57

According to several sources familiar with a private meeting Tuesday night of committee members and staff, lawmakers engaged in a back-and-forth over whether they can pursue lines of inquiries about Trump’s ties to Russia, with some noting that there are a range of Russia subjects that could be broached that would not interfere with special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.

But those topics, including Cohen’s admitted lies about the Trump Organization’s pursuit of a Trump Tower Moscow project in the heat of the 2016 campaign, which were discussed at Tuesday’s classified Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, will instead be relegated to a private hearing on Thursday before the House Intelligence Committee.”

And reportedly, Adam Schiff was largely responsible for this unfortunate red line around all things Russia.

Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly, a senior member of the Oversight panel, told CNN he asked Cummings and his staff at the Monday meeting about “the rules of the road.” He said he’s “pressing the envelope” to see what lines of inquiry could be asked Wednesday on issues related to Russia.

“Does that mean we can’t ask about Russian mob money? Russian oligarchs? The Trump Tower in Moscow that he lied about? The Russian oligarchy purchase to Trump’s Florida property at a highly inflated price? The fact that Russians own apartments in Trump Tower?” Connolly asked. “I mean, when you say Russia, is all of that off limits? And that was really the nature of it.”

Connolly, who noted he’s also a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, noted that for the past two years under GOP control they’ve little opportunity to question witnesses about Russia — “and now here’s the opportunity to maybe pursue some of that.”

Exactly-yet we were led to believe, the Democrats were punting that opportunity, apparently at the direction of  House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff.

In his memo, Cummings said that he consulted with Mueller, the Justice Department and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, in deciding the parameters for the public hearing.

“The scope of the Oversight Committee’s open public hearing will not include questions relating to the Intelligence Committee’s investigation of efforts by Russia and other foreign entities to influence the U.S. political process during and since the 2016 U.S. election,” the memo says.”

“The memo adds that the public hearing also won’t touch “the counterintelligence threat arising from any links or coordination between U.S. persons and the Russian government — including any financial or other compromise or leverage foreign actors may possess over Donald Trump, his family, his business interests, or his associates.” It goes onto say Cohen’s lies to Congress about the Trump Tower Moscow project are not under the hearing’s purview.”

Asked Tuesday about some Democratic members eager to ask Cohen about Russia, Cummings declined to discuss the matter or the scope of the hearing.

“I’m not going to comment anymore,” Cummings said.

On Tuesday, Schiff praised Cummings handling of the public hearing and defended the decision to split the topics between the committees.

“I think that’s a good division of labor which will allow the public to get information about the President’s conduct, but will also ensure that we can get complete answers to our questions in the intelligence committee and that we also respect the equities of the Justice Department and our own investigative needs,” Schiff told CNN.

While I’m a fan of Schiff this I’m not a fan of. Is the concern getting information to the public or protecting his Committee’s turf? Again, ideally we wouldn’t have these disparate panels all doing their own thing but instead a full Select Committee-or better yet an impeachment inquiry.

And how is the public going to be informed when Schiff’s own Committee hearing will be behind closed doors? Does he think the public only needs information about the hush money payments or financial and tax issues?

Almost a year ago Schiff was on Maddow and told her that after Comey testified to the existence of the Russia investigation including into possible Trump campaign collusion, all his GOP colleagues had come to him and complained that it was a terrible day. Why? No doubt because it embarrassed ‘President Trump.’

Yet Schiff not Devin Nunes is in charge and we still aren’t having public hearings on Russia? Again, the notion that you can’t have a public hearing on it so as to not step on Mueller’s much less Richard Burr’s toes-who seems to be running defense for ‘President Trump’ though of a more refined nature than Nunes, it’s true-is risible.

Now is not the time for different committees to be protecting their own turf-in truth it should be a full blown SC or better still, an impeachment inquiry. But even if Schiff wants to monopolize all Russia related matters why is he keeping it all behind closed doors a la Devin Nunes?

Michael Iskikoff:

Again nothing matters more than public testimony at this point. For the Dem leadership to with one hand say the 40%-50% who currently support Trump’s impeachment is not enough-they want more like 60%-70%; a legitimate premise though, again, the GOP impeached Clinton with a 70% approval rating and paid no political price-yet on the other refuse to do public hearings on Russia collusion to protect Mueller’s priorities-even worse, Richard Burr’s-is deeply problematic.

