Posted on 06/02/2018 9:21:10 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Is the former campaign adviser accused of misrepresenting his subjective state of mind, not objective reality?
Congress should be taking a very hard look at the prosecution of George Papadopoulos. To these eyes, the harder one looks, the more the Papadopoulos case appears to be much ado about nothing. That is no small thing: The “much ado” here is a purported Trump–Russia conspiracy to subvert a presidential election.
There has always been something fishy about the charge filed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller against Papadopoulos, who was a green-as-grass 28-year-old when he made the big primary-season move from Ben Carson–campaign novice to Trump-campaign novice. Peruse the “Statement of the Offense,” filed by Mueller’s lead prosecutor on the case, Jeannie S. Rhee (who is fresh from a stint representing the Clinton Foundation — and donating $5,400 to the Hillary Clinton campaign). You find that there is collusion with Russia pouring off every one of the document’s 13 pages — meetings with shadowy figures portrayed as Kremlin operatives, apparent schemes to undermine Mrs. Clinton, ambitious plans for pow-wows between candidate Trump and strongman Putin.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Downer told The Australian in an April 28 interview:
There was no indication in the short exchange with Papadopoulos that Trump was aware of the damaging information, Downer also said.
“By the way, nothing [Papadopoulos] said in that conversation indicated Trump himself had been conspiring with the Russians to collect information on Hillary Clinton. It was just that this guy, [Papadopoulos], clearly knew that the Russians did have material on Hillary Clinton — but whether Trump knew or not?” Downer explained.
“He didn’t say Trump knew or that Trump was in any way involved in this. He said it was about Russians and Hillary Clinton; it wasn’t about Trump,” Downer told The Australian.
Papadopoulos’s reference to Clinton material was vague, Downer suggested. “He didn’t say dirt; he said material that could be damaging to her. No, he said it would be damaging. He didn’t say what it was.”
Downer also suggested the meeting was brief and Papadopoulos was not drunk, as has been widely reported. According to the profile, Downer and Papadopoulos spoke over a “single short drink.”
This is aside from the fact that, to-date, there has been not a single bit of data - leaked or otherwise - pertaining to said "dirt". This includes the alleged Weiner laptop emails.
The entire basis for the "investigation" was rooted in Papadopoulos and Page. As the scrutiny increases, it's patently-obvious there was no "there there"...
...and a good Sherlock Holmes sees all the pieces magically align to a rather haphazard, but intentional series of actions more befitting an adapting intelligence operation than an investigation outlined in any criminal justice treatise...
Perjury traps are problematic. Yet political campaigns attract “hanger ons” that are inexperienced in an environment that requires maturity and judgement. They make mistakes, though well intentioned, that can be costly to the person and campaign.
The kid was a mole. This perjury charge is "protection" for the guy. The FBI and CIA lie their a**** off cuz they can do that.
Perjury traps should be illegal in the USA. I feel like we are living in the Stalin era Soviet Union with what the DOJ/FBI is trying to do the the duly elected POTUS.
And the Other "shady" character is Downer, the Australian Diplomat that gave the CLINGTON CRIME FAMILY SLUSH FUND $25 MILLION...$25 MILLION, let that sink in,....and he tells the STATE DEPARTMENT (Hilliary's STATE DEPT) that the Russians have Hilliary's e-mails!!!
WHAT THE HELL AM I MISSING?? WHAT IS THE CRIME?? It wouldn't even be a Crime if the SHADY people GAVE them to low level George!!
Seriously.....someone tell me what the CRIME is??
Yes, maybe Papdopoulus IS/WAS a MOLE, but WHAT CRIME WAS THERE??
Another piece of good analysis by McCarthy that illustrates how flimsy the whole house of cards is..... think about this next time you hear some leftist pundit or congress critter gleefully pointing out that this young man pled guilty (to a process crime).
Congress needs to look at making changes to 1001. The intent of 1001 was clearly to be a material omission of fact or an outright lie regarding an underlying crime. If no crime occurred and a person is questioned on the basis of a reasonable suspicion this law should not apply. I don’t want people lying to law enforcement, but what we are witnessing now (for clearly political reasons) is the accusation, followed by questioning, followed by charging for lying WITH NO UNDERLYING CRIME!
This is antithetical to justice and our constitution and it was not the intent of the statute. Meanwhile, we have the OBVIOUS violations that did involve real crimes. Clinton’s IT specialist, Clinton’s testimony and that of her aides regarding the email investigations (which even Comey admitted violated the law although “she did not have intent”), the destruction of evidence by the Clinton machine, and the list goes on and on and YET not one person was even charged with 1001-lying. The differences in how these two “investigations” have been handled could not be more stark.
Flynn did not commit a crime. The Logan Act has not been applied to incoming administrations and the transition any more than it is being non-applied to the recent actions of John Kerry now. Same story with him with a good measure of “plead to this now or we will go after your son for something else.”
This is not how our Dept of Justice is supposed to work and it speaks volumes on how partisan they became under the prior administration. It is past time for some organizations and good attorneys (like McCarthy) to jump into this with both feet and fight it tooth and nail. These cases represent an injustice for the sake of talking points by the left about how successful the SC investigation has been. It would be a joke if real people were not being crushed for partisanship and a Presidency was not being eroded for political differences.
What needs a closer look... a look please.. is hillary. Justice is dancin’ at the moon until they go after the one who took cash, sold our uranium, left her email open to anyone and destroyed government documents/information. Its crap intil they get her and obama... just crap!
Sessions lets the justice dept do these things.. sessions is helping them..
Between congress and sessions, they are letting this mueller fiasco continue and damage to the country.. to not care is a page from obama’s 8 years..
enough already!!!
