Special counsel Mueller asks White House for Flynn documents - New York Times

[rooster59]

Special counsel Mueller asks White House for Flynn documents - New York Times

 

Robert Mueller pauses after making an opening statement at the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, U.S. on June 19, 2013. REUTERS/Larry Downing/File Photo

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Investigators working for U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating whether President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign colluded with Russia, have asked the White House for documents related to his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, the New York Times reported on Friday.

 

"Though not a formal subpoena, the document request is the first known instance of Mr. Mueller’s team asking the White House to hand over records," said the Times, which cited unnamed people close to the investigation for the report. (http://nyti.ms/2vB87vp)

 

The Times also said the investigators had questioned witnesses about whether Flynn was secretly paid by the Turkish government during the final months of the 2016 campaign.

 

The White House and Flynn's lawyer, Robert Kelner, did not immediately respond to requests from Reuters for comment.

 

The Times quoted Ty Cobb, special counsel to Trump, as saying “We’ve said before we’re collaborating with the special counsel on an ongoing basis.”

Trump has denied any collusion between his campaign and Russia and called the investigation a witch hunt.

 

The Republican president fired Flynn in February after it became clear that he had falsely characterized the nature of phone conversations he had with the Russian ambassador to Washington in December.

 

Reuters reported in June that according to a subpoena, federal prosecutors in Virginia were investigating a deal between Flynn and Turkish businessman Ekim Alptekin as part of a grand jury criminal probe.

 

Alptekin’s company, Netherlands-based Inovo BV, paid the now-inactive Flynn Intel Group $530,000 between September and November 2016 to produce a documentary and research on Fethullah Gulen, an exiled Turkish cleric living in the United States. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan blames Gulen for a failed coup last year.

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-08-05

[Dave67]

The Plop thickens

 

(An intentional misspelling of plot for those eager to correct)

[Kabula]

I predict the New York Times will be up for sale soon with no offers!

[ilostmypassword]

2 hours ago, Kabula said:

I predict the New York Times will be up for sale soon with no offers!

Give us a sell-by date so we can all remind you of your prediction when it doesn't come to pass. Or is this like the "soon" in "Jesus is coming soon" which has yet to happen after about 2000 years.

[sirineou]

If I was Trump I would be worried, very worried !!

  Mueller has assembled an all star team of lawyers, the who is who of the legal community. These people did not leave positions in top law firms and put their reputations on line  to join Mueller if they did not think there was something there.

[iReason]

15 hours ago, Kabula said:

I predict the New York Times will be up for sale soon with no offers!

 

You really need to read more than the inept one's "Tweets"...

[boomerangutang]

....not a formal subpoena,

 

Mistake.  Mueller's team need to play hardball, not puffball.  If you 'ask' for some incriminating evidence from criminals, you're probably not going to get much, if anything.  If a team of bank robbers are holed up in a house, and you are the police chief, are you going to put a post-it note on their front door which asks for evidence?   'Umm, please send the pistol you used, and a photo of the get-away car, thanks.'

 

Message to Mueller:  Take off the kid gloves.  You're dealing with some hard-core people, not a group of high school kids who snuck in the swimming pool area after hours.

[ilostmypassword]

2 hours ago, boomerangutang said:

 

 

 

Mistake.  Mueller's team need to play hardball, not puffball.  If you 'ask' for some incriminating evidence from criminals, you're probably not going to get much, if anything.  If a team of bank robbers are holed up in a house, and you are the police chief, are you going to put a post-it note on their front door which asks for evidence?   'Umm, please send the pistol you used, and a photo of the get-away car, thanks.'

 

Message to Mueller:  Take off the kid gloves.  You're dealing with some hard-core people, not a group of high school kids who snuck in the swimming pool area after hours.

Once the documents are asked for, destroying them would be evidence to show obstruction of justice. Mueller is just giving them a chance to hang themselves. We'll see if Trump seizes the opportunity.

Edited August 6, 2017 by ilostmypassword

[boomerangutang]

2 hours ago, ilostmypassword said:

Once the documents are asked for, destroying them would be evidence to show obstruction of justice. Mueller is just giving them a chance to hang themselves. We'll see if Trump seizes the opportunity.

                                   Trump, as top banana in the Oval Office, will continue to set an abysmal example for everyone around him.  Earlier, he hinted there were tapes of conversations, then later hinted there weren't.  Trump can hide or destroy anything he wants.  He would do it gleefully.  Then he'd sit back and, with a big grin, tell all his hangers-on; 'let's see what those Hillary-lovers do about it. ha ha ha ha.'    We, the general public, haven't seen a tenth of the dirty tricks Trump and his people will do, to muddy the waters.   They've also  hinted at starting dozens of frivolous lawsuits and investigative committees - for diversionary trumped-up fake-charges related to HRC and Obama-era staff members.

[NanLaew]

8 hours ago, sirineou said:

If I was Trump I would be worried, very worried !!

  Mueller has assembled an all star team of lawyers, the who is who of the legal community. These people did not leave positions in top law firms and put their reputations on line  to join Mueller if they did not think there was something there.

The enhanced chances of getting a successful Supreme Court nomination way, way down the line does appeal.

 

...if it all goes as planned of course.