But again, all the above analysis is based on  the assertion of Raju’s earlier article-that there was a Russian wall around all issues of Russia and collusion. Raju then published a very late piece that totally blew the premise of his earlier piece out of the water. Manu Raju had received a copy of Cohen’s opening statement and in this opening statement Cohen talks all about Russia-the Trump Tower Moscow deal-but even more earthshakingly, about collusion.

Cohen states that he heard Trump talk to Roger Stone on speakerphone-Stone had talked to Assange directly?!-who had told him in advance about the DNC emails he would leak to such devastating effect the Sunday before the Dem convention started.

Donald Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen is prepared to testify that Trump was aware of longtime adviser Roger Stone’s efforts to reach out to WikiLeaks in advance of its release of damaging information about Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, according to a copy of his public testimony submitted to Congress and obtained by CNN.

In a stunning 20-page statement provided Tuesday night to lawmakers, Cohen details a wide range of allegations against Trump — from making racist comments about African-Americans to participating during his presidency in an illegal hush-money scheme to keep his alleged extramarital affairs quiet — as well as suggesting Trump faked a medical condition to get out of serving in the Vietnam War.

And Cohen will provide new details saying Trump was engaged in an aggressive pursuit of a major project in Russia in 2016, alleging the President’s attorneys edited Cohen’s 2017 testimony when he lied to Congress, downplaying the efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.He says Trump never directly ordered him to lie to Congress but he believed he was carrying out an order given his interactions with Trump, who was making public statements about not having any business dealings with Russia.”

In the testimony, Cohen will allege that, in 2016, he witnessed Trump taking a phone call from Stone, who was on speakerphone.

“Mr. Stone told Mr. Trump that he had just gotten off the phone with Julian Assange and that Mr. Assange told Mr. Stone that, within a couple of days, there would be a massive dump of emails that would damage Hillary Clinton’s campaign,” Cohen will say, according to his prepared testimony.

Trump responded, according to Cohen: “Wouldn’t that be great.” Cohen’s allegations, if true, would amount to the first time anyone with direct knowledge has said that the President had advance knowledge of the WikiLeaks dump of Clinton emails. Cohen also said the President’s personal lawyers “reviewed and edited” his 2017 statements when Cohen lied to Congress about the Trump Organization’s pursuit of a massive project in Moscow.

The special counsel indictment of Roger Stone made no mention of direct contact between Stone and Assange.”

No and if true-and if it’s false then Cohen who is already going to prison for three years will be getting more prison time which is why I don’t believe he’s lying-this is stunning new public information. We hadn’t previously come across any information that Stone had spoken directly to Assange-though Stone himself-during the campaign-had at times asserted he had spoken to him directly, while other times said he had a back channel.

But this is the first time there’s been any suggestion that Trump knew in advance not only of the Podesta dump in October, 2016 but of the DNC dump in July. Looking back, in July Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis on Rachel Maddow had suggested-but then walked back-that Cohen had personal knowledge that Trump had colluded. Perhaps this is what he was referencing.

If it’s true then it’s collusion-and you also add this major piece to the pieces of the puzzle we’ve already placed-the emails between Stone and a anonymous Trump campaign senior aide-Manafort?-on the one hand and Jerome Corsi on the other that led to them having prior knowledge of the Podesta emails.

Again-most evidence is circumstantial as legal experts well know.

Cohen acknowledges not knowing for sure that Trump’s son’s comments were in reference to the meeting with Russians.”I also knew that nothing went on in Trump world, especially the campaign, without Mr. Trump’s knowledge and approval,” Cohen will say. “So I concluded that Don Jr. was referring to that June 2016 Trump Tower meeting about dirt on Hillary.”

But Cohen also logically argues that it’s not plausible Jr would have taken such a meeting without his father’s signing off.

Another recent bombshell was the Buzzfeed story that Trump directed Cohen in his lies to Congress. As Cohen explains in his testimony-Trump wouldn’t direct you to lie for him, uh, directly. 

