It’s not real if you call it fake news:
For the first time, US investigators say they have corroborated some of the communications detailed in a 35-page dossier compiled by a former British intelligence agent, multiple current and former US law enforcement and intelligence officials tell CNN. As CNN first reported, then-President-elect Donald Trump and President Barack Obama were briefed on the existence of the dossier prior to Trump’s inauguration.
None of the newly learned information relates to the salacious allegations in the dossier. Rather it relates to conversations between foreign nationals. The dossier details about a dozen conversations between senior Russian officials and other Russian individuals. Sources would not confirm which specific conversations were intercepted or the content of those discussions due to the classified nature of US intelligence collection programs.
But the intercepts do confirm that some of the conversations described in the dossier took place between the same individuals on the same days and from the same locations as detailed in the dossier, according to the officials. CNN has not confirmed whether any content relates to then-candidate Trump.
The corroboration, based on intercepted communications, has given US intelligence and law enforcement “greater confidence” in the credibility of some aspects of the dossier as they continue to actively investigate its contents, these sources say.
Reached for comment this afternoon, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said, “We continue to be disgusted by CNN’s fake news reporting.”
It’s interesting that the intelligence agencies continue to investigate Donald Trump’s connections to the Russians even after he’s president and even after he’s put in a new CIA director and a new Secretary of Defense. You’d think that he could put a stop to it, but somehow it doesn’t appear that he can. Trump’s National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, is getting savaged, too.
So, what’s the shelf-life on this presidency again?
Methinks TPTB would be much, much happier with a President Pence. By any means necessary.
similarly, I’m much happier with the nutcase Trump mismanaging things than having the same terrible policies calmly and competently delivered.
That’s a fair point, but I can easily see Trump getting us into far more, and more dangerous, trouble. As I’ve observed before, Pence could blow up the country; Trump could blow up the world.
I’m wondering if Democrats could exercise some leverage in impeachment proceedings by threatening not to cooperate, on the principle that “You broke the White House, you own it.” Republicans could do it without Democratic votes in theory, but there will be many of their reps afraid of their Trumpy constituencies, and it will be better to have all the Dems on board. We could demand something in return, like keeping Pence’s and Ryan’s hands off Dodd-Frank and ACA and the Obama wealthy-people taxes, at least until 2018.
The coup gathers strength.
Pompeo approved the security clearance rejection of Townley. I’m still processing that.
I assume they’re upset that the Trumpers managed to get a number of their intelligence assets in Russian cyber operations rounded up for treason.
The coup begins rolling downhill.
Nope. Trump is much more of a danger, and law enforcement supports him. He needs to leave as soon as possible.
What does that say about the state of our law enforcement? Maybe at the grass roots we should be looking to neuter the armed fascists already in our communities.
No. Just no. Bring on a conventional, Evangelical boring Republican President any day of the week. We have to get out of this box — it’s ten disasters waiting to happen. Like handling nitroglycerine.
want to know! (OK, maybe not really.)
More generally and traditionally, “the powers that be”.
Deep State PermaGov rules us all! And besides…the CIA has made up many things in the past…which proves they can NEVER be trusted, and certainly not over the Russians.
Spicer’s comment might be more dangerous. Are we going to go down the same well tread path…’the cover up is worse than the original incident’? And the original is pretty damn bad.
I’ve seen projection before, but I’ve never seen so much mass projection, from every member, and from every direction, as you get from this administration. It seems to be one of the job requirements.
.
It’s important to realize that a few years of Trump-generated chaos is a small price to pay to avoid the blandishments of throwing in with the Deep State, and relying on the PermaGov to save our bacon.
Some cures are worse than the disease.
Besides, Mossadegh. And Allende. We must first do penance.
At least we avoided Clinton’s health issues. And the horror of Chelsea running for office while Mom was POTUS.
.
All’s well? (Although I do need some help with this. When exactly was it that Tenet went from war criminal* to CIA hero.)
CIA honors Saudi crown prince with ‘George Tenet Medal’
–
*Human Rights Watch and The New York Times Editorial board have called for the prosecution of Tenet “for conspiracy to torture as well as other crimes.”
Now THAT’S got to be FakeNews(tm)
Seriously, is this an Onion plant? The Tenet “Slam Dunk” Medal for Best Performance in a Terrorism-related role?
