RUSSIA/РОССИЯ THREAD—ASSANGE CHRGD W/ SPYING—DJT IMPEACHED TWICE-US TREASURY SANCTS KILIMNIK AS RUSSIAN AGNT

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

:ALERTRED::ALERTRED::ALERTRED:
Trump Considers Reshuffling Legal Team as He Takes On Mueller More Aggressively​

Trump Considers Reshuffling Legal Team as He Takes On Mueller More Aggressively
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and MAGGIE HABERMANMARCH 19, 2018

President Trump’s shift in tone appears to be a product of his concern that the investigation into possible ties between his associates and Russia’s election interference is bearing down on him more directly. Tom Brenner/The New York Times
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s legal team was poised for a shake-up on Monday, according to two people briefed on the matter, as he openly discussed firing one of his lawyers, another considered resigning and a third — who pushed theories on television that Mr. Trump was framed by the F.B.I. — joined the roster.

Mr. Trump has weighed aloud in recent days to close associates whether to dismiss his lawyer Ty Cobb, who had pushed most strongly a strategy of cooperating fully with the special counsel investigation. The president reassured Mr. Cobb that he had no plans to fire him, according to a person who spoke with the president late Monday, in part to prevent a narrative that his team was in disarray after The New York Times began making inquiries.

Mr. Trump’s lead lawyer, John Dowd, has contemplated leaving his post because he has concluded that he has no control over the behavior of the president, the two people briefed on the matter said. Ignoring his lawyers’ advice, Mr. Trump has reverted to a more aggressive strategy of publicly assailing the inquiry that he initially adopted in the weeks immediately after the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, was appointed. Now the president has begun attacking Mr. Mueller himself.

The shift in tone appears to be a product of the president’s concern that the investigation into possible ties between his associates and Russia’s election interference is bearing down on him more directly. And the legal team’s collapse comes as his lawyers are confronting one of their most critical tasks: advising the president on whether to agree to sit for an interview with the special counsel’s office.

Mr. Dowd said he had no plans to leave the team. “I’m sitting here working on the president’s case right now,” he said in a telephone interview on Monday night. Mr. Cobb has told people that the president has recently implored him to stay.

In another sign of the president’s more aggressive posture, on Monday he hired Joseph E. diGenova, a longtime Washington lawyer who has appeared regularly on Fox News in recent months to claim that the F.B.I. and the Justice Department had manufactured evidence against Mr. Trump to aid Hillary Clinton.

“There was a brazen plot to illegally exonerate Hillary Clinton and, if she didn’t win the election, to then frame Donald Trump with a falsely created crime,” he said on Fox News in January. He added, “Make no mistake about it: A group of F.B.I. and D.O.J. people were trying to frame Donald Trump of a falsely created crime.”

Little evidence has emerged to support that theory.

Mr. Trump is also discussing adding other lawyers to the team, according to one person with knowledge of the matter.

The tumult marked the greatest instability on the team since Mr. Trump pushed aside his personal lawyer, Marc E. Kasowitz, last summer, and was passed over by many of Washington’s top lawyers before he settled on his current crop of attorneys.

“It’s never a good idea to see legal teams change dramatically and for competent lawyers to be replaced by others,” said Roger Cossack, a longtime legal analyst. “It shows that there is chaos and that whoever the client is — in this case the president — is unhappy and is searching for the magic bullet. And it’s never a great strategy to search for the magic bullet. The president clearly wants it to end and wants to put an end to it.”

Mr. Cobb, Mr. Dowd and another lawyer, Jay Sekulow, took over last summer from Mr. Kasowitz, a feisty New Yorker who had represented Mr. Trump in high-profile lawsuits and urged an aggressive posture toward Mr. Mueller, who was appointed last May.

Mr. Trump insisted to his lawyers that he did nothing wrong and they pushed for cooperation with the special counsel, arguing it was his best way to have his name cleared. Working inside the White House, Mr. Cobb oversaw the production of thousands of pages of documents and emails that were turned over to Mr. Mueller’s office and said that the president should not assert executive privilege over the records to keep from slowing the process. The lawyers told the president they hoped to get Mr. Mueller to acknowledge by the end of the year that Mr. Trump was not a target of the investigation.

Mr. Mueller’s investigation is continuing.

As it goes forward, Mr. Trump has questioned his lawyers’ approach and clashed with them about whether to be interviewed by Mr. Mueller. The president believes he is his best spokesman and can explain to Mr. Mueller that he did nothing wrong. The lawyers see little upside.

