Is It Treason Yet?

I found it odd when our former and current intelligence chiefs were pressed at congressional hearings to answer whether they thought we were at war with Russia. Even more surprising their answers in varying degrees were affirmative.

Now I get it. That set up the premise for treason. Even the intent to collude with a nation with which we are at war is treasonous.

Or, at a minimum, it’s an impeachable high crime and misdemeanor if it turns out Donald Trump knew about his son’s entaglement with the Russians, now evidenced by the emails Don Jr. released today.

As Sen. Lindsey Graham said today if a foreign government offers help to your campaign, “The answer is no.”

And if we’re at war with that nation, even if just in cyberspace, saying yes is treason.

[cross-posted via HuffPost]

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Author: craigcrawford

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85 thoughts on “Is It Treason Yet?”

  4. Pogosays:
    July 11, 2017 at 1:25 pm

    Who mentioned conspiracy this morning?  I ain’t the only one thinking along those lines.

    Of course, there already was evidence of other meetings between Russian officials and members of the Trump campaign. The crucial new detail about this meeting is that campaign members now admit it took place after they were told that Veselnitskaya was offering compromising information about Clinton.This fact is significant regardless of what happened at the meeting. Proving a defendant’s state of mind is key in any criminal case. This meeting provides critical evidence about the state of mind of Trump representatives: They were willing to hear what a Russian individual had to offer about their opponent.

    Proving intent is is the biggest obstacle to a successful conspiracy case because you know “I didn’t mean to break the law Or anything…”

  5. If we could see trump’s tax returns for the past years, we would know where the feds are going with the money trail.

    Where is trump?  Hiding under the Oval Office desk until the smoke clears.  Smoke alarms going off all over the West Wing.

  6. pogo, to me that’s the significance of Jr’s “I love it” email response to offers of foreign help. Proves intent. At a bare minimum to accept a “thing of value” from a foreign govt for the campaign, which violates campaign finance laws. Possibly more.

  7. “And if we’re at war with that nation, even if just in cyberspace, saying yes is treason.”

    This sentence gets right to the point. The whole piece is excellent.

     

  8. Of course I’m the eternal optimist when it comes to considering the downfall of the trump family, but I see brick after brick being put into Mueller’s wall – which BTW is in my opinion the wall trump should be worried about – not the idiotic southern one.

  9. Jared & Trump, Jr. both learned their criminal lessons at their daddies’ knees.  Unfortunately, Trump the younger didn’t learn that daddy’s little girl wins.  Everybody else is just a dispensable hanger on.  Of course, if I were Ivanka, I would suspect that there might be a ladies only space under the bus if daddy feels threatened even more.

     

  10. Random thought, but wondering if the Kushners visit Israel anytime soon and end up staying there.

     

  11. Pence tweet:  Was at Capitol today to advance ‘ agenda, working w/ to Obamacare. In KY tomorrow to discuss healthcare.

    Collusion comes in all forms.  Time to brush up on order of secession

    VP, Speaker, Pro Tem Senate, and S of S.  That would mean Pence, McConnell, Hatch, and Tillerson.  We may be doomed.

     

  12. is the goose cooked or merely cooking?

    a dead duck or a lame duck?

    whatever the above, what we have before us has a “fowl” odor about it

  13. Audio only WH briefings might next be done in sign language using hieroglyphic symbols.

  14. Jamie, paul ryan has been practicing his reluctant acceptance speech for months now.  reince probably wrote the draft and is updating as we speak.

  15. Pogo,

    If & when the downfall comes, I wouldn’t be surprised if it comes from the most unlikely source. Seriously, nothing surprises me anymore.

    However, I can safely predict the Headlines of 99% of stories reporting the end: You’re Fired!

    Trademark that while you can.

  19. keith left out that daddy’s office is just upstairs from that meeting room in trash tower…. is it possible/likely there were also connecting conference phones or the room wired which would allow a presence without an actual presence?  and is it possible/likely Natasha — oops, I mean Natalia– was not also wired?  my guess, da and da


    Published on Jul 10, 2017

    What did Trump do the day his kid went looking for Russian dirt on Hillary?

  21. WH nightmare: Can Mueller get retroactive FISA warrants to review Trump camp phone calls and emails with Russians?

  22. excerpt from huffpo “Republicans Downplay Donald Trump Jr. Email Scandal”

    Republicans, meanwhile, portrayed the revelations as a nonstory, or described the story as a distraction from more pressing issues. 

     

    “I think that’s overblown,” Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) told reporters on Capitol Hill. “Donald Jr. is very dedicated to his father, but you know he’s not part of the administration.”

     

    “They’ve done some really dumb stuff, this is not one of them,” said former Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) on Fox News. 

    […several goper tweets here…]

    Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), the chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, which is investigating potential collusion, said he had seen the emails but “we’ll have to wait until we finish the investigation” to make a determination on them.

