This may be the smoking gun in the Russia investigation

[AirPoh]

This story broke last night but this

exchange between Democratic Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Attorney General nominee William Barr during his confirmation hearings earlier this week

Klobuchar: The President persuading a person to commit perjury would be obstruction, is that right?

Barr: Well, yes. Well, any person who persuades another to -- yeah."

Klobuchar: "You also said that a President or any person convincing a witness to change testimony would be obstruction, is that right?

Barr: Yes."

seems like some folks know a lot that other folks do not.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/18/politics/buzzfeed-trump-cohen-russia/index.html

 

[ZiprHead]

Link directly to the story.

President Trump Directed His Attorney Michael Cohen To Lie To Congress About The Moscow Tower Project

Of course Trumpettes are deflecting by saying Cohen is a known liar even though they apparently that have many documents that confirm it happened.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Link directly to the story.

President Trump Directed His Attorney Michael Cohen To Lie To Congress About The Moscow Tower Project

Of course Trumpettes are deflecting by saying Cohen is a known liar even though they apparently that have many documents that confirm it happened.

Buzzfeed will stop existing if this story turns out to be false, so in that mindset, it would seem that they'd quadruple check sources on this before publishing an accusation that Trump was guilty of four felonies.

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

..... And Muller's team comes out and calls it false. Now what?

 

[poster]

..... And Muller's team comes out and calls it false. Now what?

Now anyone who swallowed it wholesale gets to admit they were wrong and promises to do better in the future. That's called integrity.

 

[Elixir]

..... And Muller's team comes out and calls it false. Now what?

Now - nothing. The story goes away for the moment. Mueller's team didn't exactly call it false.

"BuzzFeed's description of specific statements to the Special Counsel's Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen's Congressional testimony are not accurate,"

That could mean virtually anything - from "the entire story is bullshit" to "they missed a date". Buzzfeed stands by their story and urges Carr to clarify what they are disputing. There will be no clarification from Mueller's office, and Cohen will probably be prohibited from talking about it on 2/7 (if he testifies at all).

 

[poster]

..... And Muller's team comes out and calls it false. Now what?

Now anyone who swallowed it wholesale gets to admit they were wrong and promises to do better in the future. That's called integrity.

Now - nothing. The story goes away for the moment. Mueller's team didn't exactly call it false.

"BuzzFeed's description of specific statements to the Special Counsel's Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen's Congressional testimony are not accurate,"

That could mean virtually anything - from "the entire story is bullshit" to "they missed a date". Buzzfeed stands by their story and urges Carr to clarify what they are disputing. There will be no clarification from Mueller's office, and Cohen will probably be prohibited from talking about it on 2/7 (if he testifies at all).

^Or equivocate.^

 

[AirPoh]

..... And Muller's team comes out and calls it false. Now what?

No they didn't.

 

[AirPoh]

..... And Muller's team comes out and calls it false. Now what?

Now anyone who swallowed it wholesale gets to admit they were wrong and promises to do better in the future. That's called integrity.

Don't think many folks swallowed it. Everthing I heard started with "If the story is true. That's called integrity.

 

[AirPoh]

Now - nothing. The story goes away for the moment. Mueller's team didn't exactly call it false.

"BuzzFeed's description of specific statements to the Special Counsel's Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen's Congressional testimony are not accurate,"

That could mean virtually anything - from "the entire story is bullshit" to "they missed a date". Buzzfeed stands by their story and urges Carr to clarify what they are disputing. There will be no clarification from Mueller's office, and Cohen will probably be prohibited from talking about it on 2/7 (if he testifies at all).

^Or equivocate.^

Exactly. The statement from Muller was equivocating. Elixer explained that quite well. Why reiterate?

 

[poster]

^Or equivocate.^

Exactly. The statement from Muller was equivocating. Elixer explained that quite well. Why reiterate?

So Mueller is the equivocator?

 

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Well, there’s this:

In response to Mueller’s statement, Ben Smith, BuzzFeed’s editor in chief, said: “We stand by our reporting and the sources who informed it, and we urge the Special Counsel to make clear what he’s disputing.”

And then (later in the same piece), this:

[M]arcy Wheeler, an independent national security journalist, noted in a lengthy tweet thread that the leak to BuzzFeed may have come from the Southern District of New York (SDNY), which has motivation to characterize Cohen’s testimony differently than Mueller would. “SDNY has an incentive to be dramatic w/Cohen’s testimony, Mueller must be measured,” she wrote.