That a Saudi prince is the inaugural winner was the clear Onion fingerprint!
Worthy of The Onion (that is having trouble keeping up with both the real and FakeNews(tm), but appears to be all too real. Will the MSM report this? (Just slow in reporting or having trouble deciding if they should report it?)
So the Iranian state TV is saying that a Saudi Prince has been awarded the “hair on fire” statue for his intelligence work in the fight against terrorism.
Too bad that sources and methods don’t allow the US to explain what Prince Mohammed bin Nayef did for the alliance.
Did he spot the target that Trump attacked in Yemen last week?
I can believe (with Glomar response) that the CIA has a Tenet medal. Likely it isn’t as prestigious as the Angleton medal or the Dulles medal.
True or not, it reeks of international trolling.
Iran TV only republished the report from Saudi Gazette and Al Arabyia.
That’s a bizarre definition of trolling that you’re using.
Note that if the Repubs had been given anything remotely as destructive about Obama it would be the only thing any of them would be mentioning into every mic placed in front of them, and there would be dozens. “It’s out there now, Talking Head Biff, that the prez is a traitor, selected by Osmama…” “Yep, that’s out there…”
Yet with this spectacular story, we hardly hear it mentioned by our Loyal Opposition. In fact, it had basically dropped off the face of the earth.
Of course, with the American Madman, to say there’s a target rich environment is the understatement of the century, which is partly by the design of Gruppenfuhrer Bannon. Still, that there’s a marvelous case to be made for Der Trumper’s illegitimacy just might be seen by DC Dems as a story to keep pumping and pumping, ad infinitum. Instead Schumer turns to “bipartisanship” as fast as he can. That failed playbook is 25 years old now, Mr. (Permanent) Minority Leader…
Is there a Dem strategy for keeping the machine guns firing until the barrels melt? At what target(s)? And selected by whom?
Just because they don’t shout about it does not mean it’s not happening.
.
The Dems are right to sit back and watch now. This weekend the WH is busy pointing fingers at each other while they write proclamation law, and the donald makes calls on an unsecured phone. They did all of that with very little action on their part.
If the Dems had any sort of coherint strategy Trump would not be president.
Past Performance is the best indicator of future results.
What’s the shelf life?
4 years.
SATSQ
Indeed.
Care to make a wager on that? From Politico: Trump impeached? You can bet on it.
Was Gerald Ford a coup?
A burglary led to a courtroom confession that trigger a Congressional investigation, which triggered testimony from White House aides actually afraid of violating perjury, which led to a cascade of information, an FBI leak to the media, an attempted purge of officials, and Republicans signing on to impeach a Republican President. At that point, an important conservative suggested that resignation might save the party.
Nixon’s resignation did not come as a “stroke of state”. It was dragged out for two years. And they followed the law. Yes, the law can be used as elements of a coup. If Pence acted without Congressional action, it might be considered a coup. But it would depart from procedural norms and accelerate the timeline of “due process”.
What the deep state’s involvement requires to be following the law is putting the cards on the table so that the public can judge on the evidence. That is not the deep state’s core competency.
>>Was Gerald Ford a coup?
by any sane definition, no. Which is also my answer to Booman’s title question.
They’re sending Michael Flynn to all the Sunday talk shows tomorrow. I would think the idea is that he would try to lay some groundwork for a re-introduction of the Muslim Ban next week — so he can talk about how dangerous the world is and how its not really a religion they are targeting but TERRORISM!!!
But the Trump administration isn’t smart like Cheney, so they apparently haven’t leaked a TERRORISM story to the NYT to give Flynn something to talk about tomorrow.
Instead, maybe he’ll have to answer questions about Putin, so that will be fun!
Instead of sending Flynn out there on today’s shows, the Administration sent out this guy:
Many people provided pithy Tweets which summarized Miller’s loud, robotic, lie-filled presentations, but the President quickly stated his happiness with his lackey’s performances, despite the fact that Miller was completely unwilling to provide any support for Flynn. That’s worth noting.
Base stoking and Two Minutes Hate volleys against almost anyone outside his base are the only communications on offer from Trump and his people. This is an extraordinarily unhealthy way to “lead” a country.
Where is the PermaGov when you need it?
Golf holiday with the DeepState. They got a good deal on a fly-drive package to Hilton Head.