It's Official, Russians Corrupted The Election

[donquixote99]

Originally Posted by nailer

Not being a should-er and without sin, I can't say.

Oh, you certainly are a 'should-er,' to use your awkward coinage. You were saying above that we should not object to Russian activities, weren't you?

[Chicks]

State Dept. has spent $0 of $120M granted to fight election meddling

https://www.axios.com/trump-admin-ye...273ec0d66.html

A $120 million grant had been allocated to the State Department since late 2016 to combat foreign efforts to sway elections, but the agency has yet to use any of the funds and none of the 23 employees tasked to combat efforts by Russia speak Russian, according to a New York Times report Sunday.

Why it matters: Senior officials including CIA Director Pompeo have said Russia will try to meddle in the midterms, and it's unclear what's being done to stop them. This reports comes the same day an Axios SurveyMonkey poll found a majority of Americans have little to no faith that the government will keep foreign powers out of the elections.

The details, per The Times:

A department hiring freeze has undercut State's ability to recruit experts needed to track the Russian efforts.

Congress directed the Pentagon to allocate $60 million to the state department at the end of the Obama administration to fight anti-democratic propaganda by Russia and China.

Another $60 million was made available for the next fiscal year, but the defense and state departments took five months to decide on how much the latter should get. Following reports about the internal wrangling, State said last week it has agreed to take $40 million.

Secretary of State Tillerson took seven seven months to decide whether to use the funds. By the time officials decided to to use the money, it was too late because the fiscal year was ending.

What they're saying: Adele Ruppe, chief of staff of the state department's Global Engagement Center, which is tasked with countering Russia's propaganda campaign, defended the administration efforts, The Times reports. He said the agency provided $1.3 billion last year to bolster European resilience to Russian meddling. However, the Times points out that the Obama administration had allocated majority of those funds, while the Trump administration recently proposed cutting assistance by more than half for the 2019 fiscal year.

[bobabode]

Originally Posted by Chicks

State Dept. has spent $0 of $120M granted to fight election meddling

https://www.axios.com/trump-admin-ye...273ec0d66.html

A $120 million grant had been allocated to the State Department since late 2016 to combat foreign efforts to sway elections, but the agency has yet to use any of the funds and none of the 23 employees tasked to combat efforts by Russia speak Russian, according to a New York Times report Sunday.

Why it matters: Senior officials including CIA Director Pompeo have said Russia will try to meddle in the midterms, and it's unclear what's being done to stop them. This reports comes the same day an Axios SurveyMonkey poll found a majority of Americans have little to no faith that the government will keep foreign powers out of the elections.

The details, per The Times:

A department hiring freeze has undercut State's ability to recruit experts needed to track the Russian efforts.

Congress directed the Pentagon to allocate $60 million to the state department at the end of the Obama administration to fight anti-democratic propaganda by Russia and China.

Another $60 million was made available for the next fiscal year, but the defense and state departments took five months to decide on how much the latter should get. Following reports about the internal wrangling, State said last week it has agreed to take $40 million.

Secretary of State Tillerson took seven seven months to decide whether to use the funds. By the time officials decided to to use the money, it was too late because the fiscal year was ending.

What they're saying: Adele Ruppe, chief of staff of the state department's Global Engagement Center, which is tasked with countering Russia's propaganda campaign, defended the administration efforts, The Times reports. He said the agency provided $1.3 billion last year to bolster European resilience to Russian meddling. However, the Times points out that the Obama administration had allocated majority of those funds, while the Trump administration recently proposed cutting assistance by more than half for the 2019 fiscal year.

Sure is nice to know that the 'Executive Branch' has zero interest in protecting us and what are supposed to be free and fair elections. It gives one that warm feeling down your back, like someone is urinating from atop one of Trump's crap towers onto the peasants below.

[Rajoo]

This is just an opinion piece from WaPo but quite credible IMO. I still believe Manafort will flip sooner or later as evidence keeps mounting against him and the Trump Syndicate.

Mueller is casting a wide net. We now know the target is Trump.

In a certain sense, it isn’t that surprising to learn that Mueller is focused on what Trump knew about Russia’s hacking of emails and interference in the election, and any potential conspiracy with them. Mueller is charged with investigating “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated” with Trump’s campaign, as well as any other matters that arise from that line of inquiry. This was inevitably going to include what Trump himself knew and when.

But the subpoena’s search for documents dating all the way back to November 2015 and its demand for documents relating to so many of Trump’s top associates “indicates just how wide a net Mueller is casting,” Paul Rosenzweig, who was a senior counsel for Kenneth W. Starr’s investigation into President Bill Clinton, told me today.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...=.2d147b9ec98b

[Rajoo]

British ex-spy claims Kremlin blocked Trump from naming Mitt Romney as secretary of state: report

The plot thickens and getting more and more complex day by day, and here is the Dotard setting up a reelection bid; well raising money anyway.

Former MI6 spy Christopher Steele has reportedly told special counsel Robert Mueller that he believes the Russian government directly intervened to block President Donald Trump from appointing Mitt Romney as his secretary of state.

In a New Yorker profile of Steele published Monday, reporter Jane Mayer writes that Steele — who authored the infamous Fusion GPS dossier alleging deep ties between President Donald Trump and the Russian government — wrote a memo in late 2016 claiming that Russia worked to stop then-President elect Trump from making noted Russia hawk Romney his chief diplomat.

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/03/bri...-state-report/

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by Rajoo

British ex-spy claims Kremlin blocked Trump from naming Mitt Romney as secretary of state: report

The plot thickens and getting more and more complex day by day, and here is the Dotard setting up a reelection bid; well raising money anyway.

The cited New Yorker article is a worthy read. It's well-research and comprehensive.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...-trump-dossier

[finnbow]

Former Trump aide Sam Nunberg said Monday that he has been subpoenaed to appear in front of a federal grand jury investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election but that he will refuse to go...

Nunberg said he does not plan to comply with the subpoena, including either testimony or providing documents.“Let him arrest me,” Nunberg said. “Mr. Mueller should understand I am not going in on Friday.” Nunberg said he was planning to go on Bloomberg TV and tear up the subpoena.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...815_story.html

[Rajoo]

Is't that when one get jailed till you are ready to testify?

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by Rajoo

Is't that when one get jailed till you are ready to testify?

Yep, just like Susan McDougal in the Clinton Whitewater case spent 18 months in prison for civil contempt.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_McDougal#Prison

[finnbow]

LONDON (Reuters) - Former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal, who was convicted in 2006 of spying for Britain, was critically ill on Monday after exposure to unidentified substance in Britain, a source close to the investigation told Reuters.

https://www.aol.com/article/news/201...-bbc/23377594/