Mueller closing in on Trump in Russian probe

We have... Mueller just said that Trump is not a criminal target of his investigation.... But Mueller is still closing in, isn't he, any day now he will say Trump is, right?

 

Innocence is a starting state, not a delayed state. Trump said from day one he is innocent of criminal charges. Mueller has cleared him.

 

He can't. If he tells the truth he's screwed. If he lies he's screwed.

Supposedly there is a Grand Jury subpoena for Trump to testify on the 13th

 

Manfort wasn't a "criminal target" until he was...

 

You should have posted a link. Too bad I can'f locate proof of your claim.

 

But can you enlighten me? I have seen nothing........... I know, Mueller's keeping it all a secret for a nice October surprise........

 

I just did read post #1241.

 

Your post describes no action that was criminal viz-a-viz Trump-Russian collusion or interference in the 2016 election. And some actions you list are not true.

 

Mueller has nothing, except thousands of billable hours.

 

He has Flynn, Gates, and Papadopoulos cooperating, he has evidence of Gates colluding with a Russian intel agent, he has evidence of Donnie J colluding with a representative of the Russian government, he has Flynn's confession of violating the Logan Act, he has a strong case of obstruction of justice against Don thanks to Don admitting he fired Comey over the Russian investigation among other things, he has leads to look in to over Don's company and money laundering, he has evidence of contacts between campaign members and people involved in the release of the hacked DNC e-mails, he has evidence of Papadopoulos seeking dirt on Hillary from Russian operatives, he has Manafort by the nuts, so not really nothing.

 

I guess I wonder how many indictments, arrests, guilty pleas, and deportations it would take to convince you? Clearly, 20 isn't enough, perhaps 50, 100? No number of trials and convictions will satisfy Trump's supporters. I lived through Watergate and the Ervin commission that threw Nixon out of office for obstruction of justice. This is a replay of the denial, obfuscation, diversion, and slander by the Nixon supporters. Some never learn and we are destined to once again, repeat history.

 

Like Texas Republican said, Mueller has nothing.

 

I might be convinced if Mueller had something that addressed Trump-Russian collusion and something more significant than jaywalking.

 

Epic denial. Simply hilarious.

 

While laughing your butt off, how about pointing out things that Mueller has that

1. relate directly to actual Trump-Russian collusion, and
   
2. are more than pissant process accusations or crimes?

 

Mueller has told Trump's lawyers that he is not seeking a criminal indictment of Trump, but Trump is the subject of his investigation. I have always maintained this is not a criminal issue, but that is for Mueller to decide. Mueller is determining if there is grounds for impeachment. Conspiracy and obstruction of justice are two possibilities.

I provided some evidence. There is a great deal more than just that one post. It is contained in several posts on this thread.

"And some actions you list are not true." Now that is cute, and so true of a Trump defender. Just say something isn't true. Don't explain what is untrue, just "some actions," which says nothing. Your statement is meaningless. What was not true?

 

News Flash: Mueller does not decide what things are impeachable, other than as the point man for the Democrat's impeach/overthrow effort.
I don't recall everything in your post but it was not true that Sessions lied about his Russian contacts -- not including the slight of hand and twisted logic of Senator Franken and his Democrat accomplices.

 

1. Trump's son, son-in-law, and campaign manager met with Russian operatives at Trump's home, Trump Tower, in June 2016.

2. At least nine members of Trump's campaign team have ties to Russia, including members of his family. Five have been indicted, and four have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with Mueller, including Rick Gates, Mike Flynn (formerly, Trump's NSA), George Papadopulous, and Alex van der Zwaan, a lawyer married to the daughter of a Russian oligarch with ties to Putin. Others with really big mouths include Carter Page and Roger Stone. The latter had Russian connections along with ties to Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks. You do remember that WikiLeaks spilled all the Russian beans during the election campaign, seriously damaging the Clinton campaign.

Always be careful what you ask for.

 

I didn't say he did.

Sessions did lie at his Senate confirmation hearing. Many of us have heard him. Later, he tried to explain that he didn't understand the question. Are you so gullible that you believe him? It was a pretty straightforward question.

Don't waste my time telling me something isn't true, when you know perfectly well that it is, particularly when it is common knowledge issue. You will look awfully foolish doing that.

Just as you do here. Millions have seen that video where Sessions lied to the committee.

That said, I like Sessions. He is an honest man. That is an extremely rare commodity in the Trump administration. Most of them, beginning with Trump, lie at will and can't be trusted. Currently, Trump is doing his level best to destroy the American economy.

 

You evidently misread my question. It was:
"While laughing your butt off, how about pointing out things that Mueller has that

1. relate directly to actual Trump-Russian collusion, and
   
2. are more than pissant process accusations or crimes?"

 

Sessions did not misunderstand Franken's question. He answered the question asked, but not the question Franken and the Dems claimed after the fact that they asked.

 

Mueller has evidence that Trump supporter's meeting with Putin ally may not have been a chance encounter: Sources

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/muel...id=clicksource_4380645_4_film_strip_icymi_hed

Well-connected Lebanese-American businessman George Nader, a key witness given limited immunity by Mueller, has been interviewed seven times by prosecutors on a wide range of subjects. He told investigators that he set up a meeting in the Seychelles between Prince and Russian sovereign wealth fund CEO Kirill Dmitriev, mere days before Trump was inaugurated, sources familiar with the investigation said this week.

