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These violates so many ethical and legal lines where do you start? But then again, it shouldn’t be at all surprising. In TrumpWorld the believe that the best way to hide illegal actions is in plain sight-‘Russia if you’re listening’ ‘I could shoot someone on 5th Ave and not pay a price’, ‘I fired Comey because Russia is a hoax.’

In addition, Trump likes to put federal witnesses in the Trump-Russia probe on the 2020 campaign.

1. As we noted yesterday, after having Hope Hicks on Air Force One with him-which is itself witness tampering-he now is talking about bringing her back for the 2020 campaign. Yes that makes good ethical, legal-and common-sense. She’s a person of interest for the actions of the 2016 campaign so bring her in for the 2020.

https://lastmenandovermen.com/2018/08/11/trump-wants-to-bring-back-hope-hicks-aka-rose-woods-2-0-for-2020-campaign/

If simply having her on Air Force One with him is witness tampering what is hiring her for the 2020 campaign?

2. But this is his modus operandi-bringing people of interest in the investigation of his 2016 campaign into 2020. Brad Parscale, his digital director in 2016-who is a major person of interest-if not a potential subject or even target-is Trump’s 2020 campaign manager.

Remember, that Parscale’s own actions in working with Cambridge Analytica, and as Trump’s social media guy, put him at the apex of the question of actual collusion with Russian interference. Did he receive Democratic voter files the Russians stole and planning out his vote targeting strategy?

And this is who Trump has as his campaign manager for 2020.

3. Then there’s Rudy Giuliani himself who is Trump’s lawyer in Russia while being a major target in it in his own right.

So for Donald Jr-who’s a major person of interest due to his role both in the June 9, 2016  Trump Tower meeting and his role in the Trump Organization itself-to be out campaigning for the faux ‘President’ is while obscenely wrong-and potentially incriminating both for Jr and his Dad-it fits Trump’s pattern.

Recently Trump was reportedly worried about Jr’s legal exposure being due to nothing other than working for him and supporting his campaign. Yes, he’s so concerned that he’s getting Jr in even deeper.

The Washington Post:

“President Trump was watching Fox News Channel with aides in his private dining room off the Oval Office recently when Donald Trump Jr. flashed across the giant flat screen.”

“Don’s gotten really good,” Trump said, according to someone who was present. “My people love him.”

“The remark suggested a swell of unexpected pride from Trump about his namesake son, whose relationship with his father has been difficult at times but who has emerged as the president’s political alter ego and an in-
demand campaign celebrity ahead of November’s midterm elections.”

“Trump Jr.’s increasing prominence also comes at a time of heightened scrutiny by the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, who is examining his role in a Trump Tower meeting with a Kremlin-aligned lawyer. Trump has fretted to confidants about the fate of his eldest son, concerned he may be in legal jeopardy regardless of whether he knowingly conspired with Russian agents to obtain dirt on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.”

“But if Trump Jr. is rattled, he is not showing it. He boarded a propeller plane this past week for his annual vacation in the wilderness of the Canadian Yukon, where he is out of cellular range. Through an aide, he declined an interview request for this article.”

“Trump is determined to be the central Republican force in the fall campaign, and Trump Jr. is poised to be a key player in a strategy aimed at galvanizing the president’s most ardent supporters. And for many in Trump’s political base, seeing Trump Jr. in the crosshairs of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III may be more of a benefit than a drawback.”

“In a normal Republican universe . . . a guy like Don Jr., with all that baggage, would be very problematical,” said Republican strategist Mike Murphy, a Trump critic. “But in the new Trump universe, with different laws of gravity, every campaign is seen as just a big Republican primary. So it’s all Trump all the time.”

“Another plus, according to some Trump allies, is that Trump Jr. serves as a physical reminder to Trump voters that failure in November raises the specter of impeachment”

Ok in a political universe it might work out-the universe of alternative facts that the Trump supporters live in.

What about the legal universe-and real world-that the Mueller investigation resides in?

F”ormer White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Trump Jr.’s connection to his father’s political base is authentic. “All you need to do is look at his tweets to realize he speaks to the base and they love him,” Spicer said.

Yes, Jr’s connection to the base is authentic-period. 

Though it is rather rich for a man who’s being paid to praise Trump  to speak of authenticity.

Ok, well, all this campaigning for his father, will give more for Mueller to investigate. But whatever the political calculus is for this kind of witness tampering and obstruction in the alternative universe of the Trump deplorables, there’s the actual universe of Mueller. And here Trump Jr and his father aren’t helping each other.

To judge where Jr. stands in the Mueller probe start with the fact that he has yet to be interviewed by Mueller. This, however, is hardly a good sign. It suggests he’s being saved for last. 