    “We’re gonna look at everything and go where the facts lead us,” he said.

    Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), meanwhile, said he doesn’t “really have a reaction” as he is “too busy” working on the Senate’s health care proposal. However, a Cornyn aide said the senator believes Trump Jr. should testify before the intelligence committee.

    […. more tweets…]

    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) dodged the topic entirely during a Tuesday press conference, punting to the Senate intelligence committee instead of addressing the controversy outright.

     

    “I’m sure they’ll get to the bottom of whatever happened,” he told reporters.

    Some Republicans, such as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), did say the emails raised concerns.

  24. boss, from cnn money back in February:

    Thanks to a little-known and rarely used provision in the law, either the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee or the Joint Committee on Taxation may request anyone’s tax returns to examine — including the president’s — from the secretary of the Treasury.

    They wouldn’t need to tell anyone that they did so. They could share the returns with their committee members in closed session. And if one of the committees thinks releasing the returns to the House or Senate would further a legitimate committee purpose and be in the public interest, they can do that, too — without Trump’s consent, said George Yin, a former chief of staff at the Joint Committee on Taxation and a professor of law at the University of Virginia.

    A release of the tax returns to the full House or Senate effectively would make the documents public.

  26. seems to me Democrats are the victims of two stolen presidential elections: George W’s coup with fraudulent overseas military ballots in Florida, and then Trump’s Russian treason.

  27. Not a great time for the gop…chris christie may have dodged a bullet by not being in the current WH admin, but it is pretty evident that when eating the state of New Jersey?   It goes right to the gov’s thighs!

     

  28. Stolen electoral college, Craig.    The dems know how to win the popular vote.  Get rid of the old timey electoral college.  Vote online.  The old analog way can get stolen and minorities become phony majorities.

    We also need to define cyber war.   What about a war on Russian hacking?   Obama should have started one.

  29. So let’s take a breath here.  I’ve been watching cable coverage this afternoon.  It appears that CNN and MSNBC are experiencing collective on air orgasms.

    Like Nixon, if this thing is going off the cliff – it’s going to take time and be painful.  Arggghhhhh!

  30. Now, with more and more people watching LivePD, citizens across the country are gaining a greater appreciation of the penetrability of hollow excuses for both misdemeanors and felonies. Seems to me this understanding will carry over to juries and ballot boxes as time goes forward.

    Hey, what do y’all think of Richland County Deputy Chris Mastrianni?

  31. Wow…  I’ve been visiting with friends all day.  From reading these posts…  it looks like I’ve missed some action.  Maybe….  god…  don’t know if I can…  but I just might make myself turn on MSNBC….   just a little bit tonight.

  33. This all reminds me of Didius Julianus, the man who bought the Roman Empire for his spoiled wife and daughter.  Things didn’t work out well for any of them.

  34. These members of Republican leadership that ignore our foreign-occupied Executive branch have got to fucking go.  They are anti-American traitors.  What are you Red-state voters doing?!?!

    Eh, I guess they were all in on it- must have been. Why focus the lens in their direction?

  35. Hi gang,

    I’m going out on a boat to slay some fish – won’t be back until Thursday morning.  Thank god I’m getting away from this mess.  Talk to everyone soon!

    david

  36. Slaying fish sounds good to me.

    I hope everyone who missed Watergate is gaining an appreciation for what needs to happen when a bad person is in the WH.  There is a lot of back and forth.  Denial and lifting rocks.  And, today it happens fast.  What is ahead depends on whether the republicans feel they will lose their next election by sticking with thirty percent of the population.  Will SFB and clan leave the WH on their own or will we have months of televised hearings?  I wish I knew.

  37. Word in DC: A despondent Trump is secluded in WH watching TV. I suggest the Green Acres reruns on Logo.

  38. Haha. Reading back on Didius Julianus it says that in the end he was deserted by everyone but one prefect…..and his son-in-law….

  40. CNN & MSNBC orgasms would be more believable if they hadn’t been broadcasting Russian talking points for the majority of the campaign.

    MSNBC currently highly suspect since they spent the first five minutes of every A block bashing Hillary while groveling all day at the Bernie Sanders throne.

  41. Pussy G is despondent?  I’d like to know why.  Is it for the right reasons or because he believes his own bullshit?  He has plenty to be despondent about including throwing fakeDonjr under the bus for realDonjr’s hubby (if that’s true)

  43. NBC-  they thought they were so cool with Megyn and Greta — they only looked good in the context of Fox

    By the way Greta’s hubby is a real sleaze bucket and their firm was suspended for ambulance chasing in West Virginia (think class action law suit)

  44. But this time, the Kush-man might turn out to be the first guy to bail and sing…….Il Papa ain’t worth any jail time maybe…..

