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USA under presidency of a know-nothing, neo-fascist, racist, sexist, mobbed-up narcissist!!
How Do You Solve a Problem Like Don Jr.?

Posted on Jul 12, 2017 Truthdig

[Image: donjrhannity_590.jpg]
Donald Trump Jr. sits for an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Tuesday in New York City. (Richard Drew / AP)

Scanning the headlines published this year by mainstream sources like The Washington Post, The New York Times, Vox, The Daily Beast and other outlets could well give news consumers the impression that we are thisclose to a ruinous reveal about the Trump administration's alleged ties to the uppermost echelons of Moscow's business and political elite.
Given that setup, it's not surprising that this week's media coverage from several such publications about Donald Trump Jr.'s fateful June 9, 2016, meeting with a woman described by an associate of the Trump camp as a "Russian government attorney" who could offer damaging information about Trump Sr.'s then-presidential rival Hillary Clinton cast the story as a bombshell of apocalyptic proportions.
To wit, here are just a few picks from an array of dramatic, even cinematic headlines posted Tuesday and Wednesday: "Trump's Defeated Defenders Can Only Whimper" (Bloomberg View); "The Donald Trump Jr. Emails Change Everything" (Vox); "Trump Aides Freaking Out Over Don Jr.'s Russia Email: The Sum Of All Fears'" (The Daily Beast); "Is Donald Trump Jr. Our Era's Fredo Corleone?" (The Boston Globe); "Could Trump Jr.'s Meeting With a Russian Attorney Count as Illegal Conspiracy?" (The Washington Post); "Red Curtain Falls: Trump Jr. Emails Show Russia Ties" (The Guardian).
And then there were the headlines about other headlinese.g., "Is Donald Trump Jr. Really the Fredo of His Family? An Investigation" (Vanity Fair); "Comparing Donald Trump Jr. to Fredo Corleone Is Grossly Unfair. To Fredo." (Slate).
Of course, it was the president's eldest son himself who served as the most important source of published information about the meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya facilitated by British music publicist Rob Goldstone, now dubbed by The Daily Beast as "the Playboy Who Could Bring Down Trump." According to reports, Donald Jr. decided to exercise at least a modicum of control early Tuesday by beating his ink-stained antagonists to the punch and tweeting out key details The New York Times was just about to break:
[Image: DEdm15cXgAAa6sC.jpg:small][Image: DEdm3ylXUAAa83C.jpg:small][Image: DEdm3zKXsAAm7pD.jpg:small][Image: DEdm3zPWsAQurCg.jpg:small]
[URL="https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr"]
Follow[/URL]
[URL="https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr"][Image: LjrJJB9a_bigger.jpg]Donald Trump Jr.
@DonaldJTrumpJr[/URL]

Here's my statement and the full email chain
5:00 PM - 11 Jul 2017
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View image on Twitter[Image: DEdnhw-WsAEbW9N.jpg]

[URL="https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr"]
Follow[/URL]
[URL="https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr"][Image: LjrJJB9a_bigger.jpg]Donald Trump Jr.
@DonaldJTrumpJr[/URL]

Here is page 4 (which did not post due to space constraints).
5:01 PM - 11 Jul 2017
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So, Donald Trump Jr. may have denied the Times a scoop, but that couldn't insulate the Trump administration from the impact of the paper's multipart story backed by Donald Jr.'s confirmation (per the NYT):
The June 3, 2016, email sent to Donald Trump Jr. could hardly have been more explicit: One of his father's former Russian business partners had been contacted by a senior Russian government official and was offering to provide the Trump campaign with dirt on Hillary Clinton.
The documents "would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father," read the email, written by a trusted intermediary, who added, "This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump."
If the future president's eldest son was surprised or disturbed by the provenance of the promised material or the notion that it was part of a continuing effort by the Russian government to aid his father's campaign he gave no indication.
He replied within minutes: "If it's what you say I love it especially later in the summer."
Four days later, after a flurry of emails, the intermediary wrote back, proposing a meeting in New York on Thursday with a "Russian government attorney."
Donald Trump Jr. agreed, adding that he would most likely bring along "Paul Manafort (campaign boss)" and "my brother-in-law," Jared Kushner, now one of the president's closest White House advisers.
On June 9, the Russian lawyer was sitting in the younger Mr. Trump's office on the 25th floor of Trump Tower, just one level below the office of the future president.
[...] The Justice Department and the House and Senate Intelligence Committees are examining whether any of President Trump's associates colluded with the Russian government to disrupt last year's election. American intelligence agencies have determined that the Russian government tried to sway the election in favor of Mr. Trump.
The reaction to Donald Jr.'s admission from that faction of the press that President Trump has referred to as "the enemy of the people" was consistent with its previous coverage of the Trump White House.
What was different this time around, however, was the response from sources on the right. Instead of circling the wagons, a good number of conservative outlets and pundits seemed to be eyeing the horizon.
The Drudge Report's homepage on Tuesday registered the newswith a grabby, regionally appropriate metaphor:
[Image: drudge2_600.jpg]
Tuesday's homepage at the National Review, the editors of which have been far from united in their takes on Trump, could have been mistaken for any number of left-leaning publications but for the Lena Dunham giveaway:
[Image: nationalreviewfront_600.jpg]
Rumors of pandemonium at Breitbart's editorial meeting made their way onto CNN's radar, although Breitbart's homepage gave off no such distress signals:
Raheem Kassam, editor-in-chief of Breitbart London, reacted to the story of Donald Trump Jr.'s newly-released emails in a way that wouldn't typically be expected from someone at the far-right outfit, which is a reliable supporter of President Trump.
"So like, this is straight up collusion," he wrote in the news outlet's internal Slack, according to a transcript of the conversation obtained by CNN. "Right?"
[...] Some staffers were seemingly left astonished. Writing in the company Slack, senior editor Rebecca Mansour reacted with only one word: "Wow." Amanda House, the outlet's deputy politics editor, wrote only, "???????"
The New York Post, for its part, got personal with this choice made by its editorial board:
[Image: trumpjridiot_600.jpg]
The White House made predictable noises via Sarah Huckabee Sanders and, inevitably, the president's Twitter account:
[URL="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump"]
Follow[/URL]
[URL="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump"][Image: kUuht00m_bigger.jpg]Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump[/URL]