John Dowd, the president’s lead lawyer, said he had no plans to leave the legal team. Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters
Mr. Dowd and Mr. Sekulow became concerned about their standing with the president in the past two weeks after they learned Mr. Trump had met with another veteran lawyer, Emmet Flood, who represented President Bill Clinton during impeachment proceedings, about joining the team.

Both publicly and privately, Mr. Trump tried to reassure his lawyers that they had not fallen out of favor with him. “I am VERY happy with my lawyers, John Dowd, Ty Cobb and Jay Sekulow,” Mr. Trump said on Twitter, assailing a New York Times article about his discussions with Mr. Flood. “They are doing a great job.”

Mr. Dowd, in turn, called on the Justice Department over the weekend to end the special counsel investigation. Mr. Dowd said at first that he was speaking for the president, but later backtracked. But according to two people briefed on the matter, he was in fact acting at the president’s urging.

Mr. Dowd’s statement set off a stream of negative coverage of Mr. Trump on cable television, to which he is closely attuned. His lawyers were criticized for being undisciplined, and Mr. Dowd’s remarks prompted concern that the president was going to order that Mr. Mueller be fired. Mr. Cobb tried to douse that speculation on Sunday, saying that the president was not considering dismissing the special counsel.

The president’s newest lawyer, Mr. diGenova, has worked in Washington legal circles for decades, including as a United States attorney for the District of Columbia appointed by President Ronald Reagan. He has served as an independent counsel in government waste, fraud and abuse investigations, notably a three-year criminal inquiry into whether officials in the George Bush administration broke any laws in their search for damaging information about Bill Clinton, then a presidential candidate.

Mr. diGenova is law partners with his wife, Victoria Toensing. She has also represented Sam Clovis, the former Trump campaign co-chairman, and Erik Prince, the founder of the security contractor Blackwater and an informal adviser to Mr. Trump. Mr. Prince also attended a meeting in January 2017 with a Russian investor in the Seychelles that the special counsel is investigating.

Ms. Toensing also represents Mark Corallo, the former spokesman for the Trump legal team who has accused one of the president’s advisers of potentially planning to obstruct justice with a statement related to a 2016 meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer who promised damaging information about Mrs. Clinton.

Mr. diGenova was one of several former independent counsels who, in the late 1990s, argued that the role be narrowed. In 1999, Congress let the portions of the law allowing for an independent counsel expire.







@DonKnock @dza @88m3 @wire28 @smitty22 @fact @Hood Critic @ExodusNirvana @Blessed Is the Man @dtownreppin214 @JKFrazier @tmonster @BigMoneyGrip @Soymuscle Mike @.r. @Dorian Breh @Dameon Farrow @TheNig @VR Tripper @re'up @Blackfyre_Berserker @Cali_livin

 

[DaddyFresh]

this alone would have got any other president impeached.

 

[Arithmetic]

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

NYTimes writer:











@DonKnock @dza @88m3 @wire28 @smitty22 @fact @Hood Critic @ExodusNirvana @Blessed Is the Man @dtownreppin214 @JKFrazier @tmonster @BigMoneyGrip @Soymuscle Mike @.r. @Dorian Breh @Dameon Farrow @TheNig @VR Tripper @re'up @Blackfyre_Berserker @Cali_livin
​

 

[AZBeauty]

Same

X3. I don't even try anymore. My momma cursed me out this weekend for talking about Trump and I wasn't even talking to her, she just overheard my conversation.

 

[BigMoneyGrip]

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

Change your last name and move to Singapore, brehs :moscowmjpls:
​

@DonKnock @dza @88m3 @wire28 @smitty22 @fact @Hood Critic @ExodusNirvana @Blessed Is the Man @dtownreppin214 @JKFrazier @tmonster @BigMoneyGrip @Soymuscle Mike @.r. @Dorian Breh @Dameon Farrow @TheNig @VR Tripper @re'up @Blackfyre_Berserker @Cali_livin

 

[el_oh_el]

Brehs that complained About the thread moving fast before..try now

Witnessing this CA shyt is gonna be super interesting for the privacy implications alone. A lot of people are tired of these fukk ass spying ass internet nikkas..yet we use they shyt anyway
Sounds like the perfect call to...Regulate!

 

[Json]

Any day now ya mans Kushner going to ...

That’s the only part missing from this being a legit mob movie. Somebody needs to eat a gun or walk off a pier with an apology note.

 

[el_oh_el]

Funny enough, I closed my Facebook account last year because I was getting uncomfortable with how much info sat there collecting since high school 12 years ago..
Information plenty of people are free to look up..
Information that they number crunch and form a deep profile on..
As a dude grow older, you realize that information is power. You don’t give up info for such a cheap price..
Then you have this. And it will only get worse down the line..

