.
“While Special Counsel Mueller found insufficient evidence to prove the crime of criminal conspiracy beyond a reasonable doubt, he refused to draw any conclusion on the issue of collusion — contrary to false representations made by Attorney General Bill Barr and others. There is ample evidence of the corrupt interactions between the Trump campaign and Russia, both direct and circumstantial, in the record:
* In June of 2016, a Russian delegation offered dirt on Donald Trump’s rival—presidential candidate Hillary Clinton—to the highest levels of the Trump campaign, and did so in writing. Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., accepted that offer, and then set up a secret meeting between the Russian delegation, himself, Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to discuss that illicit help. When news of the meeting was about to break, Trump and his son drafted a false statement for the press together in order to cover up the true purpose of the meeting. This written offer of illegal help by the Russians and its acceptance by the President’s campaign, and the secret meeting that followed, provide some of the most damning and direct evidence of the President’s to make use of Russia’s assistance in the election.
* Throughout the summer of 2016, the Trump campaign and candidate Trump himself repeatedly sought damaging information on Clinton from Russia. In July of 2016, Trump publicly called on Russia to hack Clinton’s emails, and – as the Special Counsel found – that night, Russian military intelligence officers did precisely that. Our transcripts show that numerous individuals affiliated with or working for the Trump campaign were in communication with individuals offering help to set up private backchannels with the Russian government.
* Multiple witnesses sought to hide and cover up illicit activity related to Russia during the presidential campaign. One-time campaign advisor and close confidant to Trump, Roger Stone, has been sentenced to prison for lying to the Committee about his advanced knowledge of impending WikiLeaks releases of Clinton campaign information. Former personal attorney to Trump, Michael Cohen, was imprisoned in part on charges that he lied to the Committee about Trump’s role in arranging a lucrative business deal in Russia during the course of his campaign and early presidency. The President’s pursuit of Trump Tower Moscow — potentially the most lucrative deal of his life — while lying to the American people about his business interests in Russia, provided the most serious counterintelligence risk to the United States.
* Another associate of Trump, Erik Prince, misled our Committee about his efforts to take part in a secret backchannel with a senior Russian government official while he was unofficially supporting the Trump campaign.
* “Like the Ukraine investigation that would follow it, the investigation into the Trump campaign’s effort to seek and utilize Russian help in 2016 and to obstruct justice, reveal a President who believes that he is above the law. But we are a country where the truth still matters and where right still matters. Our investigation into the Trump campaign, and the evidence we uncovered despite formidable obstruction, affirms that.”
Background:
On September 17, 2018, the Committee voted unanimously to send all transcripts to the ODNI for a nonpartisan classification review by the Intelligence Community, and authorized the public release of the transcripts once the classification review was completed. In March of 2019, the Committee was informed that ODNI intended to share the Committee transcripts with the White House because the White House claimed the transcripts implicated “White House equities.” In response, the Committee directed that the ODNI refrain from sharing the transcripts, which remain Committee property and were shared with the intelligence community only for the purpose of declassification. We urged that ODNI complete the classification review as requested and without any further delay.
In September 2019, the Committee again voted to release the transcripts. Nevertheless, the White House continued to insist on a prior review and the right to redact non-classified matters that it alleged would implicate their “equities.” The Committee continued to reject this unprecedented interference in the classification review, and continues to reject the idea that the White House can exert some after the fact rationale to deprive Congress of the ability to release its own work product to the public.
And the transcripts also show that during the transition period in late 2016, the incoming National Security Advisor Michael Flynn undertook efforts to undermine U.S. sanctions on Russia imposed by the previous administration over Russia’s interference in the election on Trump’s behalf. Flynn would later lie to the FBI about these efforts, and the President would try to pressure then-FBI Director Comey to shut down any investigation into Flynn. It would take the firing of then Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the later appointment of an unscrupulous Attorney General, Bill Barr, for the President to achieve his aim of seeking dismissal of the case against Flynn, and only after Flynn pled guilty to lying to the FBI.