My son Donald did a good job last night. He was open, transparent and innocent. This is the greatest Witch Hunt in political history. Sad!
12:19 PM - 12 Jul 2017
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Donald Jr. made an appearance Tuesday on one of the Trump family's designated safe spaces, "Hannity":
Fox News stalwart Sean Hannity, like right-wing radio baron Rush Limbaugh, held the pro-Trump line, pointing out on his show that Donald Jr. had not done anything that Hillary Clinton hadn't in her own run at the White House. (The Clinton comparison was one, incidentally, that was also tracked by Consortium News' Robert Parry.)
Given that the many mediated takes on Donald Jr.'s extracurricular campaigning activities and their ultimate significance ranged from garden-variety "opposition research" to "potential treason," arriving at a reasonable conclusion that might prove to be more accurate than those currently on offer from self-interested pundits or politicians stuck in damage-control mode presents a unique challenge. Good thing Truthdig columnist, former judge and legal expert Bill Blum took a moment from his summer break to weigh in via email:
This story is the worst Russia news yet for the Trumps, and it has indictment potential for Don Jr. and possibly Jared [Kushner] and [Paul] Manafort. Among its many provisions, the Federal Election Campaign Act makes it a crime for a foreign national to contribute anything of value to an election campaign. It is also unlawful for an American to receive or solicit anything of value from a foreign person. Donald Jr.'s emails are close to a confession of a violation of these provisions. I don't think we're quite there yet, but I suspect [special investigator] Robert Mueller will discover more than the emails. Jr.'s smartest move has been to hire a criminal defense lawyer.
Insights provided by investigative journalist Marcy Wheeler in this clip from The Real News Network are also worth considering:

If anything is certain in this morass, it's that Donald Trump Jr. has ensured he'll remain under heavy media scrutinyas well as, Politico suggested Tuesday, under investigation by special counsel Mueller, to whom Donald Jr. has handed a "smoking gun." Really, he hasjust ask the crack team of "veteran prosecutors and white-collar defense attorneys experienced in Washington scandals" consulted by Politico specifically for that piece.
Meanwhile, The Washington Post is busy deciding between "smoking gun" and "distraction."
Trump Jr. at least has the assurance, granted by the National Review's latest headlines, that what he did is decidedly "not treason," even if it's "not defensible, either."
-----------------
Did Donald Trump Jr. Break the Law With His Russian Meeting?
While every campaign seeks damaging information on political opponents, Donald Trump Jr. meeting a foreign national represents a departure from the norm


Haaretz and The Associated Press Jul 12, 2017 1:20 PM


Fact check: Did Donald Trump Jr. break the law with his Russian meeting? Pictured: Donald Trump Jr. is interviewed by host Sean Hannity on the Fox News Channel AP Photo/Richard Drew
Poetic justice and historic irony as Trump Jr.'s emails explode in his father's face
Opinion In Netanyahu's world, George Soros' politics justify throwing him to Hungary's anti-Semitic dogs
WATCH Trevor Noah roasts Donald Trump Jr.'s 'failed attempt at Russian collusion'
The email to Donald Trump Jr. just before the general election campaign offered a meeting with a Russian lawyer who would provide incriminating information about Hillary Clinton as "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump." The younger Trump wrote back: "If it's what you say I love it especially later in the summer."
While every campaign seeks damaging information on political opponents, the interaction between the president's son and a foreign national represents a departure from the norm. Legal experts are divided on whether what happened could be a crime.
President Trump has been quick to defend his son, both retweeting Fox New's Jesse Watters who claimed Trump Jr. is "the victim here" and tweeting, "This is the greatest Witch hunt in political history. Sad!"
skip - Tweet
What do we know about the meeting?
Details of the previously unknown meeting on June 9, 2016, among attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya, Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort emerged over the weekend. Kushner, who is Trump's son-in-law and was a key figure in the campaign, and Manafort, a campaign chief, attended at Trump Jr.'s request.


An email exchange Trump Jr. posted to Twitter on Tuesday gives more details about why the meeting was arranged. A music publicist friendly with the Trump family said in those emails that Russia was supportive of the Trump campaign and that a "Russian government attorney" had dirt on Clinton to share.
The emails included a message from the publicist, Rob Goldstone, that the attorney had "some official documents and information" to provide, but Trump Jr. said he received nothing.
Does this show the campaign colluded with the Russians?
First, it's important to remember that there's no law, per se, against "collusion." Trump advocates have been reminding people of this for weeks. However, some attorneys say that the events described in the emails could amount to a conspiracy to break campaign finance law.
Jeffrey Jacobovitz, a criminal defense attorney who represented White House officials during the independent counsel investigation of President Bill Clinton, said Trump Jr. and others involved in the meeting are "exposed to the conspiracy to commit election fraud." He said they appeared to be working together to illegally solicit a foreign campaign contribution in the form of opposition research.
Wait, don't all campaigns seek opposition research?
Trump Jr. made this argument Monday on Twitter, writing sarcastically, "Obviously I'm the first person on a campaign to ever take a meeting to hear info about an opponent... went nowhere but had to listen."
Indeed, presidential campaigns typically have entire teams of employees devoted to digging up dirt on their opponents. And longtime political strategists recall being inundated with offers from all sorts of people to share tips that campaigns might find useful.
So, what makes this different?
No one has stepped forward to say they experienced anything quite like the Trump Jr. interaction with the Russian lawyer at Trump Tower in New York.
Terry Sullivan, who was Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's 2016 presidential campaign manager, wrote on Twitter, "Running @marcorubio camp lots of random people asked to meet to share 'secret oppo' I was just never dumb enough to meet w/ them." He added: #ButWeLost
Campaigns tend to be timid about handling materials that could have been obtained illegally. When a former congressman helping Al Gore prepare for a presidential debate received an unsolicited package of George W. Bush's debate preparation materials, he turned it over to the FBI.
What about the interactions could be illegal?
Foreign nationals are prohibited from providing "anything of value" to campaigns, and that same law also bars solicitation of such assistance. The law typically applies to monetary campaign contributions, but courts might consider information such as opposition research to be something of value.
Larry Noble, a former general counsel to the Federal Election Commission, said the newly released emails "put meat on the bones" of a possible criminal campaign finance violation. The emails show that the younger Trump knew the Russian government was offering the information and "give a clear indication he was soliciting it." As for whether the offer involved something of "value," Noble said that could be established if the Russians put resources into obtaining the information or even sent anyone over to relay it to the Trump campaign.
Noble, Jacobovitz and other lawyers argue that the Trump campaign saved money by not having to do that opposition research on its own, arguing that what Russia offered was essentially an "in-kind" campaign contribution. The goods don't need to have been delivered, they say, to trigger the solicitation provision.
Does everyone agree on that?
Tom Fitton, president of the conservative Judicial Watch, said "it would be an absurdist interpretation of the law" to consider what Trump Jr. did a crime. "The law does not cover talking politics," he said. "If it did, pretty much every political meeting would be considered an in-kind contribution that needs to be reported."
Bradley A. Smith, a former Bill Clinton-appointed Republican Federal Election Commission member, also says "a meeting does not a conspiracy make."
Opposition research might have a marketable value, Smith added. "But if someone simply comes to the campaign and says, 'I have some information you might find interesting,' I don't think we've had a solicitation by the candidate or campaign."
"There's no illegality in the meeting," one of President Donald Trump's private attorneys, Jay Sekulow, said on Fox News Channel's "Hannity." He said there is no law on the books that Don Jr. may have broken.
Opposition research might have a marketable value, Smith said. "But if someone simply comes to the campaign and says, 'I have some information you might find interesting,' I don't think we've had a solicitation by the candidate or campaign."
What happens next?
There are multiple probes into the Trump campaign and its interactions with Russia during the 2016 election, led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and by Senate and House committees.
Trump Jr., who hired an attorney this week, said Monday that he is "happy to work with the committee to pass on what I know," referencing the Senate intelligence committee. Kushner and Manafort agreed weeks ago to cooperate with the congressional probes.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
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USA under presidency of a know-nothing, neo-fascist, racist, sexist, mobbed-up narcissist!! - by Peter Lemkin - 13-07-2017, 08:06 AM

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