  45. Jared should take it like his Dad and do his time of course he will be a felon and unable to vote

    Wonder what Melanoma will do to cheer upPG

  46. Dems might want to start grooming candidates for Congressional replacement elections- there may be quite a few seats open after The FBI is done.

  47. Do you think Pussy G will turn to private prison contracts now

  51. I think he is despondent because he’s not allowed to tweet about Donjr

  54. “Wonder what Melanoma will do to cheer upPG”

     

    -oh, that ship sailed years ago, lol.

  56. Joe & Mika on Colbert tonight.  Joe announces leaving the GOP to become an independent.  Odds both of them will beg for forgiveness for what the tandem did to Hillary?

    Joe will play guitar.

     

  57. Who will be the first Republican to call for Trump’s resignation? Barry Goldwater?

  61. Trump not tweeting, instead stumbling around White House in his underwear cursing presidential  portraits.

  62. Trump not tweeting, must make up our own: “Russian lady lawyer too fat for a deal. Ugly!”

  64. Trump not tweeting, must make up our own: “Don Jr just wanted to adopt some Russian kids. CNN says no. SAD!”

  65. Trump not tweeting, must make up our own: “Russia? Never heard if it WITCH HUNT!”

  67. “Who will be the first Republican to call for Trump’s resignation? Barry Goldwater?”

    Maybe Goldwater’s ghost because there aren’t any politicians of substance today.

    I’d respect Laura Bush because she always seemed to be more commonsense & smart than Republican.

    We have no Leaders yet we are easily lead. Living in an Era of sorry excuses.

  68. Honestly, drawing a blank on any name that defines gravitas, honesty & respect in modern day politics.

     

  69. ny times via msn about natalia:

    Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr. last year to discuss possible compromising material on the Democrats, has been widely depicted as a one-issue activist consumed with getting Congress to repeal sanctions against Russian businessmen.

    But lawyers and others in Moscow’s legal community called her a trusted insider, one who could be counted on to argue and win important high-profile court cases that matter to the government and to one senior, well-connected official in particular.

    Ms. Veselnitskaya, 42, earned her status as the go-to lawyer for the Moscow regional government. For years, she has been a lawyer for the Katsyv family, whose patriarch, Pyotr D. Katsyv, was minister of transportation of the Moscow region for more than a decade, and whose son was caught up in the New York money laundering case.

    The elder Mr. Katsyv is now a vice president of Russian Railways, a state-owned railroad monopoly that is the country’s largest employer and one long dogged by corruption allegations.

    [….]

    Ms. Veselnitskaya started her career in the prosecutor’s office in Moscow’s suburbs before branching out. She earned a reputation as a fearsome opponent, intimidating both inside the courtroom and in the corridors, where she was known to threaten adversaries with the wrath of the government. By her own account in a recent United States legal filing, she said she had argued and won more than 300 cases.

    One lawyer who has opposed her in court described her technique as 20 percent law, at which she excelled, and 80 percent acting. She would wave her hands and describe the travails of her victims in emotional terms, the lawyer said, who feared using his name for the safety of his family.

  71. excerpt from transcript last night on pbs newshour segment “Inside Russia’s propaganda machine”

    NICK SCHIFRIN: Hacked e-mails became anti-Clinton talking points. And many of those talking points were spread online by fake accounts known as trolls believed to work in this St. Petersburg building.

    Forty-two-year-old Marat Mindiyarov used to be one of those trolls.

    MARAT MINDIYAROV, Former Troll: Every day, you see a lot of comment at night, and they’re all the same, yes. And it’s exactly the people doing their job. They have their topic. They have a time to do it. They write it, and you see it.

    NICK SCHIFRIN: Every day, Mindiyarov would get a document that instructed him what to write. On Christmas Eve, 2014, he was told to — quote — “create a negative attitude about Obama’s foreign policy.”

    So he posted photos comparing Obama to Hitler, portraying the U.S. as a fish about to eat the planet and an eagle sharpening his talons. He posted under the headline, “Can the U.S. take Russia out?” on 50 Web sites in 23 cities. And fellow trolls Kiril Ivashkin, Gennady Orlov, Mike Brandon expressed the exact same thought, 600 posts from 70 fake accounts in 12 hours, just one battalion in a sock puppet army manufactured by a handful of trolls.

    How many identities will the workers be expected to pretend to be?

    MARAT MINDIYAROV: Hundreds. Hundreds. Really, hundreds. I myself maybe had 20, 30. I didn’t count them.

    NICK SCHIFRIN: U.S. intelligence says the likely troll financier is Evgeny Prigozhin, a businessman with catering companies. He’s been dubbed Putin’s personal chef.

    Mindiyarov left the factory because he didn’t believe in its product. But he says it’s effective because the stories are succinct and echoed widely.

    MARAT MINDIYAROV: Everything is very simple there, yes, black and white, no color, just black and white.