Cohen says that Trump did not “directly” tell him to lie to Congress. “That’s not how he operates,” Cohen says.

But he says that Trump would tell him and the public he has “no business” with Russia, even as he was negotiating the Moscow project.”In his way, he was telling me to lie,” Cohen says.

Exactly-let’s not be obtuse about this. It’s like when Trump asked Comey if he could let the thing with Michael Flynn go. The GOP tried to spin that as-ok he just asked he didn’t try to order you. But as Comey said this is the President asking him if he could let it go-some things don’t need to be spelled out-when you hear it you know what is meant.

If someone sends a picture to you of your wife with the words ‘What a beautiful woman, it’d be a pity if something happened to her; no, technically they didn’t threaten her they expressed ‘concern’-but you have no problem taking their meaning.

So it is with a mafioso like Trump-or Matt Gaetz.

Or Speaker Pelosi-who doesn’t say the words ‘Matt Gaetz’ or ‘ethics violation’ once and yet Gaetz had no doubt as to her meaning.

The GOP’s strategy today is clear-feign great outrage and indignation over the fact that Cohen lied so we just can’t believe anything he says, ignoring the fact that Trump lies 73% of the time, that he lies so much that the Washington Post had to create a new category of lie-the bottomless Pinnochio for a lie repeated at least 20 times after it’s already been debunked.  

Ignore also the fact that the GOP is on record as dismissing perjury-and obstruction-as mere process crimes not worth charging anyone with unless you prove Russian collusion beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Ignore the fact that the lies Cohen told were to protect Trump from political embarassment for his own lies-he’d told the American people ‘I have nothing do with Russia’ while at the same time he  was pursuing a deal in Moscow as he was running for President that would have made him hundreds of millions of dollars on. 

Ignore the fact that the GOP was so concerned about Cohen’s honesty they made him the deputy finance chairman of the RNC. 

Ok so it’s 9:44 AM and as I finish yet another chapter in this book I had planned to be finished with a year ago I will turn on the tv and let the day begin-I’ll be watching as will many of you, many Americans.

Hillary did warn us-and my guess is she’s watching it with the rest of us today. Hopefully looking something like this:

Lawrence O’Donnell makes a key and very important point:

Yes and speaking of which I should say a word to the elected Dem leadership-Schiff, Elijah Cummings, Jerrold Nadler, Eric Swalwell, Maxine Waters-though she doesn’t need to hear this as she already gets it: We the people, elected Democrats for a reason and it’s not just to point out the obvious policy contrasts between the parties. Look it’s not rocket science-GOP policies are God awful, while Democratic policies are pretty good on most issues.

We elected you to do oversight and hold Trump and his co-conspirators accountable. Above I expressed my concern about the fact that even now Adam Schiff is trying to keep Russia testimony in the dark. I’ve had some sharp criticism of the Dem leadership based less on what I know they are doing but the worst case scenario on what they could be doing.

What I don’t know is what the Dem endgame here is-have they given this serious consideration among themselves? Because many in the base worry the Dem leadership doesn’t get it and will fail like they did in 2009 and 1993.

Please I say this as a lifelong Democrat: don’t get this wrong. Remember who put you here and why we did. Not to pick on Eric Swalwell-who I admire and think could make a great President potentially-but he has said ‘Trump will be impeached-either by Congress or at the ballot box.’

If what Cohen said today is true-and he has even reason to tell the truth as to do otherwise means more prison added to his three years-then talking blithely about voting Trump out is an obscenity.

If Trump used fraud to obtain his office-and he did unless Cohen is really stupid, as stupid as Manafort, Stone, Flynn, and Matt Gaetz-he does’t get to wait until 2020. He must be impeached as Peter Daou says. To just fall back on ‘vote him out’ legitimizes his illegitimate ‘win.’ Every day he’s in the People’s House is a violation-apart from his awful policies; which is why discussing his policies almost seems dirty-like who would debate Hitler’s policies today? Aren’t they totally besides the point?

But it’s 10:10 and I must go-Thank God for DVR.

UPDATE: Sam Nunberg just pointed out that unlike the first John Dean-Michael Cohen has evidence and that ‘he’s outplayed the Trump people.’

UPDATE 2.0: