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President Donald Trump: 'All Roads With You Lead To Putin
It's BACK! TRUMP RUSSIA!
Roger Stone's trial brings back the Trump-Russia saga
A federal prosecutor told jurors on Wednesday that longtime Republican operative Roger Stone lied to Congress, "because the truth looked bad for Donald Trump."
"You might ask, why didn't Stone just tell the truth?" prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky asked jurors. "Roger Stone lied to the House Intelligence Committee because the truth looked bad for the Trump campaign, and the truth looked bad for Donald Trump."
The bulk of the charges Stone faces reflect allegations that he lied to Congress regarding his communications with associates about WikiLeaks. He also stands accused of witness tampering as part of an effort to keep humorist and radio show host Randy Credico from contradicting his testimony before the House Intelligence Committee in September 2017. If the jury finds Stone guilty on all counts, he could face up to 20 years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty.
The longtime GOP operative was excused from court early on Tuesday during jury selection complaining of "possible food poisoning." He arrived at the courtroom on Wednesday looking healthy and smiling, but when the jury was seated and opening arguments began, his grin gradually fell.
Zelinsky began investigating Stone's conduct while still part of former special counsel Robert Mueller's team, and stuck with the case after the Mueller report was published and the team disbanded. Zelinsky kicked off proceedings Wednesday by walking through the charges against Stone -- and included new details about Stone's interactions with the Trump campaign and Trump himself.
Stone spoke with Trump multiple times in the summer of 2016, Zelinsky said. It wasn't what was said on the calls that was significant, he told jurors -- the nature of their conversations is unknown. It was their timing. The calls coincided with key moments in Stone's interactions with people serving as Stone's back-channel conduits to WikiLeaks -- the organization that published thousands of stolen emails from Trump's Democratic political opponents.
Zelinsky also described two notable exchanges Stone had with senior Trump campaign members. In a message to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Stone said, "I have a plan to save Trump's (rear)," the prosecutor said.
Jurors heard about another email -- this one Stone sent to former Trump campaign CEO Steve Bannon.
"When Stone emailed Bannon, he said 'Trump could still win -- but time is running out,'" Zelinsky said. "But his way, in his own words, 'ain't pretty.'"
Zelinsky focused his remarks on the alleged lies Stone told to Congress -- each one represents a separate count against Stone. He told jurors why he believes Stone felt the need to lie, saying that the longtime Trump aide wanted to protect his political patron.
In response, Stone's counsel, Bruce Rogow, pointed out that his client had gone "voluntarily, without a subpoena," to meet with congressional investigators.
Stone's defense team told jurors that Stone complied with Congress and only omitted information he and his legal team viewed as being irrelevant to the "publicly stated parameters" of the committee's investigation.
"When you heard the government's opening statement, you didn't hear about Russia -- you heard about WikiLeaks and Julian Assange," Rogow said.
"You heard that Roger Stone spoke to the Trump campaign," he added, positing that there's nothing wrong with that -- Stone knew members of the Trump campaign personally.
Rogow argued that members of the committee deviated from the previously agreed upon, "publicly stated scope of the investigation," which he said was Russia, not WikiLeaks.
Prosecutors said they would seek testimony in court from Bannon, Rick Gates, who served as Trump's deputy campaign chairman, and Stone's onetime associate Randi Credico, who has been described by the prosecution as an "intermediary" between Stone and WikiLeaks.
Stone's defense team has questioned Credico's credibility, describing Stone's communications with Credico as "odious" and calling Credico "an impressionist."
Wednesday's court session also included testimony from Michelle Taylor, an FBI agent for 14 years who previously worked on the special counsel's investigation focused on Stone. She provided a window into the prosecutors' case. Taylor described a timeline of events over the summer of 2016, which over-layed the timing of actions by WikiLeaks and by the Russian hacking operation known as Guccifer 2.0, as well as Stone's communications with Trump, campaign officials and his intermediaries.
Taylor said she also reviewed public comments by Stone and by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in the summer of 2016 -- in which they discussed plans to leak information about Hillary Clinton. Prosecutors played a clip of an Assange interview, during which he described those plans. Days later, the Democratic National Committee announced its server had been hacked.
Earlier this week, the federal judge overseeing Stone's case said she anticipated proceedings would last two weeks.
