Absence makes the heart grow fonder

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Author: patd

“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked. "Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad." "How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice. "You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

18 thoughts on “Absence makes the heart grow fonder”

  5. raw story:

     

     

    U.S. District Court Chief Judge Beryl Howell on Tuesday ordered the Department of Justice to release a redacted copy of the Michael Cohen search warrants.

    And in a stunning development, the judge gave DOJ one day to make it happen.

    The ruling came in response to a request from the Associated Press, CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post.

     

    The order, filed on May 21, said, “the government shall file, by May 22, 2019, redacted versions of the Warrant Materials on the docket.”

     

    The judge also created a process to release an unredacted version of the documents, with a status request ordered by August 22

    Order by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Beryl A Howell (screengrab)

     

  6. daily beast:

    A rare thing happened on Capitol Hill early Wednesday morning: an agreement. The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), announced the Department of Justice had agreed to his request to hand over some Mueller Report files and he was therefore canceling a Wednesday morning meeting that was intended to take an “enforcement action” against the department. In a statement, Schiff said the move was the “first step towards compliance with our subpoena,” and the the DOJ will begin this week to turn over “12 categories of counterintelligence and foreign intelligence materials as part of an initial rolling production.” However, Schiff said the committee’s subpoena will remain in place and will be enforced if the DOJ “fails to comply” fully with the document request. He went on: “I look forward to, and expect, continued compliance by the department so we can do our vital oversight work.”

  11. nytimes;

    WASHINGTON — President Trump abruptly blew up a scheduled meeting with Democratic congressional leaders on Wednesday, lashing out at Speaker Nancy Pelosi for accusing him of a cover-up and declaring that he could not work with them until they stopped investigating him.

    He then marched out into the Rose Garden, where reporters had been gathered, and delivered a statement bristling with anger as he demanded that Democrats “get these phony investigations over with.” He said they could not legislate and investigate at the same time. “We’re going to go down one track at a time,” he said.

    The confrontation came on a day when pressure over a possible impeachment effort raised temperatures on both sides of the aisle. Ms. Pelosi arrived at the White House for a session with the president set to talk about infrastructure shortly after meeting with restive House Democrats to talk about impeachment. She emerged from that meeting with Democrats accusing Mr. Trump of a “cover-up.”

    When she and Senator Chuck Schumer arrived at the White House, Mr. Trump was loaded for bear. He walked into the Cabinet Room, did not shake anyone’s hand or sit in his seat, according to a Democrat informed about the meeting. He said he wanted to advance legislation on infrastructure, trade and other matters, but that “Speaker Pelosi said something terrible today and accused me of a cover-up,” according to the Democrat.

    After just three minutes, he left the room before anyone else could speak, the Democrat said.

  12. 1st part covers rose garden show (obviously planned considering preprinted poster on podium)  and 2nd part (starting at 21:13 minutes in) covers pelosi schumer recap of meeting 

  13. Federal court unseals Michael Cohen search warrants, further detailing his Russian ties

    (CNN)A federal court in Washington, DC, has unsealed five search warrants that special counsel Robert Mueller obtained while investigating Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former lawyer and fixer.

    The newly unsealed documents show how Mueller had a judge’s permission to follow the money from Russian sources to Trump’s personal lawyer, and had reason to look into Cohen’s extensive contacts with Russian government-linked individuals, some of which began on the day Trump won the presidency.

    The documents are from 2017, before Mueller referred the Cohen investigation to federal prosecutors in Manhattan, and generally show how Mueller was allowed to dive into Cohen’s email accounts, including his Trump Organization email address.

    In a search warrant application from July 2017, prosecutors outlined how Cohen started communicating with a Russian-connected company on Election Day. Over the next year, there were more than 1,000 calls and text messages between Cohen and the CEO of that company, Columbus Nova.
    In the filing, Mueller’s team made it clear that Cohen began contacting the company immediately after the election: “Telephone records show no such text messages or telephone calls between COHEN’s cellular telephone and the CEO of Columbus Nova prior to November 8, 2016.”
    Columbus Nova is an American company linked to Viktor Vekselberg, a prominent Russian oligarch. In the documents, prosecutors noted his “various connections to Russian President Vladimir Putin.”
    Despite being investigated for acting as a foreign agent, Cohen was never charged with that crime. He pleaded guilty to other crimes, including tax evasion, campaign finance violation, and lying to Congress and reported to prison earlier this month.
    The search warrants show that Mueller moved on Cohen very quickly after taking over the investigation in May 2017 and investigators were armed with significant financial information from his bank. Mueller’s team also followed reporting in the press about Cohen’s interactions.
    Mueller intensified his investigation into Cohen after reviewing records provided by his bank that raised concerns. Cohen had previously told the bank that he opened a new account to store consulting income he received from wealthy Americans. Instead, the account started filling up with money from “numerous deposits from foreign businesses and entities,” Mueller’s team wrote in a July 2017 filing.
    Cohen’s ties to many of these foreign companies is already well-documented. But the search warrants provide some new details about his transactions, including a contract he negotiated with a Kazakhstan-based bank to pay him a $150,000 monthly consulting fee. Cohen’s links to the bank spilled into public view earlier this year during his dramatic daylong public hearing on Capitol Hill.

    Cohen took money from companies during the early stages of the Trump administration. He also used the account, which was for Essential Consultants LLC, to facilitate hush money payments to women who accused Trump of affairs before he was a candidate for president. Trump denies those allegations.
    The basic reasoning for Mueller’s searches of Cohen was previously referenced in related warrants unsealed in New York federal court, which prosecutors used after they received the Cohen case from Mueller. In both sets of court documents, chunks of the documents are still redacted, especially the sections about the hush-money scheme to pay off the two women who have accused Trump of affairs. An investigation related to the contributions appears to still be ongoing, and the details will remain under seal and will remain so for at least another two months, according to judges’ orders in both courts.
    The continued confidentiality suggests that federal prosecutors continue to investigate the Trump Organization.

     

  14. Oh God the democrats got played again.  Oh and Chuck get rid of the cheaters you look like an idiot.
    Nancy next time you get played just issue a statement, quit playing his game. Play yours you are better at it.
    Jack

  15. Itty bitty tyrant donald throws a hissy fit. He’s a goner who thinks that if he acts up enough, he’ll resurrect. 

  17. So Jack, you think SFB’s tantrum over Nancy calling him out for his cover up plays to that 30% or so that doesn’t identify as crazy partisans?  I don’t tend to think that. His cover up is in plain sight. His obstreperous reaction to being investigated and beginning of a wave of losses in court are showing how weak his position is, at least in my humble opinion. Let me make clear that I know his antics play to and may energize his base, but what he’s doing today may or may not have much motivating effect 18 months and a shitshow campaign from now. I really don’t see his moron supporters sitting around 18 months from now saying, “Hey remember that time when he walked out on infrastructure meeting  with Nancy and Chuck three minutes after it started?“ If his morons are motivated by that shit, imagine how motivated our morons are by that shit. Just saying. 

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