 

[Dameon Farrow]

Nothing good can come from him going after Mueller. Of course, any person with half a brain would know going after the alphabet orgs in the first place is an inevitable L to end them all. That's why when dudes say he is 'getting away with everything' I just laugh. You don't 'get away' with what this dude has done. The ceiling hasn't crashed in on this dude but it's starting to lean and I think folks are seeing it. What you are seeing was bound to happen. No way around it. He pissed off the wrong folks and the crazy part is if he'd simply deleted his Twitter and kept his mouth shut he would be in a much better position.

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

:ALERTRED::ALERTRED::ALERTRED:

Trump shakes up team of lawyers as legal threats mount​

Trump shakes up team of lawyers as legal threats mount

President Trump shook up his legal team Monday by hiring a combative former prosecutor who has publicly argued that Trump is the target of an elaborate FBI conspiracy — marking another confrontational move by the president against the rapidly mounting legal threats facing him and his administration.

Joe diGenova, a TV pundit and former U.S. attorney who was a longtime antagonist of Bill and Hillary Clinton, is the latest addition to the sprawling array of lawyers assembled to represent Trump on two main fronts: in the probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and in the case of an adult film star who claims an adulterous affair.

The hiring caught many of his advisers by surprise, prompting fears that Trump is preparing for bigger changes to his legal team — including possible departures — as he goes on the offensive in the primary legal challenges facing him.

Trump is not consulting with top advisers, including Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and chief White House lawyer Donald McGahn, on his Russia legal choices or his comments about the probe, according to one person with knowledge of his actions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive conversations. He is instead watching television and calling friends, this person said.

The president continues to complain that his lawyers are not protecting him and that Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein — who is supervising the probe — is up to mischief, said the person, who spoke to Trump in recent days.

At the White House, the president and his aides find themselves besieged by legal threats. Last week, one of Trump’s personal attorneys, Michael Cohen, filed papers alleging that he has the right to seek at least $20 million in damages from porn star Stormy Daniels for allegedly violating a nondisclosure agreement 20 times by talking about what she says was an affair with Trump.

Over the weekend, another Trump attorney, John Dowd, went on the attackin the Russia inquiry, arguing that the probe by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III should come to an end — though he backtracked on whether he was speaking on behalf of the president in saying so.

[Trump’s lawyers have turned over documents to Mueller with hopes of limiting interview scope]

Finally, on Monday, The Washington Post reported that Trump’s legal team recently shared with Mueller’s office documents containing written descriptions that chronicle key moments under investigation — in the hopes of curtailing the scope of a potential presidential interview. The lawyers are worried that Trump, who has a penchant for making erroneous claims, would be vulnerable in an hours-long interview.

The developments suggest that the tumult that has already engulfed Trump’s White House now threatens to overtake his fractious legal team. The half-dozen key lawyers tasked with defending Trump are increasingly operating with conflicting information, feuding internally, and pursuing strategies that many legal analysts and friends of the president view as dubious — if not downright dangerous.

“It does seem as though it’s mirroring the dysfunction in the West Wing and this is not some complicated chaos theory of management — it’s just chaos,” said Chris Whipple, author of “The Gatekeepers,” a history of White House chiefs of staff. “Common sense tells you that it’s critical that everyone be on the same page, not just the White House staff but especially the legal team on whom he’s relying for survival.”

Members of the legal team — which the president has already overhauled once — dispense legal advice and counsel while also serving as Trump’s publicists and therapists, according to people familiar with the relationships. The lawyers employ a range of strategies to try to manage the impulses of their uncooperative client, these people have said.

But the attorneys also often find themselves in conflict, both among their team and with the president.

At different times, Trump has erupted with anger at Mueller’s probe, which he has long called a “witch hunt,” believing it is overshadowing his accomplishments and hampering his ability to do his job, according to multiple people familiar with his frustrations.

Trump vents about the probe to his lawyers frequently and also channels his friends’ criticism of them, according to these people. His lawyers have told him that the White House is required to provide some minimum cooperation with Mueller and have reassured him that they’re not leaving him exposed.

Emmet Flood, a white-collar defense lawyer who was interviewed by Trump a few weeks ago, continues to be eyed as a possible deputy to McGahn, two Trump aides said.

Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer tasked with handling the Russia probe, initially helped calm Trump by assuring him that Mueller’s inquiry — or at least its focus on the president — would conclude quickly. Cobb last year promised a deadline of Thanksgiving, then the winter holidays, then the New Year, but the Mueller investigation has only appeared to expand. Cobb has stopped offering a tidy timetable for the investigation to wrap up by, two people familiar with his comments said.