There is no crime. They know there is no crime. Even if there was a crime, it would not be prosecutable if they had to rely on any evidence obtained via the FISA warrants.
FISA judge number three was either complacent, incompetent, or both. That warrant should never hav been issued. It was based on illegal unmasking of US citizens. Any evidence flowing from that warrant is inadmissible. Unless, of course, Mueller lucks out and gets a Clinton or Obama appointee judge. Then the law won’t matter.
Pressuring people into plea deals is all they’ve got.
McCarthy: “It is very hard to understand what is going on here”
Why didn’t Papadop fight more strongly against Mueller’s and Rhee’s accusation that he lied to the FBI?
Think about how hard it would be for the Special Counsel to actually get a conviction of Papadop if they were to take him to trial.
They really believe a jury is going to send this young man to prison for mis-remembering the exact date he met the professor guy when he didn’t even have his appointments calendar to refer to when talking to the FBI? Mueller also charged Papadop with lying to the FBI when he said Mifsud was really a nobody who was embellishing his connections to important people. But based on what is now reported about Mifsud, doesn’t it sound like Papadop was actually right about Mifsud?
So why did Papadop roll over and plead guilty to lying to the FBI?
I strongly suspect for the same reason General Flynn pleaded guilty. They had something else they were holding over Papadop’s head. Remember how reportedly the Special Counsel threatened to go after General Flynn’s son? And how they were bankrupting Flynn with the investigation into his life and various activities?
Think back to March and April of 2016. We now know that unidentified “outside contractors” (Crowdstrike? Fusion GPS? Organizing for America?) had unfettered and untraceable access to the vast NSA database of captured upstream communications until April 18, 2016, when NSA head Admiral Mike Rogers discovered this and shut down this access.
On March 21, 2016, Papadop was publicly announced as one of a handful of Trump’s foreign policy advisors.
Does anyone think Hillary/Obama people with access to the NSA database did not immediately search for Papadop’s comms?
Imagine a Google search box but instead when you put in someone’s name you get all of their phone calls, text messages, emails, DMs, social media posts, plus all of that by other people talking about the person.
And unlike Michael Cohen, George Papadopoulos is not a common name. There are a lot of Michael Cohens running around, some touring Prague, some not. Hard to track down the one you want in the NSA database.
Not so for Papadop. I suspect when they searched the NSA (and probably the GCHQ database, as well) for Papadop they turned up some dirt they could use against him.
Maybe he likes nose candy. Maybe he cheated on his wife/girlfriend. Maybe he was running some kind of financial scam. Maybe he lied on a visa application. Who knows.
But I’m guessing that by abusing our national security intelligence tools, they got leverage over Papadop and, like Flynn, used that to get him to plead guilty to a ridiculous charge that would help them push along the narrative of Trump collusion with Russia with the ultimate goal of impeachment and removal.
“The Sting”
Andrew McCarthy for AG !
“Congress needs to look at making changes to 1001.”
I’ve thought this for some time. At the very least with the technology we have now, the FBI should be required to record any interview to which 1001 is to apply. And there should probably be a warning-like statement read before any interview to which 1001 is to apply.
For testimony in legal proceedings we make people swear in before giving statements for which they will be subject to the penalty for perjury. Perhaps they should be sworn before these kind of FBI interviews when a similar penalty is to apply.
Page and Pop were both moles. Acting as innocents.....the bigger story is how they were brought into the periphery of the campaign.
It’s Sessions folks....
All of America knows that so-called “Russiagate” is a sham and a political scam.
On October 28, 2016, Comey re-opened his “inquiry” into Hillary’s admittedly illegal, classified information revealing email server, it had come to light that there were thousands more emails that had not been looked at. He had to re-open it to cover his backside. Then he almost immediately, on November 6, he closed it and exonerated her a second time. Less than two weeks!
Get this: there was only an “inquiry” into Hillary’s email server which was admittedly illegal. No one disputes that it was illegal. They may play politics and try to change the language to say it was a careless decision. Yes, it was, and an illegal one. But the so-called “Russiagate” INVESTIGATION has no underlying crime. It has cost nearly $20M and lasted more than a year.
The American people all know this is a scam, sham, fraud, and there is a double-standard within the halls of power.
sessions chronically kissed then candidate, President Trump’s ass during the campaign, expecting the plum position he received.
Should then candidate, President Trump be elected, sessions receiving attorney general position allows him to unobtrusively obstruct investigations. The russian recusal being a large part of the plan.
sessions is one finger of the insurance policy the ic concocted.
I heard Victoria Toensing say that they used a honey trap against Papadopoulos — that before he had his inebriated chat with the Australian Clintonista, some blonde had been plying him with drinks. Is there any confirmation of this?
I agree with your assessment on sessions. I still want him fired and a new one put in that position, but the dems are not going to let one get through and repubicans like gowdy won’t either. It’s beyond me how they can rationalize all this with mueller as legit.. it’s so obvious and it’s an insult to Trump’s voters to think they can pass it off as such. All the trash they’ve aimed at Trump, is also aimed at his voters.. and I don’t think any of us have changed our minds... I know some who have never voted and plan to next Pres election...hopefully the mid terms also.
If Gowdy is a representative of the minds of the GOP, it’s a disgrace. There are a handful who are still working to get to hillary.. but the 2 sides of guilty and innocent is making a lot of us very angry out here. They go after Trump and say it’s the right thing to get to the bottom of it.. all the while hillary and bill... and obama are not even mentioned... and valerie and all of his administration who knew what he was doing and joined, thinking they were going to win another 4 years via hillary.
The state of injustice in our country has gotten to the point that it may take a revolution and I don’t see the conservatives being up to it.. it not us, then who!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.