“Despite taking part in this investigation and hearing these facts first-hand, the transcripts reveal how House Republicans used witness interviews not to gain the facts, but to press President Trump’s false narrative of ‘no collusion, no obstruction.’ It would be a pattern they would follow throughout the Russia investigation and into the President’s subsequent Ukraine misconduct. To that end, House Republicans sought to use the Committee’s Russia investigation to undermine the Intelligence Community’s assessment that Russia sought to hurt Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. That assessment has been affirmed by this Committee’s Democrats, the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, and Special Counsel Mueller.
“These transcripts should have been released long before now, but the White House held up their release to the public by refusing to allow the Intelligence Community to make redactions on the basis of classified information, rather than White House political interests. Only now, and during a deadly pandemic, has the President released his hold on this damning information and evidence.
Only this week, the Acting DNI finally informed the Committee that the White House was abandoning its hold. As of May 4, the ODNI reported that “the interagency review of the remaining ten transcripts has been completed,” and that ODNI completed the redaction process begun 18 months ago. The Committee, after a review of the 53 transcripts which totaled tens of thousands of pages and to avoid any further delays, has allowed all of the redactions proposed by ODNI despite our concerns that the ODNI excessively over-redacted information that has since been declassified.
Redactions applied to the classified and sensitive transcripts released today were the work of the ODNI, not the Committee, and the Committee has accepted all IC-proposed redactions for now. The Committee previously applied limited redactions to all transcripts to protect personally identifiable information such as email addresses, phone numbers, or staff names.
----- 7 -----
Aaron Rupar
twitter.com/atrupar
7 May 2020
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1258541374527266816
REPORTER: How will history look back on your decision to drop charges against Flynn?
BILL BARR: “Well, history is written by the winners. So it largely depends on who’s writing the history.”
[EDITOR: The entire theoretical point of "justice" is to make it so it's not just winner take all, that it's not just who gets to write the history. This is a complete repudiation of his post and oath, and he should be straight up impeached and jailed.]
Dropping a case against a man who has already pled guilty is a real "fuck you" in the face of everyone not part of the cabal, and straight-up pissing in the face of Lady Justice.
Also, the Adam Schiff article and statement are long and important, as are the materials linked to within the story. They colluded. Trump said he'd do it again. They tried it again, in Ukraine. He'll try it yet again, only this time, without even the pretence of a Department of Justice, and knowing that the Republican Party will back him to and past the limit.
Barring a COVID-19 death, this only get worse, kids. Sorry.
COVID-19 edition is next.
- Trump Taps Point Man to Remove Pentagon Officials Seen as Disloyal
- Justice Department Is Dropping Flynn's Trump-Russia Case
- William Barr’s DOJ Is Now Covering Up Crimes for Trump in Broad Daylight
- "a preview of what kind of abuses of power we’ll see as the election heats up this fall"
- Retailers launch ad blitz opposing Trump's demand for higher Postal Service delivery rates
- READ IT: Adam Schiff releases all declassified transcripts related to investigation into Trump’s Russia scandal
- History is Written by the Winners
----- 1 -----
Trump Taps Point Man to Remove Pentagon Officials Seen as Disloyal
Officials fear the arrival of a former top aide to Vice President Mike Pence who could undercut Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
By Jack Detsch, Robbie Gramer | May 6, 2020
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/05/06/trump-pence-pentagon-point-man-disloyal/
In another move aimed at consolidating control over policy and messaging, the Trump administration is sending a White House loyalist to serve in a key Defense Department policy role that officials are worried is aimed at weeding out civilians not loyal to the president, Foreign Policy has learned.
Michael Cutrone, who has been detailed as Vice President Mike Pence’s top national security aide for South Asia, is set to arrive at the Pentagon to serve in a behind-the-scenes role vetting Defense Department officials for loyalty to the president, according to two current administration officials.
Some officials fear that the arrival of Cutrone and other planned personnel moves at the Pentagon could undercut Defense Secretary Mark Esper as the White House has looked to put in place more defense officials loyal to the president, headlined by the reported pick of retired Army Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata as the agency’s top policy official, who caught President Donald Trump’s eye as a Fox News commentator.
“He is pushing to replace and remove civilians in OSD that are not aligned with the White House,” one current senior administration official told Foreign Policy of Cutrone’s plans to reshuffle officials in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. “Esper has no say in who the key people are going into senior positions.”
