U.S. judge questions special counsel's powers in Manafort case

[Rajoo]

This is from 5/4 so Whell's talking points are fairly recent though pure BS quoting from the sycophant Nunes report.

The House Intelligence Committee on Friday released a newly unredacted section of its final Russia report detailing testimony from former senior FBI officials about the probe into former national security adviser Michael Flynn and his contacts with a top Russian diplomat.

The unredacted portion of the report, written by Republicans on the panel, details testimony from former FBI Director James Comey and his then-deputy, Andrew McCabe. The report says McCabe, in particular, testified that the two agents who interviewed Flynn “didn’t think he was lying."

Despite the agents' initial impressions, McCabe reportedly testified that officials found that Flynn’s statements to investigators were “inconsistent” with their “understanding of the conversation that he had actually had with the ambassador.”

Flynn was ousted as President Trump's first national security adviser for misrepresenting to Vice President Pence and others his conversations with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, a conversation that took place shortly before Trump took office.

Isn't misrepresenting same a lying? Perhaps Comey and McCabe both got fired because they thought Flynn was telling the truth.

http://thehill.com/policy/national-s...two-agents-who

[Pio1980]

Mueller's team questions Russian oligarch about payments to Cohen

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/08/polit...hen/index.html

[Rajoo]

Sounds like bribery to me.

Novartis official: Michael Cohen was 'promising access' after Trump election

President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, contacted the drug giant Novartis after the 2016 election "promising access" to the new administration, and Special Counsel Robert Mueller later requested information from the company about the offer, a senior official inside Novartis told NBC News on Wednesday.

"He [Cohen] contacted us after the new administration was in place," the official said. "He was promising access to the new administration." Novartis then signed a one-year, $1.2 million contract with Cohen.

The disclosure came after an attorney representing the adult-film actress who says she had an affair with Trump released a summary of bank transactions that he says shows payments from various companies to a company controlled by Cohen.

Now that is a BAM.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/don...-trump-n872731

[Chicks]

Originally Posted by Rajoo

Sounds like bribery to me.

Novartis official: Michael Cohen was 'promising access' after Trump election



Now that is a BAM.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/don...-trump-n872731

Lordy, I hope there are tapes! (Or emails)

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by Rajoo

Sounds like bribery to me.

Novartis official: Michael Cohen was 'promising access' after Trump election

Now that is a BAM.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/don...-trump-n872731

Here's a bit of a deeper dive into the Novartis contract with Cohen.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog...-to-goodfellas

[whell]

President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, contacted the drug giant Novartis after the 2016 election "promising access" to the new administration, and special counsel Robert Mueller later requested information from the company about the offer, a senior official inside Novartis told NBC News on Wednesday.

Cohen "contacted us after the new administration was in place," the official said. "He was promising access to the new administration." Novartis then signed a one-year, $1.2 million contract with Cohen.

So, NBC news is basing this report on info obtained from an unnamed, therefore unaccountable, someone who they're labeling as "a senior official".

Uh huh.

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by whell

President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, contacted the drug giant Novartis after the 2016 election "promising access" to the new administration, and special counsel Robert Mueller later requested information from the company about the offer, a senior official inside Novartis told NBC News on Wednesday.

Cohen "contacted us after the new administration was in place," the official said. "He was promising access to the new administration." Novartis then signed a one-year, $1.2 million contract with Cohen.

So, NBC news is basing this report on info obtained from an unnamed, therefore unaccountable, someone who they're labeling as "a senior official".

Uh huh.

Novartis has released a formal statement saying exactly the same thing. I guess it's hard to keep up on Trump and Cohen's malfeasance from Wingnut News.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/09/nova...pany-says.html

[whell]

Originally Posted by finnbow

Novartis has released a formal statement saying exactly the same thing. I guess it's hard to keep up on Trump and Cohen's malfeasance from Wingnut News.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/09/nova...pany-says.html

No, I saw the company statement. My point was that NBC is manufacturing a news story here by quoting an anonymous source. Once again, to me, that's BS.

Now, I'm sure Novartis has a well - articulated company policy, as most publicly traded companies do, that requires any employee to report contacts from the media, and forbids employees from doing what this "anonymous source" did. So, it boils down to who you choose to believe. Do you believe the version of an "anonymous source", which in this case is an unaccountable individual who likely acted in opposition to company policy and possibly against his employer's best interests? Or do you believe the company, who's public communication was no doubt vetted through the company's public communications and Legal team?

I'm sure many folks here want to believe the unaccountable anonymous source. Me? Not so much. I'd be willing to entertain the notion that the truth is somewhere in the middle between the company's statement and the unaccountable employee's statement.

But then, if this behavior is somehow "wrong", I'd also wonder how what Cohen allegedly did is any different from what Washington "insiders" do on a regular basis.

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by whell

No, I saw the company statement. My point was that NBC is manufacturing a news story here by quoting an anonymous source. Once again, to me, that's BS.

There's no discernible difference between the two stories.

[whell]

Originally Posted by finnbow

There's no discernible difference between the two stories.

I laughed out loud at this. Thanks for that.

Now, please tell me exactly where the anonymous, unaccountable source was quoted as saying anything like:

Contrary to recent media reports, this agreement was also in no way related to the group dinner Dr. Narasimhan had at the World Economic Forum in Davos with President Trump and 15 Europe based industry leaders. Suggestions to the contrary clearly misrepresent the facts and can only be intended to further personal or political agendas as to which Novartis should not be a part.