Nader has submitted to three interviews with special counsel investigators and four appearances before a federal grand jury in Washington since agents stopped him at Dulles International Airport in January, served him with a grand jury subpoena and seized his electronic devices, including his cell phone. Documents obtained by Mueller suggest that before and after Prince met Nader in New York a week before the trip to the Seychelles, Nader shared information with Prince about Dmitriev, sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News, which appears to be inconsistent with Prince’s sworn testimony before a U.S. House of Representatives investigative panel.

"I didn't fly there to meet any Russian guy," Prince told the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in November. He testified that he travelled to the Seychelles for a meeting with United Arab Emirates officials about possible business opportunities, and they introduced him – unexpectedly – to Dmitriev.

The special counsel's office declined to comment on this story when reached by ABC News.

As of late March, Mueller’s team has not asked Prince – whose sister Betsy DeVos serves as Trump’s Secretary of Education – to appear before the grand jury being used to investigate whether Trump campaign officials or transition aides colluded with Russian government operatives, according to one of Prince’s friends.

Prince told the House Intelligence Committee that his meeting with Dmitriev was a chance encounter “down in the bar” at the suggestion of "one of the brothers" of the United Arab Emirates' leader Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed al-Nayhan.

"At the end, one of the entourage says, 'Hey, by the way, there’s this Russian guy that we’ve dealt with in the past. He’s here also to see someone from the Emirati delegation. And you should meet him. He'd be an interesting guy for you to know, since you’re doing a lot in the oil and gas and mineral space,’” Prince told lawmakers under oath in his sworn testimony. “So, as I recall, I met him, this same guy I talked about, Kirill Dmitriev. Met him down in the bar after dinner, and we talked for 30 minutes over a beer, and that was it.”

Sources say Nader -- who worked at the time for the Emirati leader, known as "MBZ” – tells a different story. According to multiple sources, the U.A.E., an important U.S. ally increasingly eager to be seen as a global powerbroker, wanted to bring a Russian close to the Kremlin together with someone Nader believed was a trusted confidant of members of the incoming administration.

Sources tell ABC News Nader met with Prince at New York's Pierre Hotel a week before the Jan. 11, 2017 meeting in the Seychelles, and later sent Prince biographical information about Dmitriev, which, according to those sources, noted that Dmitriev had been appointed by Putin to oversee the state-run sovereign wealth fund.

Nader says he then facilitated and personally attended the meetings, including one between Prince and Dmitriev, at a resort owned by MBZ off the coast of East Africa, the sources told ABC News. One of the primary goals of the meeting, Nader told investigators, was to discuss foreign policy and to establish a line of communication between the Russian government and the incoming Trump administration, sources told ABC News.

Nader — who Prince said in a 2010 lawsuit deposition had once represented his military contractor business in Iraq — was not mentioned in Prince's congressional testimony despite Prince being asked by lawmakers who was present. Prince said only that Dmitriev's wife was there but she left after a few minutes while they discussed terrorism and oil prices.

A spokesperson for Prince told ABC News on Thursday that "Erik has said all there is to say to the committee and has nothing further to add." Prince has said that the Seychelles meeting was leaked to the news media last year in an illegal “unmasking” of his identity in U.S. signals intelligence intercepts.

Nader, a naturalized U.S. citizen, is an enigma in the nearly yearlong probe of the Trump presidential campaign's dealings with Russians linked to the Kremlin.

His background and credibility have come under attack as his name appeared in recent headlines. He has been arrested twice in the U.S., first in 1984 and again 1991, and convicted once, according to court records unsealed in March, for possession of pornographic videos featuring underage boys.

Nader was also arrested for similar charges involving underage boys in the Czech Republic, according to an Associated Press report.

ABC News could not confirm the AP report, and Nader’s legal team vigorously disputes its accuracy.

Nader's lawyers at powerhouse firm Latham & Watkins, which includes former Obama White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, have said unnamed individuals are dredging up the old criminal cases to discredit him as an important witness for Mueller. They declined to comment to ABC News on Nader's interactions with the special counsel and Nader himself has refused to speak about the Russia probe.

Few in Washington remember George Nader, whose colorful biography reads like a spy thriller: his career has spanned the globe, and along the way he has been a hostage negotiator, arms broker, security operative and, now, an important witness for the former director of the FBI.

He’s even negotiated with the Kremlin. According to Al-Monitor, a news website covering the Middle East, Nader helped broker a $4.2 billion arms deal between Iraq and Russia in 2012.

Nader’s associates say he has embarked on countless sensitive diplomatic missions overseas and was once a special adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney. He had easy access to the White House under Presidents Reagan, both Bushes and Clinton, according to former officials, and he visited the Trump White House last year despite his criminal record.

Nader posed with Trump for a picture and even helped arrange the new American president's first major foreign trip to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia last year, two top Trump advisers told ABC News.

"He has worked for the Israelis, the Syrians, the Iranians, the Saudis, the Emiratis, the Shiites in southern Iraq," said Mouafac Harb, a Lebanese former journalist who has known Nader for decades. "He’s typical of the kind of shady operatives you often see in the Middle East.”

............the article continues.

 

Yeah, that is the problem. Also, the problem is illustrated by the length of the article you shared. Thank you.

It is sort of a convoluted story, complicated even for me. It is far too complicated for the simpler minds on this forum. Simple concepts -- like Sessions lied at his confirmation hearing -- baffle some.

I prefer far more simpler concepts, like Trump's son, son-in-law, and campaign manager meeting with Russians in Trump's home. Now that is something even I can get across to these numbskulls.