The Russia Investigations and other Trump-related cases

[N.E. Brigand]

Meanwhile,
Durham rebukes his own witness and slams FBI’s Russia probe after trial setbacks

Today was the third day of this trial, and the judge in the case has dismissed one of the five charges that Special Counsel John Durham brought against Igor Danchenko, who was one of Christopher Steele's sources. The dismissed charged pertains to whether Danchenko lied to the FBI when he said that he never "talked" to a Democratic operative named Charles Dolan about a particular subject. Durham had emails between the two men on that topic; Danchenko's position was that he specifically said he never "talked" to Dolan about the matter, and the judge agreed: "Criminal liability cannot be imposed based on the literal definition of 'talk.'"

The remaining four charges wall concern Danchenko having told the FBI that he believed that a Russian businessman (and probable spy) named Sergei Milian had called him in the summer of 2016. Durham argues that Milian never called Danchenko. Milian has refused to return to the U.S. to testify, but even if he did, Danchenko's position is that it doesn't matter, because he has consistently said that he once believed the call he got was from Milian.

Additionally, FBI agents have said that Danchenko became one of their most valuable sources for Russian counterintelligence and that Durham blew that all to hell by charging him.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

More evidence of how Trump stole from the U.S.

[RoseMorninStar]

Nothing but a thieving grifter. Worse, what he's done to our discourse and mental health and damage to our democracy by making it 'de rigueur' to deny election results. Not to mention proof that he intended to deny a loss even before the election.

[N.E. Brigand]

In 2019, Eric Trump said that the Secret Service "stay[s] at our properties free," although he immediately added that the Secret Service is charged only a nominal rate: "If they were to go to a hotel across the street, they'd be charging them $500 a night, whereas, you know, we charge them like $50."

In 2020, Eric Trump said, "We provide the rooms at cost and could make far more money renting them to members or guests."

[N.E. Brigand]

Edited to add a tidbit about another case that hadn't appeared to be Trump-related, but:

New reporting from Maggie Haberman's book indicates that after Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested, Donald Trump asked aides: "She say anything about me"?

In the first interview of the dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's procurer, Ghislaine Maxwell, since she was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment, she says she's grateful to Donald Trump, who was then the President, for publicly saying "I wish her well" at the time of her arrest in July 2020. Maxwell says that comment was "a big boost" to her and that she "was very touched that he would remember me".

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Meanwhile, the four remaining counts of John Durham's specious prosecution of Igor Danchenko, one of the sources for the Steele dossier, for allegedly lying to the FBI, have gone to the jury.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/17/politics ... index.html

[Sunsilver]

Edited to add a tidbit about another case that hadn't appeared to be Trump-related, but:

New reporting from Maggie Haberman's book indicates that after Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested, Donald Trump asked aides: "She say anything about me"?

In the first interview of the dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's procurer, Ghislaine Maxwell, since she was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment, she says she's grateful to Donald Trump, who was then the President, for publicly saying "I wish her well" at the time of her arrest in July 2020. Maxwell says that comment was "a big boost" to her and that she "was very touched that he would remember me".

No wonder Trump has so much trouble getting lawyers to defend him! What an idiot! He shouldn't even have wanted to acknowledge he knew her, let alone was friendly towards her.

[RoseMorninStar]

There are multiple photos of them together so it would be kinda hard to deny.. although he seems pretty good at denying facts so..

[N.E. Brigand]

Meanwhile, the four remaining counts of John Durham's specious prosecution of Igor Danchenko, one of the sources for the Steele dossier, for allegedly lying to the FBI, have gone to the jury.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/17/politics ... index.html

Danchenko has been found not guilty on all four counts. Durham's investigation was a complete bust.

Some pleasant news to learn in contrast to the results of the two Covid tests I took this morning.

[elengil]

Some pleasant news to learn in contrast to the results of the two Covid tests I took this morning.

Oh no!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[RoseMorninStar]

Some pleasant news to learn in contrast to the results of the two Covid tests I took this morning.

I'm sorry to hear that. I hope you have a mild case which clears quickly.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Mind-boggling.

