45th President of the United States, Donald Trump. (Vol 6)

[Pupp]

desolate said:

Interesting from Fox news of all people.

"Mueller did not exonerate Trump – Barr acted as judge and jury. Now Congress needs to do its job".

"Barr’s actions to try to exonerate Trump in this manner, without facts or evidence, is a disservice to our country, our democracy, and the American people."

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/mueller-did-not-ex...

That's payback isn't it for the recent Twitter rant against a couple of Fox journos... forget the detail but remember thinking that will bite sometime.

[paulguitar]

desolate said:

Interesting from Fox news of all people.

"Mueller did not exonerate Trump – Barr acted as judge and jury. Now Congress needs to do its job".

"Barr’s actions to try to exonerate Trump in this manner, without facts or evidence, is a disservice to our country, our democracy, and the American people."

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/mueller-did-not-ex...

Holy st! That's going to make Fox 'news' readers apoplectic!

How the hell did that get through the management?

[anonymous-user]

Pupp said:

That's payback isn't it for the recent Twitter rant against a couple of Fox journos... forget the detail but remember thinking that will bite sometime.

The Trump family's relatively low key response to this is making me think they aren't as home and hosed as it appears.

Maybe this is fox hedging their bets a bit.

[andy_s]

Brünnhilde, not yet....

[anonymous-user]

desolate said:

The Trump family's relatively low key response to this is making me think they aren't as home and hosed as it appears.

That's my feeling too. There's not nearly enough gloating going on for it to be really all over is there?

[Gameface]

Virtual silence from Trump and his spawn.

Criticism from Fox. (Has Murdoch tired of him?)

This is all very strange.

[Vanden Saab]

paulguitar said:

desolate said:

Interesting from Fox news of all people.

"Mueller did not exonerate Trump – Barr acted as judge and jury. Now Congress needs to do its job".

"Barr’s actions to try to exonerate Trump in this manner, without facts or evidence, is a disservice to our country, our democracy, and the American people."

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/mueller-did-not-ex...

Holy st! That's going to make Fox 'news' readers apoplectic!

How the hell did that get through the management?

Or look at it another way, for the last two years all the talk has been about Trump and collusion/ wrong doing. Practically nothing about his policies or what he is or is not doing. His ratings have hardly moved and will no doubt rise now it is 'over'. What would you do put it to bed or try to continue it right up to the election. IMHO the Dems and the media have scored a huge own goal with all this and seem intent on doubling down on their mistake.

[anonymous-user]

Here is Donny arriving for work this morning, quite pleased

https://twitter.com/mad_liberals/status/1098364052...

[anonymous-user]

Vanden Saab said:

Or look at it another way, for the last two years all the talk has been about Trump and collusion/ wrong doing. Practically nothing about his policies or what he is or is not doing. His ratings have hardly moved and will no doubt rise now it is 'over'. What would you do put it to bed or try to continue it right up to the election. IMHO the Dems and the media have scored a huge own goal with all this and seem intent on doubling down on their mistake.

The shock here is that it's Fox News, I'd expect it anywhere else just not in Fox.

In other new Stormy Daniel's Lawyer Michael Avenatti has just been arrested for attempting to blackmail Nike.

So more good news for Trump.

[NRS]

paulguitar said:

I think this is probably going to run for quite some time yet. In the meantime, I think there will be many, many photos and memes like this one going around on Twitter.

Or, now the people who were convinced Trump would be found guilty and stuck in prison are getting over their shock, and are now trying to pick their own interpretations out of the words so that it does show Trump is guilty/ Barr is just a puppet etc. I've no doubt far more will come out later, so to try and pick to bits the wording now is going to be yet again an own goal and just highlight bias. Why not push for the report to become public (of which some will anyway, even without any pressure) and then starting looking at the wording? As of now it's just saying he's guilty and interpreting the evidence to match the result.

This is not to say Trump isn't dodgy, hasn't been involved in some ethically "sketchy" stuff etc. But it's yet again "convicting" him of something worse, so that when he isn't guilty of that then it seems like he is innocent, rather than waiting and hitting him with what is proven. This will just be the Democrats "Hillary email server" issue - no matter what happens he will always be guilty no matter what happens legally, and so it gets ignored, rather than focusing on what he has had proven against him.

minimoog said:

Vanden Saab said:

I might have understood it wrong but is it not the case that there could only be obstruction if there was a crime and as there was no collusion therefore there could be no obstruction to that.

