TWGB: The Truth Still Matters

The funny thing about Trump ally Roger Stone being sentenced to 40 months in prison, which falls short of the original sentencing request from the DOJ prosecutors, which was later amended to a lighter sentence request, which lead to the resignation from the trial of some of the prosecutors, which was followed by today's prosecution team offering the original guidelines (did you keep all that straight?)--is that Judge Berman Jackson was probably going to go with 40 months anyway. All that foofaraw was...unnecessary? The judge was always going to take multiple factors into account. Stone certainly didn't help himself by flouting the limits of the gag order regarding the trial, etc., but in the end, the sentencing wasn't abusive.

Of course, Trump can decide to pardon Stone. What he can't really do, though, is fully exonerate him.  A pardon would relieve Stone of the penalty he was sentenced to, but doesn't erase that he was tried and found guilty in a court of law, that the evidence was actually against him, and would only serve to highlight part of what the judge said at sentencing:

"He was not prosecuted, as some have complained, for standing up for the President. He was prosecuted for covering up for the President."

 A pardon might be considered something the president has as part of his executive power, but to use it as part of a pattern of corrupt behavior, such as obstruction of justice regarding investigations into himself or related parties of interest is a clear abuse. It shouldn't be used to undermine the judiciary, or to serve as a bribe to encourage acts of obstruction or other violations of the law.

Which is relevant because in other recent news, it was confirmed by former Rep. Dana Rohrabacher that he went to see Julian Assange and offered that Trump would pardon him if he would provide evidence that the DNC was not hacked by Russia. It's hard to determine how much impetus that might have had from the Trump side of things, since then-COS Kelly was actually performing a reasonable level of gatekeeping at the time (but the man couldn't be everywhere, could he?) and Rohrabacher strikes me as the kind of guy who could use his own initiative (he went with rumored floor-shitter and actual Holocaust-denier Charles C. Johnson, so place your bets folks--these are weird people).

It would be worth a little investigation though, you think? Of course, I don't think anyone expected Assange to ever dime out his "sources" regarding the DNC hack because he was active in promoting the Seth Rich hoax just like Michael Cohen's third client and for some weird reason everybody's go-between, Sean Hannity.  What is interesting is still the extent that Trump goes to pretend that Russia never was involved in 2016. Like his talk of the 400 lb. mystery guy who did the hack, His asseverations that he believes Putin. His promotion of the very wrong and debunked Crowd Strike hoax, which was a big part of his own damn dumb stupid impeachment, which was just recently handled very well by 60 Minutes.

For goodness' sake--it was Russia!  They did actually do a shit-ton of bots and social media ads. The help is pretty hard to deny. Except--Trump is still denying it, and because he's president, the results are far more destructive.

It comes out that the sudden installation of Ric Grenell, current Ambassador to Germany, Trump loyalist and former internet troll, to Acting DNI has a little bit to do with what should be a routine update on election security to the House Intelligence Committee, Apparently, both parties on the committee were briefed regarding the security of our elections and the intent of Russia and other foreign actors to again interfere. Trump, in his paranoid and guilty little mind, took that to mean that the Deep State was telling on him to Lil' Shifty Schiff and the rest. And thus, a competent acting DNI (who was limited by the vacancies act, regardless, but still was at least, qualified for intelligence experience) is being replaced for now by someone who does not have intel experience and will be advised by another loyalist, Devin Nunes associate Kash Patel.  (Yeah. That Kash Patel.)

Oh well. Grenell won't be there for long, and it's only an outside shot that Trump will appoint Rep. Doug Collins. Who really wants to run for Senate, and really, I would love that more than having him as DNI.

Anyway, this year is going to stay weird, and I just want to end with another important quote from Amy Berman Jackson: The truth still matters. Some people want to make a regular habit of passing off on the truth, ignoring it, acting like business as usual while our institutions are under assault by people who have been entrusted with real power, but seem to have no respect for what care and duty and time and history have built up.

We all need to care. Truth matters. And Trump is the one who wants truth buried, and encourages lies. I would far prefer a president who said things that stung, if they were only true.

A Very Big TrumpWorld Grab-Bag

On Friday, Rick Gates plead guilty to two criminal counts and his associate, Paul Manafort, was hit with a whole slew of new charges.  These new charges might not even be the final word on what Manafort is being charged with, because Gates is now cooperating with the Mueller investigation--and Gates knows everything (or damn near) the Manafort has been doing, and his deal rests on giving Mueller whatever assistance is relevant to his probe. The probe is pretty broad, and it sounds like Gates is pretty well busted. And this means Manafort is pretty well busted too. 

There's bank fraud, there's tax fraud, there's money laundering, there's unregistered foreign lobbying, and while there isn't just as yet a clear connection to how this ties into the Russian election tampering probe, it clearly shows how seriously leveraged and therefore, vulnerable to being used by or as foreign agents they were. Especially Manafort, as Josh Marshall sketches out (you need TPM Prime for that one, I think--you should really get TPM Prime). Anyway, Paul Manafort was a guy so desperate for money that he went out of his way to work for the Trump campaign for free (as did a lot of folks, apparently)--but it's hard to imagine he got nothing of value out of the job. And he remained in contact with the campaign through the transition (via the VP candidate he "helped" choose--Mike Pence). (Gates, of course, remained with the Trump campaign right through the transition, himself.)

What kinds of thing would Manafort's position with the Trump campaign be good for? Well, maybe getting a spot in an eventual Trump cabinet for one of his creditors? Or helping "tweak" the Trump campaign's position on Ukraine? Who knows what checks Manafort's mouth might have written out of the Trump's eventual presidency account? (Which could only get paid if Trump's win could be ensured?)