“We will stipulate at the outset that the investigation being conducted by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and his team is a black box, by design. We get trickles of information about who Mueller’s team is talking to and who’s been called before a grand jury, usually thanks to those people subsequently revealing those conversations publicly. (Sometimes, as in the case of former Trump aide Sam Nunberg, we are informed ahead of time, loudly.)”

“It’s almost certain that Mueller’s team has talked to scores more people than we know about or can think of simply by the nature of his investigation. At one point, Paul Manafort’s real estate agent testified before the grand jury. Who knew?”

“So it’s odd that one very prominent name appears not to have talked to Mueller: Donald Trump Jr. Again, it’s unclear. Maybe Trump Jr. has had extended conversations with Mueller’s investigators and we don’t know about it. Given how closely Mueller’s efforts are being watched, though, that seems unlikely. And there are few people who might be able to offer more insight on the Russia investigation than Donald Trump Jr.”

Hence the total suicidal folly in having him involved in the 2020 campaign.

“We got another reminder of that Thursday, when the New York Times reported that Mueller’s team had subpoenaed Trump Organization records related to potential investments in Russia. The scope of the subpoena isn’t clear, nor is any specific focus of Mueller’s efforts.”

“We do know, though, that President Trump and the Trump Organization had been looking for a project in Moscow or elsewhere in Russia for years before the presidential campaign. At one point about a decade ago, Trump Jr. and his sister Ivanka traveled to Moscow pursuing a deal. Even after Trump declared his candidacy, the Trump Organization was pursuing a project in the Russian capital, prompting Trump attorney Michael Cohen at one point to reach out to a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin for assistance in moving the project forward.”

“The Trump Organization, subpoenaed by Mueller, is now run jointly by Trump Jr. and his brother Eric.”

In the past, Trump Jr. has bragged about the company’s Russian business ties.

“In terms of high-end product influx into the U.S.,” Trump Jr. said during an interview in 2008, “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets. … We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”

“In 2011, a woman who worked for a company that facilitated obtaining visas noted on social media that the Russian consulate in New York City had an autographed photo of Trump Jr. on the wall. Contacted by The Post, she said she couldn’t remember specifically what the photo depicted or what the signature said. (Beyond the contemporaneous post, we were unable to confirm the photo’s existence.)”

“There are few people beyond the president who are as knowledgeable about the Trump Organization’s efforts in Russia as Trump Jr.”

Then, of course, there’s the infamous meeting in Trump Tower in June 2016.

“The first layer here is the meeting itself. Trump Jr., contacted by a music promoter he’d met when the Miss Universe pageant was held in Moscow, is offered dirt on Hillary Clinton that was collected by the Russian government as “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”

“If it’s what you say it is, I love it,” Trump Jr. replied. He then asked to speak with the music promoter’s client, Emin Agalarov, before finalizing the meeting time. After calls were placed between Trump Jr. and Agalarov, the meeting was set — though Trump Jr. has claimed that he doesn’t remember actually speaking with Agalarov. Trump Jr. then invited Trump’s then-campaign chairman Manafort and Jared Kushner to the meeting, and both attended.”

T”here are a slew of questions that arise. Did Manafort and Kushner know what the meeting was about? What were they told? Did Trump Jr. speak to Agalarov? What was promised?”

On the topic of his conversations with Emin Agalarov prior to the meeting, Don Jr. has been very squirrelly. In his Senate Intelligence Committee testimony, he claimed he didn’t remember if he spoke to Agalarov at all before June 9-that it might just have been voice mail messages. Agalarov for his part, though, confirms they spoke.

“That brings us to the other layer. When the Times first reported on the Trump Tower meeting, the response from Trump Jr. was a deeply misleading statement claiming that it was predicated on the issue of adoption. When the emails surfaced proving that this was false, Trump Jr. changed his story. Mueller’s been investigating the initial response to that report to determine whether Trump Jr. or others tried to obstruct justice by misrepresenting what had happened. Hearing Trump Jr.’s description of how that statement was developed seems important.”

“The FBI is reportedly looking at another question that involves Trump Jr. We learned last year that Alexander Torshin, a deputy governor of Russia’s central bank, repeatedly sought to be connected to the Trumps using connections he’d made at the NRA. The FBI is reportedly investigating whether the NRA took money from Russian interests that was then used to boost Trump’s campaign. Torshin himself leveraged his relationships to reach out to the Trumps, seeking, at one point, to set up a dinner between Trump and Putin. At some point that same month, Trump Jr. and Torshin met briefly at an NRA-related event in Kentucky.”

“Beyond those specifics, Trump Jr. was also deeply involved in the campaign itself. He was regularly on the trail with the president and involved in key decisions like the firing of Trump’s first campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski. Trump Jr. was also involved in the presidential transition, despite criticism. Even had he not been involved in the business or involved in the Trump Tower meeting or linked to Torshin, that involvement would seem to make him an important point of contact.”

Yet Mueller hasn’t interviewed Jr yet. Again, this is likely not a good sign but quite the opposite:

“So why hasn’t Mueller talked to Trump Jr. — assuming he hasn’t? One reason may be that Trump Jr. is so important. Since Trump Jr. was so involved in so many important parts of the campaign and the business, Mueller may be trying to figure out what he needs to ask Trump Jr. before he asks it.”

“There are really two possibilities here: Mueller has already spoken with Trump Jr. and we don’t yet know about it — or he will at some point soon. It seems impossible that Mueller won’t want to know what Trump Jr. knows.”

Another possibility-Jr is a subject or even a target of Mueller’s investigation.

Update: Former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega raised another possibility.

“It’s entirely true, based on public reports so far, that Donald Trump, Jr. appears to have been involved in many significant events that would be of interest to Special Counsel Mueller,” she wrote in a message to The Post. “That very fact suggests a third alternative explanation for Mueller’s failure to interview him thus far: Don, Jr. is a serious subject or, quite possibly a target of the Special Counsel investigation.”

“Federal prosecutors rarely interview targets of an investigation,” she continued. “Instead, they build the case around them, with documents, emails, public admissions and other witnesses.”

It’s certainly seeming more and more likely that Roger Stone is either a very serious subject or even a target of Mueller.

By the way, Ivanka Trump seems to be in the same boat. 

She apparently hasn’t been interviewed either and this is likely because she-and Jr-are being saved until the end.

“The real reason Mueller hasn’t called Ivanka Trump.”

“The special counsel seems to be leaving the president’s children for last.”

“She was in Bedminster, New Jersey, with President Donald Trump the rainy May 2017 weekend when he decided to fire FBI Director James Comey.”

“She was a passenger on the plane flying home from the G-20 conference in Germany the next month, strategizing about how to manage the fallout of her brother Don Jr.’s 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer peddling “dirt” about Hillary Clinton.

Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and West Wing adviser, also spoke briefly at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer and a lobbyist who was present for that meeting during the campaign.”

“Yet the family member closest to the president — and the woman who as a key campaign figure helped lobby her father to hire Paul Manafort, a man who is now under indictment on money laundering and fraud charges, as campaign manager — has yet to be called in for questioning by special counsel Robert Mueller, according to multiple people familiar with the investigation.”

“As Mueller negotiates an interview with the president, former White House aides who themselves have sat down with prosecutors for daylong grillings are wondering why.”

“She’s involved in everything,” said one former White House adviser who has previously clashed with the Trump children. “It’s odd. Unless they consider her that ‘T’ word.”

“So far, only Ivanka Trump’s Washington enemies are actively floating the idea that she might be a “target” of Mueller’s investigation — and therefore not called in as a witness.

LOL-I wonder who that former White House adviser could be? I’ll take Steve Bannon for $1000. Of course, Bannon has his own Russia issues. He already was interviewed by Mueller for 20 hours.

“Steve Bannon, the combative former chief strategist for President Donald Trump, was interrogated for 20 hours over two days this week as part of special counsel Robert Mueller‘s Russia investigation, according to a person familiar with the process.”

“The person, who declined to be named because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation, said Bannon answered every question that was put to him by Mueller’s team. That’s in contrast to a Thursday interview with the House intelligence committee, where Bannon declined to answer some of lawmakers’ questions, despite a subpoena.”

Of course, Devin Nune’s intelligence committee didn’t hold him in contempt for ignoring their subpoena.

While we don’t know what the content of questions Bannon was asked you can guess at a few:

1. About the email he received from Peter Smith in September, 2016 about a search to find Clinton’s deleted emails. There’s reason to believe that Peter Smith was Joseph Schmitz’s client he received the-what turned out to be fake-Clinton emails.

https://lastmenandovermen.com/2018/08/12/a-trump-adviser-bought-fake-clinton-emails-off-the-dark-web-in-2016-was-peter-smith-his-client/

It’s important to realize that Schmitz was: the COO of Blackwater. And, of course, the CEO was Erik Prince. And Prince and Bannon are simpatico. 

So if Smith was Schmitz’s agent then it’s not at all hard to understand why Smith would email Bannon-Bannon is close to Prince who was close to Schmitz.

2. Why did Rhona Graff forward the email from Rob Goldstone for a second Trump Tower meeting in late November, 2016 to him, asking him what to do about it? Had he spoken to her about the Trump Tower meeting before? Who else had he spoken to about it? Was he at the pre Trump Tower meeting on June 7, 2016?

What did he tell Graff?

This right off the bat. There are plenty of others-like his and Prince’s coordination of the Seychelles meeting, etc. You can ask someone a lot of questions over 20 hours

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October 28, 2016: a Day That Will Live in Infamy Copyright © by . All Rights Reserved.

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