Trump says he might attend Russia Victory Day events in May enjoy
Microsoft wants to “fix” America’s voting system, by rolling its own “ElectionGuard” digital voting system out around the country, making elections “good for everybody.”
Microsoft Aims to Trial 'ElectionGuard' Voting System in 2020 | Breitbart
Mark Wilson, writing in FastCompany, described ElectionGuard’s physical voting machine as “something of a concept car for the future of voting,” as it is “mostly made out of off-the-shelf parts.” Comprised of a Microsoft Surface tablet and the Xbox Adaptive Controller, the machine does not require touch screens that may incorrectly register votes, as some voters claimed happened to them in the 2018 midterms.”
Microsoft plans to roll out the system in limited trials at undisclosed polling locations for the 2020 election, according to the report.
ElectionGuard available today to enable secure, verifiable voting - Microsoft on the Issues
Microsoft plans to roll out the system globally.
In May, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that the company’s ultimate goal is to “modernize all of the election infrastructure everywhere in the world.
Nice
Right wing media largely suppressed that President Trump met in closed door discussions with senior Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday in the White House on Dec 10th for the second time since elected.
Trump meets with Russian foreign minister amid impeachment chaos | US news | The Guardian
All this happened on the same day that charges of impeachment were read out against President Trump.
The last time Lavrov visited the White House in May 2017, President trump was reported to have disclosed highly classified information to him about US intelligence sharing arrangements. The US Intelligence community was so concerned that they had to extricate their best human intelligence asset inside the Kremlin over fears for that person's safety. That individual was so well placed that he was able to take pictures of documents on Putin's desk.
Just the previous day, Lavrov met Ukrainian Prime Minister Zelensky in Paris to discuss peace talks and agree to a ceasefire between the two countries with Russian President Putin in attendance. Zelensky, a former comedian with little international experience, had to negotiate his countries future unsure if the USA had his back. No senior US representative attended the meeting.
Ukraine and Russia agree to implement ceasefire - BBC News
Unfortunately, the only back trump has is his own. He has proven over and over that he is loyal only to himself. As soon as a person has no more usefulness or they say something that trump deems derogatory he disposes of them. Yet there are still many in line eager to climb onto that bus. It is confusing.Originally Posted by SalesServiceGuy
Trump, Pompeo to meet Russia'''s Lavrov | Fox Business - Fox
Trump to meet Russia's foreign minister on Tuesday: Ifax - Reuters - not "right wing", but not left either. Center.
US confirms Washington visit by Russian foreign minister - Breitbart - Breitbart
You make it sound like the "Right wing media" tried to bury this and not report on it for some reason....? Why it "looks" like "right wing media" didn't report on this is because when you search it on google, CNN is almost the WHOLE first page!! But if you keep on scrolling, you'll find the "Righties" out there.
And besides, with the left wing media BLASTING it everywhere like it's a crime that they (POTUS and Russian) are visiting, they've already got the story "covered" and out there, so the Right wing media can then focus on more important stories.
And as for the "agent" that had to be removed, our own media is partly to blame for spewing the rhetoric and creating the un-easy feeling. They have a habit of doing that.
TRUMP2020
On the day of and the day after, I carefully searched Fox News, there was no mention of the meeting. If the meeting was on their webpage somewhere it was very hard to find. On Fox News night time talk shows there was definitely no talk of the meeting.
I like reading Fox news because it often has different non political content than CNN/ CNBC / CBS/ PBS/ CBC or BBC.
Speaking of the meeting, in the White House press conference afterwards, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov publicly denied Russian interference in the US election and suggested that the Ukraine was the villian. 100% of the US Intelligence community has concluded that Russian interfered in the US election.
Essentially Russia just shit on the US in the White House!
If this happened during the Obama administration Republican minds would have blown in technicolour!
Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, was standing right next to Lavrov and made very mild comments about election interference.
The Kemlins effort to politically undermine and weaken the USA has succeeded beyond their wildest dreams!
This is why President Trump is such a clear and present danger to the US constitution and why he is being impeached.
Yes, the US economy and jobs numbers are great but the debt grows out of control every day, public institutions are being attacked every day and the country has never been more internally conflicted. Plus it is not as if a Democratic President would not have created great economic numbers based on the strong economy that President Obama built.
History will not remember President Trump kindly.
Last edited by SalesServiceGuy; 12-12-2019 at 02:41 AM.
times has offficially changed
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