 

[Trausti]

Well, there’s this:

In response to Mueller’s statement, Ben Smith, BuzzFeed’s editor in chief, said: “We stand by our reporting and the sources who informed it, and we urge the Special Counsel to make clear what he’s disputing.”

And then (later in the same piece), this:

[M]arcy Wheeler, an independent national security journalist, noted in a lengthy tweet thread that the leak to BuzzFeed may have come from the Southern District of New York (SDNY), which has motivation to characterize Cohen’s testimony differently than Mueller would. “SDNY has an incentive to be dramatic w/Cohen’s testimony, Mueller must be measured,” she wrote.

Wow. That's some desperate shit to try to save a shit story.

 

[poster]

The story could very well turn out to be accurate to some degree, but that does not excuse the behavior displayed by the members in this thread or the other one on the same subject that jumped on it for no reason other than that it came from Buzzfeed and was more dirt on Trump.

The members should come clean and admit all that and promise to do better in the future. That would show integrity.

It doesn't have to be a big deal, just something like "well, that was a bit of a fuck up on my part, I can't allow that to happen again". Even something simple like a "sorry, my bad" could go a long way. I promise not to ride you for it.

It just might end up being a warm-up of sorts for when Mueller submits his report.

 

[poster]

For all we know Mueller might have had the story planted in order to allow the effects of the letdown begin. I would not put it past him.

 

[ZiprHead]

For all we know Mueller might have had the story planted in order to allow the effects of the letdown begin. I would not put it past him.

Why would you "not put it past him"? Do you have some record of malfeasance or treachery from Mueller in the past?

 

[poster]

For all we know Mueller might have had the story planted in order to allow the effects of the letdown begin. I would not put it past him.

Why would you "not put it past him"? Do you have some record of malfeasance or treachery from Mueller in the past?

You seriously are not aware of Robert Mueller's history?

https://consortiumnews.com/2017/06/21/at-fbi-mueller-oversaw-post-911-torture/

https://consortiumnews.com/tag/robert-mueller/page/3/?print=print-search

There, I answered your question. Now do your part and come clean.

 

[Keith&Co.]

For all we know Mueller might have had the story planted in order to allow the effects of the letdown begin. I would not put it past him.

Why would you "not put it past him"? Do you have some record of malfeasance or treachery from Mueller in the past?

Who teases to phase into a letdown? That's psychotic?

Anyone here, did your dad dress up as Santa to further the illusion, or as part of breaking the news to you?

Far more likely to be a Trump leak, trying to distract things and weaken the real news.

But then, the WH response would have been more on point....

 

[ZiprHead]

For all we know Mueller might have had the story planted in order to allow the effects of the letdown begin. I would not put it past him.

Why would you "not put it past him"? Do you have some record of malfeasance or treachery from Mueller in the past?

You seriously are not aware of Robert Mueller's history?

https://consortiumnews.com/2017/06/21/at-fbi-mueller-oversaw-post-911-torture/

https://consortiumnews.com/tag/robert-mueller/page/3/?print=print-search

There, I answered your question. Now do your part and come clean.

Mueller was head of the FBI, not the CIA. It was the CIA committing the torture in the middle east and the first article seemingly tries to paint the FBI with what the CIA was doing. It also implied that torture was committed on detainees in New York yet what they described, "restrict the 9/11 detainees’ ability to contact the outside world and delay their immigration hearings" and " the FBI that recommended housing the detainees in the maximum security facility", is nothing near torture. It's basically a lying, distorting hit piece written in June 2017 against their perceived bad guy.

The second one is similar. The only tie in to Mueller is the writer wrote an email to Mueller and never heard anything back. No proof that Mueller had anything to do with her getting stung with "I had technically broken FBI policy by not seeking FBI “pre-publication review” and approval for sharing my letter with news outlets" which she freely admits.

Try harder.

 

[Angry Floof]

I'm going to remain skeptical about this whole thing until we find out more. It's strange in many ways.

Buzzfeed is clearly not NPR or PBS, but it's not a tabloid and it's not Fox News. They might make mistakes but they do not publish bullshit wholesale. And the response was weird, too. Mueller's team so rarely responds to any media speculation or claims except for a few times when whatsisname said to be careful when they report on the investigation.

The timing is weird. The response is weird. Is Mueller trying to stave off Trump doing something crazy in response to what certainly is a smoking gun if such evidence exists? Is he just trying to make sure everyone knows his team doesn't leak?

I think Mueller has released information very strategically, usually in the form of court filings and such. Maybe this was supposed to come out later and right now is just too vulnerable a time for what could be chaos around a man who still has certain powers to cause great destruction on a whim.

I'm holding out for further developments.