----- 2 -----
Justice Department Is Dropping Flynn's Trump-Russia Case
The Justice Department says it's dropping its criminal case against President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser Michael Flynn.
By MICHAEL BALSAMO and ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press
May 7, 2020
https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2020-05-07/ap-exclusive-justice-dept-dropping-flynns-criminal-case
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Thursday said it is dropping the criminal case against President Donald Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, abandoning a prosecution that became a rallying cry for the president and his supporters in attacking the FBI's Trump-Russia investigation.
The action was a stunning reversal for one of the signature cases brought by special counsel Robert Mueller. It comes even though prosecutors for the past three years have maintained that Flynn lied to the FBI in a January 2017 interview about his conversations with the Russian ambassador.
Flynn himself admitted as much, pleading guilty before asking to withdraw the plea, and became a key cooperator for Mueller as the special counel investigated ties between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign.
Thursday's action was swiftly embraced by Trump, who has relentlessly tweeted about the “outrageous” case and last week pronounced Flynn “exonerated." It could also newly energize supporters who have taken up the retired Army lieutenant general as a cause.
----- 3 -----
William Barr’s DOJ Is Now Covering Up Crimes for Trump in Broad Daylight
By Jeremy Stahl
May 07, 2020
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/05/barr-department-of-justice-dismiss-michael-flynn-charges.html
On Thursday, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Timothy Shea, filed a motion to drop the charges against former Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn, who, in the course of the special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, pled guilty to making false statements to the FBI but later withdrew that plea. The move came hours after the lead prosecutor, Brandon Van Grack, withdrew from the case, placing it in the hands of one of Attorney General William Barr’s former top advisors. President Donald Trump has pushed for years through his tweets, public statements, and personal interactions with top DOJ officials for Flynn’s case to be dropped.
In the extraordinary motion, Shea argued that the FBI’s investigation of Flynn was based on “frail and shifting justifications” and that the case against him was too thin to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.
The effort on behalf of the president by Barr and Shea to cover up already confessed crimes is a further step toward the complete corruption of the Department of Justice. The department was left reeling earlier this year when, after Trump’s urging, the same U.S. Attorney’s office changed its sentence recommendation for another Trump associate and felon, Roger Stone, prompting the public withdrawal of all of the attorneys previously working on the case. All that’s left, really, is for the department to start prosecuting Trump’s political enemies.
“The fact that DOJ has reversed itself 180 degrees to let a presidential ally off the hook—after he pled guilty—is a yet another among the slinking cavalcade of humiliations Trump and Barr have inflicted on the [DOJ],” former federal prosecutor and University of Missouri School of Law professor Frank Bowman told me.
----- 4 -----
Matthew Yglesias
twitter.com/mattyglesias
11:57 AM · May 7, 2020
https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1258470985000509441
I think you have to see Bill Barr dropping charges against someone who already entered a guilty plea as a preview of what kind of abuses of power we’ll see as the election heats up this fall.
----- 5 -----
Retailers launch ad blitz opposing Trump's demand for higher Postal Service delivery rates
By Zack Budryk - 05/06/20
https://thehill.com/policy/finance/496504-retailers-launch-ad-blitz-opposing-trumps-demand-for-higher-postal-service
An Amazon-backed alliance of online retailers has launched an advertising campaign pushing back on President Trump’s calls for the U.S. Postal Service to increase delivery rates for packages, planning to spend over $2 million to marshal Republican opposition to the idea.
The group, the Package Coalition, will run its ads Wednesday night on Fox News’ “Hannity,” one of the president’s favorite shows. It does not single out Trump by name but says the proposed 400 percent rate increase would constitute a “massive package tax” that would affect small businesses and individuals who receive prescription drugs through the mail, according to The New York Times.
“All of these companies know that in order to keep that market competitive and to keep operations most efficient, an affordable U.S.P.S. involvement is absolutely essential,” former Army Secretary John M. McHugh, who serves as the group’s chairman, said in a statement, calling Trump’s proposal “dangerous.”
----- 6 -----
READ IT: Adam Schiff releases all declassified transcripts related to investigation into Trump’s Russia scandal
May 7, 2020
By Sarah K. Burris
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/05/read-it-adam-schiff-releases-all-declassified-transcripts-related-to-investigation-into-trumps-russia-scandal/
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) has wanted to release all of the information heard in a classified setting about President Donald Trump’s involvement in the Russia scandal, but the director of national intelligence had been dragging their feet on declassifying it.
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) went on Fox News Thursday, to blame Schiff for the slow release. Schiff, along with the staff, have been off of Capitol Hill due to the Washington, D.C. stay-at-home order due to the coronavirus. Schiff advocated for the release of the transcripts, but that wasn’t enough for Nunes, who whined about it taking too long.
In a statement released Thursday, Schiff released everything that had been declassified by the DNI about the investigation into President Donald Trump’s collusion with Russia.
You can see the full list of transcripts released here.
You can read Schiff’s full statement below:
“From 2017 to 2018, the House Intelligence Committee conducted an investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. Despite the many barriers put in our way by the then-Republican Majority, and attempts by some key witnesses to lie to us and obstruct our investigation, the transcripts that we are releasing today show precisely what Special Counsel Robert Mueller also revealed: That the Trump campaign, and Donald Trump himself, invited illicit Russian help, made full use of that help, and then lied and obstructed the investigations in order to cover up this misconduct.
“Unfortunately, the President’s misconduct did not end with his election in 2016 or his attempts to cover up that effort. Rather, in the course of his presidency, he continued to seek illicit foreign help in his campaign by coercing another nation, Ukraine, to smear his opponent. After making use of Russia’s help with his first presidential campaign, President Trump pressed the Ukrainian president to help him in 2020 by withholding critical military aid to that country and a coveted head of state meeting.
“These acts ultimately led to the President’s impeachment in the House of Representatives and the first bipartisan vote in the Senate in our history in support of a conviction of a President of the United States. The President’s efforts to make use of the help of a foreign power to win an election, and then to extort yet another foreign power to try to win again, represent a grave threat to the health of our democracy now and in the future.
“The transcripts released today richly detail evidence of the Trump campaign’s efforts to invite, make use of, and cover up Russia’s help in the 2016 presidential election. Special Counsel Robert Mueller identified in his report similar, and even more extensive, evidence of improper links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government. A bipartisan Senate investigation also found that Russia sought to help the candidacy of Donald Trump in 2016.
“While Special Counsel Mueller found insufficient evidence to prove the crime of criminal conspiracy beyond a reasonable doubt, he refused to draw any conclusion on the issue of collusion — contrary to false representations made by Attorney General Bill Barr and others. There is ample evidence of the corrupt interactions between the Trump campaign and Russia, both direct and circumstantial, in the record:
* In June of 2016, a Russian delegation offered dirt on Donald Trump’s rival—presidential candidate Hillary Clinton—to the highest levels of the Trump campaign, and did so in writing. Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., accepted that offer, and then set up a secret meeting between the Russian delegation, himself, Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to discuss that illicit help. When news of the meeting was about to break, Trump and his son drafted a false statement for the press together in order to cover up the true purpose of the meeting. This written offer of illegal help by the Russians and its acceptance by the President’s campaign, and the secret meeting that followed, provide some of the most damning and direct evidence of the President’s to make use of Russia’s assistance in the election.
* Throughout the summer of 2016, the Trump campaign and candidate Trump himself repeatedly sought damaging information on Clinton from Russia. In July of 2016, Trump publicly called on Russia to hack Clinton’s emails, and – as the Special Counsel found – that night, Russian military intelligence officers did precisely that. Our transcripts show that numerous individuals affiliated with or working for the Trump campaign were in communication with individuals offering help to set up private backchannels with the Russian government.
* Multiple witnesses sought to hide and cover up illicit activity related to Russia during the presidential campaign. One-time campaign advisor and close confidant to Trump, Roger Stone, has been sentenced to prison for lying to the Committee about his advanced knowledge of impending WikiLeaks releases of Clinton campaign information. Former personal attorney to Trump, Michael Cohen, was imprisoned in part on charges that he lied to the Committee about Trump’s role in arranging a lucrative business deal in Russia during the course of his campaign and early presidency. The President’s pursuit of Trump Tower Moscow — potentially the most lucrative deal of his life — while lying to the American people about his business interests in Russia, provided the most serious counterintelligence risk to the United States.
* Another associate of Trump, Erik Prince, misled our Committee about his efforts to take part in a secret backchannel with a senior Russian government official while he was unofficially supporting the Trump campaign.
* “Like the Ukraine investigation that would follow it, the investigation into the Trump campaign’s effort to seek and utilize Russian help in 2016 and to obstruct justice, reveal a President who believes that he is above the law. But we are a country where the truth still matters and where right still matters. Our investigation into the Trump campaign, and the evidence we uncovered despite formidable obstruction, affirms that.”
Background:
On September 17, 2018, the Committee voted unanimously to send all transcripts to the ODNI for a nonpartisan classification review by the Intelligence Community, and authorized the public release of the transcripts once the classification review was completed. In March of 2019, the Committee was informed that ODNI intended to share the Committee transcripts with the White House because the White House claimed the transcripts implicated “White House equities.” In response, the Committee directed that the ODNI refrain from sharing the transcripts, which remain Committee property and were shared with the intelligence community only for the purpose of declassification. We urged that ODNI complete the classification review as requested and without any further delay.
In September 2019, the Committee again voted to release the transcripts. Nevertheless, the White House continued to insist on a prior review and the right to redact non-classified matters that it alleged would implicate their “equities.” The Committee continued to reject this unprecedented interference in the classification review, and continues to reject the idea that the White House can exert some after the fact rationale to deprive Congress of the ability to release its own work product to the public.
And the transcripts also show that during the transition period in late 2016, the incoming National Security Advisor Michael Flynn undertook efforts to undermine U.S. sanctions on Russia imposed by the previous administration over Russia’s interference in the election on Trump’s behalf. Flynn would later lie to the FBI about these efforts, and the President would try to pressure then-FBI Director Comey to shut down any investigation into Flynn. It would take the firing of then Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the later appointment of an unscrupulous Attorney General, Bill Barr, for the President to achieve his aim of seeking dismissal of the case against Flynn, and only after Flynn pled guilty to lying to the FBI.
“Despite taking part in this investigation and hearing these facts first-hand, the transcripts reveal how House Republicans used witness interviews not to gain the facts, but to press President Trump’s false narrative of ‘no collusion, no obstruction.’ It would be a pattern they would follow throughout the Russia investigation and into the President’s subsequent Ukraine misconduct. To that end, House Republicans sought to use the Committee’s Russia investigation to undermine the Intelligence Community’s assessment that Russia sought to hurt Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. That assessment has been affirmed by this Committee’s Democrats, the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, and Special Counsel Mueller.
“These transcripts should have been released long before now, but the White House held up their release to the public by refusing to allow the Intelligence Community to make redactions on the basis of classified information, rather than White House political interests. Only now, and during a deadly pandemic, has the President released his hold on this damning information and evidence.
Only this week, the Acting DNI finally informed the Committee that the White House was abandoning its hold. As of May 4, the ODNI reported that “the interagency review of the remaining ten transcripts has been completed,” and that ODNI completed the redaction process begun 18 months ago. The Committee, after a review of the 53 transcripts which totaled tens of thousands of pages and to avoid any further delays, has allowed all of the redactions proposed by ODNI despite our concerns that the ODNI excessively over-redacted information that has since been declassified.
Redactions applied to the classified and sensitive transcripts released today were the work of the ODNI, not the Committee, and the Committee has accepted all IC-proposed redactions for now. The Committee previously applied limited redactions to all transcripts to protect personally identifiable information such as email addresses, phone numbers, or staff names.
----- 7 -----
Aaron Rupar
twitter.com/atrupar
7 May 2020
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1258541374527266816
REPORTER: How will history look back on your decision to drop charges against Flynn?
BILL BARR: “Well, history is written by the winners. So it largely depends on who’s writing the history.”
[EDITOR: The entire theoretical point of "justice" is to make it so it's not just winner take all, that it's not just who gets to write the history. This is a complete repudiation of his post and oath, and he should be straight up impeached and jailed.]
