Robert Mueller indicts 13 Russians for election meddling

[Rewind]

Several Trump associates, including Michael Flynn, Michael Cohen and George Papadopoulos, have cooperated with Robert Mueller's investigative team and have pleaded guilty to various criminal charges. Trump accused them of "flipping" and of "making up stories."

Paul Manafort, who chose to go to trial and was convicted on eight charges of bank fraud and tax fraud, is about to go on trial again and may make a plea deal. Trump called Manafort a "brave man" for not making a plea deal before the first trial. If he makes a plea deal now, we can expect a series of nasty insults and condemnation from the Tweeter-In-Chief. And if Manafort implicates Trump in any wrongdoing, brace yourself for a really vicious scathing tweetstorm!

Paul Manafort said to be discussing a possible plea deal

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-n...912-story.html

[Rewind]

Two months ago in Helsinki, Trump held a private meeting with his BFF Vladimir Putin. An interpreter was the only other person present. We know Trump said he believes Putin's denial of meddling in US elections (and not the unanimous conclusions of every US intelligence agency) but we know nothing else about the meeting. Did Trump share military secrets? Did he make certain promises to Putin? Did they make some kind of business deal? The Republicans are trying to ensure that we never find out.

GOP rejects Democrats' effort to force release of documents about private Trump-Putin meeting

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...izmd?ocid=AMZN

[Rewind]

By making a plea deal with Robert Mueller, Manafort will not face a second federal trial. Manafort is the fourth Trump associate to plead guilty to federal charges. I wonder how many more indictments and guilty pleas it will take for Trump to quit calling the Mueller investigation a "rigged witch hunt."

Paul Manafort pleads guilty to reduced charges and agrees to cooperate with special counsel's probe

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-n...914-story.html

[Rewind]

Paul Manafort left the Trump campaign in August 2016. Trump and Rudy Giuliani believe -- or at least they say they believe -- that Manafort has no information which could be damaging to Trump. We will soon know. By the way, today the Tweeter-In-Chief again ignored the 32 indictments and six guilty pleas and again denounced the Mueller investigation as a "rigged witch hunt."

'Robert Mueller's real quest here is for the truth': How Paul Manafort's plea deal brings the special counsel probe closer to its end game

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...nxqk?ocid=AMZN

[Rewind]

In the long-running Reader's Digest monthly feature "You Be The Judge," readers are presented with details of a court case and asked to decide how they would rule if they were in the Judge's seat. The Judge's decision appears on a different page of the magazine. Let's try that here: You be the Judge and decide if Donald Trump is acting like an innocent man.

President Trump just seriously escalated his efforts to interfere with Mueller’s probe
Andrew Prokop, Vox.com Sep 17 2018

President Trump just dramatically escalated his efforts to interfere with the Russia investigation. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders today released a benign banal-sounding statement: that, "for reasons of transparency” and in response to requests from Congress, President Trump has directed the Justice Department to declassify a whole bunch of materials related to the Russia investigation —the ongoing inquiry into his own campaign — immediately.

Those materials include a few specific things Trump wanted declassified: certain sections of the Carter Page FISA application (but, notably, not other sections of it) and FBI interviews related to Page, as well as FBI interviews with Justice Department official Bruce Ohr.

The real bombshell, though, was in the second paragraph of Sanders' statement: "President Trump has directed the Department of Justice (including the FBI) to publicly release all text messages relating to the Russia investigation, without redaction, of James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page and Bruce Ohr.”

In other words, the President is demanding the release of an enormous amount of internal material, without redaction, about an ongoing investigation into his campaign and his associates. The goal appears obvious: Trump is searching for something, anything new he can use to try to discredit the Mueller investigation.

If Trump insists his order be carried out as stated, it will likely be difficult for the Justice Department to stomach, considering how much this would disclose about an extremely sensitive, ongoing investigation and how much it would reveal about their sources and methods.

And, again, this is the ongoing investigation into Trump's own campaign he's essentially demanding a look at the inner workings of. It's also an investigation Trump has routinely attacked and undermined. He’s not releasing these materials for "transparency." He's looking for ammunition.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...tBy9?ocid=AMZN

[Rewind]

Today in an exclusive interview with Hill.TV, the squawking orange parrot outdid himself, attacking the Mueller investigation as a "hoax," a "scandal" and a "witch hunt," lamenting that he didn't fire James Comey immediately after winning the primaries (which is something he had no power to do until he was sworn in as President) and criticizing the FBI in general and James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Lisa Page and Peter Strzok in particular. Section four of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, anyone?

Trump says exposing 'corrupt' FBI probe could be 'crowning achievement' of his Presidency

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...x1Qg?ocid=AMZN

[Rewind]

Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen are just two of a growing number of Trump allies who are now former Trump allies. Their testimony is almost certainly bolstering Robert Mueller's obstruction-of-justice case against the President.

Ex-Trump fixer Michael Cohen has spoken to Mueller at length, sources say

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...pw8O?ocid=AMZN

[Rewind]

Two New York Times reporters detail how, in 2014, Vladimir Putin -- without any evidence -- believed the United States and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were seeking to deligitimize his Presidency and undermine Russian sovereignity. His solution? Ensure that Clinton loses the 2016 election. In 2014, Putin likely never envisioned that the Presidency would be won by Donald Trump, his number-one admirer.

The plot to subvert an election: Unraveling the Russia story so far

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...o3i3?ocid=AMZN

[Rewind]

There's a popular expression, "Follow the money." Well, more than $23,000,000 is being followed by Robert Mueller -- and things are looking worse and worse for Donald Trump.

Planners of Trump Tower meeting moved millions of dollars and Mueller is now investigating
Documents show suspicious transfers began six days before the controversial meeting.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article...-tower-meeting

[Rewind]

And the "rigged witch hunt" has caught another witch.

California man pleads guilty for his role in 2016 election interference
CBS News, Sep 27 2018 5:33 PM

The man who sold the personal banking information of Americans to the Russian nationals indicted for interfering in the 2016 US elections pleaded guilty today to one count of identity fraud in connection with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Richard Pinedo, a California native, will be sentenced in federal court in Washington, DC on October 10th. He faces 12-18 months imprisonment.

Prosecutors noted Pinedo's quick acceptance of responsibility and cooperation: "Mr. Pinedo readily admitted his own misconduct and provided significant assistance to the government in its own investigation of the facts surrounding the identity theft. He explained how he obtained the account numbers later sold for profit and provided the government with access to records identifying buyers of the accounts."

Pinedo was unaware that some of his customers were in fact Russian nationals working to meddle in the 2016 US presidential election. In February, Mueller's office indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities who used the identities that Pinedo had sold to them. That information was used as a means to impersonate Americans on social media. According to the indictment, "Some Defendants, posing as US persons and without revealing their Russian association, communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities."

Pinedo's attorneys say he used the website eBay as a means to make money. Eventually PayPal suspended Pinedo's account, which affected his income. Pinedo then created a company, "Auction Essistance," where he sold his clients "bank account and deposit information so that they could establish verified PayPal accounts without having to provide personal bank account information," the information he eventually sold to Russian nationals.

Pinedo's sentence will be determined by federal Judge Dabney L. Friedrich. Pinedo will be the third individual sentenced in connection with Mueller's investigation.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/califor...-interference/