[Inside Trump’s legal team: Trying to protect the president from Mueller’s ‘killers’]

Over the weekend, Trump grew restless and appeared to be heeding the advice of outside confidants and advisers who told him he was being ill-served by his legal team and needed to take a more aggressive stance. In tweets Sunday, Trump blasted Mueller’s probe and questioned the integrity of former FBI director James B. Comey and his former deputy, Andrew McCabe, saying that the notes both men kept of their conversations with him were “Fake Memos.” He also tweeted Monday that the investigation is a “WITCH HUNT with massive conflicts of interest!”

Cobb has largely counseled caution and cooperation, while Dowd has most frequently urged the opposite, according to one person familiar with the dynamic.

Dowd called on Mueller to end his inquiry in an interview Saturday with the Daily Beast, first saying he was speaking on behalf of the president before backtracking and saying he was speaking only for himself.

Another Trump personal attorney in the Russia probe, Jay Sekulow, was unaware of Dowd’s comments before he made them, one person familiar with the situation said. Cobb also did not know about Dowd’s plans, this person said.

“You have a lawyer issuing a statement apparently on behalf of his client, then amending that to say, no, he was speaking only for himself, although it was on the very matters about which he was advising his client on,” said Robert Bauer, who served as White House counsel under President Barack Obama. “That is certainly an unconventional way of mounting a legal defense.”

The hiring of diGenova on Monday, first reported by the New York Times, infuriated Dowd, who responded angrily to the development, according to people familiar with his reaction, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share internal details. Dowd views diGenova as pushing him to be the second chair rather than top dog on Trump’s legal team, these people said. But Dowd said in an email to a Post reporter that he’s perfectly happy with the new addition: “Love Joe.”

Dowd, however, has lost the confidence of many in the president’s orbit, both inside and outside the White House. In December, after Trump tweeted that he had fired his former national security adviser Michael Flynn because Flynn had lied to both the vice president and the FBI, Dowd later claimed that he was the one who had drafted the missive.

One outside adviser described Dowd as “the weakest link” in the team.

McGahn and Cobb have also had their share of tension. While Cobb has urged the president to cooperate with Mueller and hand over documents to his investigators, McGahn has pushed a more aggressive approach, according to people familiar with his work.

McGahn has said the legal team should make the special counsel subpoena every document, explain every interview and fight for every piece of information, one person said. A second White House aide said McGahn has questioned the constitutional status of the special counsel position.

But McGahn and Trump have also clashed repeatedly since entering the White House, and one former administration official said the president mused at least three times that perhaps he should hire a new counsel.

McGahn has told associates that he is exhausted and frustrated at times in the job, but that he has been able to make a historic impact on appointing judges and reducing regulations and that he would like to be around for a second Supreme Court opening, one friend said. McGahn also has a strong relationship with Kelly.

Before joining Trump’s team, Dowd was perhaps best known for giving the finger to reporters at a New York trial and appearing to read his closing argument from a piece of paper in court.

When a reporter overheard Dowd and Cobb, at a crowded downtown Washington steakhouse, talking about an internal dispute within the legal team over how to handle the probe, many Washington lawyers questioned how the president could continue to trust their judgment.

Some of Trump’s closest friends, including Tom Barrack and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, have told the president that he needs a legal heavyweight on his personal team, or someone with a record of defending clients in hot water with the Justice Department and winning, according to multiple White House aides.

Even as Trump’s legal team is working with Mueller to try to limit the scope of any interview, the president has been telling aides since January that he is looking forward to sitting down with Mueller and his team.

“Everyone knows who is going to decide about the interview,” one adviser said, “and that’s the president.”

Rosalind S. Helderman contributed to this report.







@DonKnock @dza @88m3 @wire28 @smitty22 @fact @Hood Critic @ExodusNirvana @Blessed Is the Man @dtownreppin214 @JKFrazier @tmonster @BigMoneyGrip @Soymuscle Mike @.r. @Dorian Breh @Dameon Farrow @TheNig @VR Tripper @re'up @Blackfyre_Berserker @Cali_livin

 

[Json]

Mueller is in this nikkas dreams.

 

[Wargames]

Brehs that complained About the thread moving fast before..try now

Witnessing this CA shyt is gonna be super interesting for the privacy implications alone. A lot of people are tired of these fukk ass spying ass internet nikkas..yet we use they shyt anyway
Sounds like the perfect call to...Regulate!

Regulations!

 

[TheHonorableOmarSharif]

Next thing to watch (and don't get caught up on Stormy: the lawyer is winning. This story has Red Bull wings now that Charles Harder (can't make the names up) is involved. Mueller don't like missing out. The next steps of the probe will be the talk of the thread by week's end.