[N.E. Brigand]

Meanwhile, the four remaining counts of John Durham's specious prosecution of Igor Danchenko, one of the sources for the Steele dossier, for allegedly lying to the FBI, have gone to the jury.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/17/politics ... index.html

Danchenko has been found not guilty on all four counts. Durham's investigation was a complete bust.

A juror was interviewed and says there were no holdouts.

Meanwhile, former Trump lawyer Joe diGenova says it's OK that Durham lost the two cases he brought because he was able to use the trials to expose problems at the FBI.

[N.E. Brigand]

Meanwhile, the four remaining counts of John Durham's specious prosecution of Igor Danchenko, one of the sources for the Steele dossier, for allegedly lying to the FBI, have gone to the jury.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/17/politics ... index.html

Danchenko has been found not guilty on all four counts. Durham's investigation was a complete bust.

A juror was interviewed and says there were no holdouts.

Meanwhile, former Trump lawyer Joe diGenova says it's OK that Durham lost the two cases he brought because he was able to use the trials to expose problems at the FBI.

Christopher Steele weighs in:



One point that emerged in the trial is that the FBI came to trust Danchenko more than Steele, who may have embellished Danchenko's information at times.

In the end, Danchenko's information gathering and Steele's use of it made no difference in the 2020 campaign. The Clinton campaign struggled to make use of the results. It was too sketchy for them to share directly, and reporters who saw it because of the campaign's efforts realized that the allegations wouldn't be ready for print without a lot of additional research they weren't capable of undertaking.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Full D.C. Circuit Rejects Donald Trump’s Bid to Reconsider Ruling Turning Over Tax Records to Congress

“While it is possible that Congress may attempt to threaten the sitting President with an invasive request after leaving office, every President takes office knowing that he will be subject to the same laws as all other citizens upon leaving office,” Senior U.S. Circuit Judge David B. Sentelle, a Ronald Reagan appointee, wrote on Aug. 9. “This is a feature of our democratic republic, not a bug.”

That statement was written a day after the search of Mar-a-Lago.

[N.E. Brigand]

Judges on a D.C. Court of Appeals today suggested during oral arguments that the House Ways & Means Committee should not be able to view my tax records, despite a plain law and ample precedent to the contrary, because someday I might be the President. I hope they were just being rhetorical in those suggestions.

The full D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has declined to take up Donald Trump's request for an en banc rehearing of an August circuit court decision affirming a December lower court decision that the House Ways & Means Committee is entitled to get six years of his tax returns from the IRS. Apparently none of the judges on the circuit, not even those appointed by Trump, thought that there was a path forward for him.

The Supreme Court had already ruled in another case that the House Oversight Committee could subpoena President Donald Trump's tax records from his accountant, subject to certain separation of power considerations, and they remanded it to the lower courts to make such considerations. (What's the status of that case?) I hope that 2020 decision will incline the Supreme Court against taking up this case, where the law is even more clear: the IRS is required to provide the Ways & Means Committee with any person's tax returns upon request (there is no exception in the law for presidents or past presidents, whose records have in fact previously been examined). At any rate, the clock is ticking. If Republicans take control of the House, as seems likely, Trump's taxes will go unexamined by Congress for at least another two years (if Democrats can retake the House in 2024). It's already been three-and-a-half years since the Ways & Means Committee first requested the documents. I think they should vote to make the materials public.

Edit: Cross-posted with Voronwë.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Trump has filed with the Supreme Court for an administrative stay and a stay pending consideration of a petition for a writ of certiorari of the decision allowing the House Ways and Means committee to obtain his tax records. Assuming the GOP takes control of the House (which still seems extremely likely), all he would need is for the high court to grant a stay until the new congress takes office and mostly likely the tax returns will be buried once more.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Chief Justice Roberts (who oversees the D.C. Circuit) granted an administrative stay and requested a response to the stay request by Thursday. Not a big surprise there, and it doesn't mean that the court will grant a longer stay, but it leaves the possibility open.

[N.E. Brigand]

Donald Trump has settled a lawsuit brought against him in 2015 by activists who were roughed up by his security guards outside Trump Tower. The case had finally gone to trial and was in the midst of jury selection. The terms of the settlement have not been released.