[NanLaew]

5 hours ago, boomerangutang said:

 

 

 

Mistake.  Mueller's team need to play hardball, not puffball.  If you 'ask' for some incriminating evidence from criminals, you're probably not going to get much, if anything.  If a team of bank robbers are holed up in a house, and you are the police chief, are you going to put a post-it note on their front door which asks for evidence?   'Umm, please send the pistol you used, and a photo of the get-away car, thanks.'

 

Message to Mueller:  Take off the kid gloves.  You're dealing with some hard-core people, not a group of high school kids who snuck in the swimming pool area after hours.

I reckon Mueller is working on the time-served premise of if you give a man enough rope.

 

I mean why waste a detonator if it will eventually self-combust?

[dutchisaan]

3 minutes ago, boomerangutang said:

                                   Trump, as top banana in the Oval Office, will continue to set an abysmal example for everyone around him.  Earlier, he hinted there were tapes of conversations, then later hinted there weren't.  Trump can hide or destroy anything he wants.  He would do it gleefully.  Then he'd sit back and, with a big grin, tell all his hangers-on; 'let's see what those Hillary-lovers do about it. ha ha ha ha.'    We, the general public, haven't seen a tenth of the dirty tricks Trump and his people will do, to muddy the waters.   They've also  hinted at starting dozens of frivolous lawsuits and investigative committees - for diversionary trumped-up fake-charges related to HRC and Obama-era staff members.

I think that you give Trump to much credit, this clown got away with everything before he became POTUS, but he cann't do this anymore. But the clown is sooo stupid and full of him self, that he doesn't understand or sees it.

He will go down as the most horrible president, and I use this word lightly, of the USA.

What I don't understand is the trump fan base, don't they see they are taken for a ride that the clown lies about everything, or these people just don't care?

This occupier of the WH holds the USA hostage with his treason and lying, and the trumpeteers still defend this clown!!!

 

[sirineou]

8 minutes ago, boomerangutang said:

                                   Trump, as top banana in the Oval Office, will continue to set an abysmal example for everyone around him.  Earlier, he hinted there were tapes of conversations, then later hinted there weren't.  Trump can hide or destroy anything he wants.  He would do it gleefully.  Then he'd sit back and, with a big grin, tell all his hangers-on; 'let's see what those Hillary-lovers do about it. ha ha ha ha.'    We, the general public, haven't seen a tenth of the dirty tricks Trump and his people will do, to muddy the waters.   They've also  hinted at starting dozens of frivolous lawsuits and investigative committees - for diversionary trumped-up fake-charges related to HRC and Obama-era staff members.

The Trump administration  leak like a sieve,

There is a reason the Trump administration leaks at such unprecedented level.   Many people in government and his administration see him for what he is , and want him out of there

.Any destruction of evidence would be to the detriment of Trump,  It was not the Watergate incident that got Nixon it was the cover up.

Trump has shown little loyalty to the people that work for him  , when the chips are down I think he will get some of the same from them.

[sirineou]

11 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

The enhanced chances of getting a successful Supreme Court nomination way, way down the line does appeal.

 

...if it all goes as planned of course.

for some of his team members maybe , as for Mueller , I am afraid he is too old.

   He is now 72 and I dont think he will be getting a nomination  from this or a Pence administration. By the next regularly elected administration,  Mueller would be almost 80. 

[Grouse]

Where is Pence in all this? Is he still on the go?

 

I thought he was a evangelical Christian? He's going to stand up for righteousness surely! ?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

6 hours ago, sirineou said:

Trump has shown little loyalty to the people that work for him  , when the chips are down I think he will get some of the same from them.

 

That's the funny/sad part about this whole sordid affair. Trump is so big about demanding absolute personal loyalty from those around him. But as many have noted previously, he has absolutely no hesitation to throw those around him under the bus if it suits his needs and purposes. Just another example of his personal hypocrisy.

 

[boomerangutang]

People posting here say that, if Trump destroys documents, it will deepen the case for 'Obstruction of Justice' against him.   I would tend to agree.  But there are some mitigating factors....

 

>>>  Trump thinks he's above-the-law

>>>   He continually skirts just outside blatant law-breaking.  Like a guy who speeds through many yellow lights in a rainstorm, but is never actually photographed going through a red light.

 

If accused of destroying/withholding documents, he will likely do the following......

 

>>>  Claim the documents never existed, like he did with the 'tapes' he threatened Comey with.  

>>>   he'll say someone else may have done something with documents.  "I don't know" is Trump's mantra.

>>>   Say that the documents are irrelevant, like he says the Russia thing is a witch-hunt / nothing burger

 

Even if Mueller's team wants to tangibly challenge Trump, Trump will shoot back, "go ahead.  Make my day.  Subpoena me.  Search my office.  See if you find anything"  .....like he said a month ago, "100% I would be happy to testify under oath."  .....all of which is goading mixed with lies - something that Trump is expert at.

 

Also, if Trump ever goes before a Grand Jury, he can simply 'take the 5th.'  He's very comfortable doing that.  In one court case, before the campaign season, he took the 5th 99 times in a row.  That was just one court case out of thousands he's been involved with.

 

[Scott]

Troll post removed.

 

[kamahele]

On 8/5/2017 at 4:30 PM, Kabula said:

I predict the New York Times will be up for sale soon with no offers!

If the owners should decide to sell, they should get a good price as their readership has soared upwards over the past year.