    BEN NIMMO, Atlantic Council: Russian propaganda is actually very predictable and relatively simple. And I think of it as the four D’s, which are dismiss, distort, distract, and dismay.

    NICK SCHIFRIN: Ben Nimmo is An Atlantic Council senior fellow studying how Russian media, Russian hacking and Russian trolling combine.

    BEN NIMMO: You get your own people to write this, but then you pretend it’s not your people, it’s just some do-gooders in Russian society. All the different parts of your machine then amplify it, and what you’re doing is you’re pushing out in a dozen different languages on all the different platforms there are, one story. And what that story is what the Kremlin wants it to be.

  72. also on the newshour was “What to expect as Senate health care battle goes into overtime”

    here’ s a sample of it:

    LISA DESJARDINS: Multiple Republican senators told NewsHour this is what’s in the latest plan: It restores an investment tax and a Medicare tax on the wealthy. Plans to cut those taxes drew criticism as helping the rich. More subsidies or tax credits for lower-income families and billions more for opioid treatment.

    But indications are there will be essentially no changes to the Medicaid section. That would cut the number of people on Medicaid by millions. And one unusual twist: Republicans are still mulling an amendment from Texas Senator Ted Cruz that will allow insurers to offer just one Obamacare-compliant plan and avoid its regulations in the rest.

    That general idea could bring on Cruz and other key votes like Lee.

    SEN. MIKE LEE: That’s one way to get me to yes on the bill.

    [….]

    JOHN YANG: Lisa, you said that the Cruz amendment is going to be key.

    But Senator McConnell also said that Thursday, they are going to see a text. How are going to they handle the Cruz amendment?

    LISA DESJARDINS: Yes.

    This is a bit of a tricky — it’s actually — think of it as two different bills, a bill A and a bill B. It will be the same text. Only, one will have the Cruz amendment, one will not. The big moment to decide which goes forward will be Monday, probably, when we expect the Congressional Budget Office to come out with its score to say, does the Cruz amendment help these markets, what does it do for premiums, what does it do for preexisting conditions?

    That will be the big decision moment.

    JOHN YANG: And in your spot, you said that they still don’t have the 50 votes for what is probably going to come out Thursday.

    Are they going to continue to tweak it to try to get the votes they need? Or how is that going to work?

    LISA DESJARDINS: I think that’s why we didn’t see text today, John. That’s why saw sort of a framework and Vice President Pence up there trying to massage people into this.

    But, honestly, coming out of the meeting, some people were more warm to it, like Bob Corker today. Others, like Lisa Murkowski, came out, was there, was there progress made on things important to you? She turned to reporters and just said no.

    pogo, you may be interested in newshour segment titled “What Medicaid patients in West Virginia want from health care reform”


  73. Published on Jul 11, 2017

    After Donald Trump Jr. releases an email exchange that shows him setting up a meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer, Trevor unpacks the first son’s possible case of collusion.

  74. I think Ivana may have a few things to say if PG tries to throw her son under the bus

  75. This one’s for patd: On this date in 1984 Geraldine Ferraro was chosen by Walter Mondale as his running mate.

    Will note that the Democrats have chosen two competent, intelligent women to run for higher office. The Republicans have chosen zero 😉

     

     

  76. I was there when Rep Ferraro was nominated  the convention was in SF

    Nancy P was chairman and she recruited every sentient Democrat to be part of the fun.  Most of us served on various state welcoming committees

  77. Craig,

    I don’t see any republicans willing to publically call for resignation or impeachment. Maybe after they gut health care deregulate business, do tax reform that lets the rich off Scott free,etc,etc,etc.

    There are just too many republican wet dreams at stake, to be distracted by non issues such as treason. Perhaps after, but not now.

  78. What happened to Senator Sass – he started out as the one who might blow the whistle on PG but he seems to have forgotten his earlier stand.

     

     

  79. Katherine Graham Cracker,

    That must have been a wonderful moment. Were you there for Governor Mario Cuomo’s City On A Hill speech?

  80. Sjwny

    the last thing voters want in their elected officials is intelligence and competence.

    Sucessful women with a long and distinguished record of getting things done need not apply.

  82. No not the Mario speech.

    But it was very cool to be there for Geraldine

  83. KGC,

    Senator Sasse is from red state Nebraska. He may not approve of Trump ‘s un-Godly lifestyle, but he damn well approves of gutting the safety net and dismantling government. With those priorities on the table, he can force himself to hold his nose and look the other way. In that, he is no different than the rest of them.

  84. Well isn’t he a big fat hypocrite  I think the gooper who I currently dislike the most is Tom Cotton

    I wish someone would electrify the stick he has up his butt

  85. my tweet from PG:   It could be Don jr is not my son but if he is he is a just like me & not going down

     

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