That's the position that Barr has taken, yes. As I said that leads to the possibility of someone committing a crime then successfully obstructing the investigation into it, such that the crime is never proven. Should that then mean the obstruction carries no consequences? Barr seems to think so.

Not it's not - at least not what Barr says:

"In making this determination, we noted that the Special Counsel recognized that "the evidence does not establish that the President was involved in an underlying crime related to Russian election interference," and that, while not determinative, the absence of such evidence bears upon the President's intent with respect to obstruction. Generally speaking, to obtain and sustain an obstruction conviction, the government would need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a person, acting with corrupt intent, engaged in obstructive conduct with a sufficient nexus to a pending or contemplated proceeding."

So Barr states it is part of the reason, but not the whole reason.

[Byker28i]

Avenatti's in trouble

Federal prosecutors announce charges against Michael Avenatti, alleging he tried to extort Nike, threatening to release damaging about the company, if Nike didn't agree to pay millions to him and a client.

"I'll go take ten billion dollars off your client's market cap . . . I'm not fking around."

[Byker28i]

The Avenatti complaint
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/5780145...

[Byker28i]

The trump campaign is sending this letter to TV producers, Trump campaign thinks that people who have made "outrageous and unsupported claims" in the past should not appear on TV

[paulguitar]

JPJPJP said:

Here is Donny arriving for work this morning, quite pleased

https://twitter.com/mad_liberals/status/1098364052...

That is fking hilarious!

[Byker28i]

Meanwhile: Sarah Sanders: "They literally accused the President of the United States of being an agent for a foreign government. That's equivalent to treason. Thats punishable by death in this country."

[Byker28i]

There's selective leaking coming from the DOJ, they help the story that Barr wants to tell, that Mueller told him three weeks ago he wouldn't make an obstruction determination. This is just Barr authorising people to speak to reporters on background, which is exactly what they claimed McCabe was fired for.

[Mr Dendrite]

Worth a note. Avenatti and Stormy parted ways about a month ago, sorry I haven’t got a link. At the time I thought it was something she’d done but maybe it was this looming on the horizon, who knows?

[Gameface]

Byker28i said:

Avenatti's in trouble

Federal prosecutors announce charges against Michael Avenatti, alleging he tried to extort Nike, threatening to release damaging about the company, if Nike didn't agree to pay millions to him and a client.

"I'll go take ten billion dollars off your client's market cap . . . I'm not fking around."

What a tt.

Still waiting for him to go after the even bigger tt Wohl.

[Byker28i]

Mr Dendrite said:

Worth a note. Avenatti and Stormy parted ways about a month ago, sorry I haven’t got a link. At the time I thought it was something she’d done but maybe it was this looming on the horizon, who knows?

Avenatti overplayed his hand, made it personal and tried to take over as a personality, claimed he would run as presidential candidate, which got in the way of what Daniels wanted.

Gameface said:

What a tt.
Still waiting for him to go after the even bigger tt Wohl.

Can't see that happening now, this is the second, third, lawsuit against him and his practice? Interesting similarities to Cohens approach when representing trump.
donald jnr has been vocal all day, especially rubbing Avenatti's nose in it and in this case I think deservedly so...

[Byker28i]

It's claimed Sater thought he could launder money through trumps Moscow tower

This week, New York developer Felix Sater is set to testify before Congress about his role in Donald Trump’s attempt to build a tower in Moscow. A lawsuit filed Monday may provide new fodder for his inquisitors, with its claim that Sater, a longtime associate of Trump’s, sought to use money stolen from a bank in Kazakhstan to help develop the building.

The suit by BTA Bank JSC alleges that Sater and the wealthy Kazakh businessman Ilyas Khrapunov explored financing the tower deal in 2012 with some of the $4 billion stolen a decade ago by Khrapunov’s father-in-law, ex-BTA Chairman Mukhtar Ablyazov. While the Moscow plan fizzled, other transactions tied to Sater helped launder the purloined cash, the bank says.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-25...