When news came out earlier this week that Vladimir Putin and Mohammed bin Salman would meet to discuss the death of Jamal Khashoggi on the sidelines of the G20 Summit, I jokingly said it would likely begin with a high five. Well, Good Lord!, that actually seems to have literally happened, as you can see here.
Good Lord! I actually predicted this (maybe low energy high five or side five but still!) pic.twitter.com/2TXnl70V4o
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) November 30, 2018
TPM Reader MK shared some thoughts on this disturbing development … Read More
That’s amazing. A TPM Reader points out that just yesterday Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein gave a speech at a big conference on … guess what? … enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act – the one President Trump, Michael Cohen, Felix Sater and the President’s criminal brood might have a problem with. It was the American Conference Institute’s 35th International Conference on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Long and august title. This was just yesterday over in Maryland. Here’s the text of Rosenstein’s speech.
Here’s a noteworthy quote … Read More
A very succinct explanation from Jeff Toobin of the vulnerability this week's Russia news has created for President Trump. pic.twitter.com/WXyDgpOg37
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) November 30, 2018
Small point in the rapidly unfolding batches of information about the Trump campaign’s dealing with Russia in the summer of 2016. There’s this thing called the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The gist of it is that American business people can’t bribe people abroad to do business overseas. There are some questions on the margins about what entails bribery or related corrupt practices. But offering a $50 million penthouse to the strongman of the state where you’re trying to build a luxury real estate development is definitely not legit. Read More
Sometimes it’s worth stepping back and stating the obvious. Over the course of these thirty months of cover-ups, every player in the Trump/Russia story has lied about their role in the conspiracy. And not hedging and spinning fibs but straight up lies about the core nature of their involvement, their overt acts. Most – though here what we know is a bit more tentative – seem to have lied under oath, whether to congressional committees or a grand jury. Not a single one of them told a story that wasn’t eventually contradicted and disproved. Not a single one. Read More
You’ve seen that President Trump has now canceled his meeting with Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G20 summit. That’s a shift. You may think it’s good news. The real issue here is that the President’s most crucial foreign policy decisions (remember, major crisis right now between Russia and Ukraine) are being driven both by his financial interests and, in this case, the fall out of his criminal acts. Meeting with Putin or not, Saudi-friendly or not – these have never been the core issue. The core issue is the root of his foreign policy, which is driven by personal enrichment and perceptions of threat. That’s a pressing danger for the state on all fronts.
Read the new Michael Cohen plea agreement and criminal information, which implicates both President Trump and his family.
This goes way back into the archaic age of TPM, even one of the obsessions I brought from my pre-TPM days at The American Prospect. But look at this …
Corsi has hired Larry Klayman, an attorney known for taking on long-shot conservative causes, to assist in his defense. Klayman founded and later split with conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch and has more recently represented former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore.
This is a fascinating dimension of the story of the 2016 campaign. How the right’s obsessions with Hillary’s emails led them to Wikileaks.