But back to Gates--one of the things he is copping to, is making false statements to investigators in the probe. That's what tripped up Mike Flynn, too. It also tripped up damn handsome attorney Alex van der Zwaan. This guy, van der Zwaan, is fascinatingly connected to a Russian billionaire by marriage who is, like Trump's steadfast fixer, Michael Cohen, suing Buzzfeed over the Steele Dossier. That billionaire, German Khan, owns Alfa Group which includes Alfa Bank, which is an interesting side-story in all this that you probably have already heard about. 

But: what was Gates lying about? 

A meeting with Congressman Dana Rohrabacher. That would be the congressman who Rep. Kevin McCarthy, maybe not entirely in jest, suggested worked for Putin. This seems a little less funny in context. I kind of feel like Rohrabacher's business damn near speaks for itself.  

Anyhow, you know who Donald Trump crowed about working for nothing (Nothing!) and was definitely deserving of all the top secret clearance despite his being seriously financially leveraged?  His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who helped bring Paul Manafort on to the campaign. There are apparently good reasons Kushner's clearance situation is problematic--and again, working for the White House even for free doesn't mean he can't take away anything of value. 

In completely other news, one of the 13 indicted Russians from the past week is linked to a Russian mercenary group that attacked US soldiers in Syria.  I'd say anything at all about that, but I'm mostly speechless, because the complications of all this Trump/Russia business are, in some ways, unspeakable. They just shouldn't be. 

Also--the Nunes memo was always partisan trash and the Democratic memo confirms that the investigation into all this, but especially Carter Page, was already underway because of course it was. The Steele Dossier is not the only iron anyone ever had in the ongoing Trump Russia dumpster fire.  

With TrumpWorld Grab-Bags Like These...

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R.--Kremlin) had a little side-trip to the Ecuadoran Embassy in London last month which was partially arranged (!?) by RW blogger-provocateur Chuck C. Johnson (which sounds nicer than "creepy little muck-dwelling alt-right alleged floor-shitter, Chuck C. Johnson") to meet with Wikileaks' founder Julian Assange. It sort of feels inexcusable that this escaped my attention--the guy who fellow GOP congressman Kevin McCarthy described as possibly on Putin's payroll, meets with the WikiLeaks guy, through this guy.  Sure, it all sounds flaky as hell, but I'm trying to be a Trump/Russia compleatist over here. 

Anyways, Rohrabacher wants to talk with Trump about getting Assange exonerated for disseminating various bits of classified US info, if Assange provides information that exonerates Russia from the DNC hack. A sort of mutual back-washing scheme. 

That's. But. How does he? Can you even? The sad thing is, Trump does denial over the Russian hack thing so convincingly, I wonder if he wouldn't go for it. It would be really dumb. But I wonder.

I'm not sure that whatever Assange means to provide is going to quite prove anything of the "exonerating Russia" quality, and I suspect the decision to "exonerate" Assange really isn't up to Trump, anyway. But it's the thought that counts, since Rohrabacher hasn't been able to do anything about Magnitsky. And Trump probably won't, either. (Sorry, Vlad, I know a lot of money is probably at stake here.)

Meanwhile, back at the Mueller investigation, he obtained a warrant for and received information from Facebook relating to the troll farm of fake accounts that pumped all kinds of ads and fake news and whatnot to the eyeballs of US voting people. It would be a darn shame if this could be verified as having been coordinated with Jared Kushner's data operation. For Jared Kushner. And the campaign. 

In other weird news, it looks like Mike Flynn had been working on a nuclear power project involving  putting plants all over the Middle East (which would count on Russian companies for maintaining site security)--and while it should have been tidily wrapped up in December 2016, um, it wasn't. And maybe he and Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner met with King Abdullah II of Jordan before the inauguration to discuss...the nuclear "Marshall Plan", as it might be called. 

There's so many moving pieces of wrong in this scenario it's kind of hard to know where to start. But in any event, the DNC hack and Wikileaks' participation in throwing the information out to the public, and the way that information release seemed to be timed to the needs of the Trump Campaign in a way that seemed, maybe, a little coordinated, is definitely just one, and not even necessarily the top, messed-up thing with the TrumpWorld milieu. It's really a target-rich environment, and Robert Mueller just keeps adding sharp-shooters to his team. 

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher Believes Weird Shit

I think it's really weird that one of California's few Republican Congresscritters, Dana Rohrabacher, possibly on the Russian payroll and definitely not properly housetrained,  thinks Charlottesville was a set-up of pore ole innocent Civil War re-enactors by dirty liberal scum.

No, really:

Under Rohrabacher’s scenario, a former “Hillary and Bernie supporter” got Civil War re-enactors to gather under the guise of protecting a Robert E. Lee statue there.

“It was a setup for these dumb Civil War re-enactors,” Rohrabacher said. “It was left-wingers who were manipulating them in order to have this confrontation” and to “put our president on the spot.”

This wasn't even the first rally under the "Unite the Right" banner, which was totally about known alt-right and white supremacist personalities. The above poster was part of the on-line advertising of the rally in question. Ignoring the work that folks like Matt Heimbach, Richard Spencer, and Jason Kessler have done to actually carve out a space for white supremacy to pretend that they were mislead somehow is simply astonishing. Yes, Virginia, there are actual white supremacists. Apparently West Coast elitist Dana Rohrabacher has never met any! But they were proud and loud that day. Shouting things like "Jews will not replace us" which is not, as I recall, a Civil War war-cry. What world is he living in?

Which is pretty much what you'd expect of a Taliban-loving Russia-pwned Bill Maher-show appearing nutburger..