I did NOT see this coming (Mattis communicating w/ Peter Smith before he died).

[MelissaB]

NEW: Associate of deceased GOP activist Peter Smith says Smith spoke of meeting unnamed hackers at a suburban DC hotel in Aug. 2016 as he pursued Clinton emails. Smith also exchanged an email with Mattis in the final months of his life. Dems to investigate

Link to tweet

https://www.wsj.com/articles/house-democrats-to-step-up-probe-of-trump-russia-ties-1542414187

Somebody please post the first 4 paragraphs. I'm out of clicks.

[zaj]

1. Right click Open in Inchnito Tab

[hlthe2b]

3. It works for NYT, but not WSJ...

[MelissaB]

9. I couldn't get it to work, either.

Thanks for letting me know. Thought I was doing something wrong.

[ET Awful]

26. Just clear your cookies for NYT, WSJ, WaPo, etc.

Works every time.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. I think there will be a lot of surprises

once the whole Mueller investigation comes out.

[still_one]

4. He spoke to the WSJ about this before he killed himself

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_W._Smith

[blogslut]

5. Here you go

WASHINGTON—House Democrats, poised to reactivate a probe of President Trump’s campaign ties to Russia, said this week that an investigatory priority is learning more about a Republican activist who sought 2016 Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s private emails, and whether he served as a conduit between the Trump campaign and Russia-tied groups.

“That is an area of continuing interest for us,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), who is expected to become chairman of the House Intelligence Committee when Democrats regain control of the House in January, said in an interview. “In fact, that’s one of the areas that we’ve been able to make progress” on, despite Republican attempts to end the probe.

Mr. Schiff declined to detail what more the panel has learned. The Wall Street Journal has reported that the GOP activist, Peter W. Smith, who died in 2017, secretly raised $100,000 to secure emails deleted from Mrs. Clinton’s private computer server, and that he struck up a professional relationship with Mike Flynn, then a Trump aide, who later pleaded guilty in connection with special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Another priority Mr. Schiff identified is to determine any financial relationship between the Trump Organization and Russian entities or individuals. Mr. Trump, his company and the Kremlin all have denied collusion or other improper ties...

[MelissaB]

8. Thank you! Can you post the important parts related to Mattis?

I though he was a white hat...

[blogslut]

10. :( No I can't

Their paywall script must have logged my IP or something cuz now I can't see the whole article even in a different browser's incognito mode.

[MelissaB]

11. ARGH! I've subscribed to the twice in the last couple of years and swore not to again because

you have to call to cancel. If they gave me that option online, they could have me back.

Thank you for trying.

[BumRushDaShow]

12. Here-

Mr. Smith said that he met with hackers in suburban Washington, D.C., according to one of his former associates. “I was told by Smith that he met with several groups of hackers in a suburban Washington hotel on the weekend of August 27-8, 2016. I have no idea what he meant by ‘several’ nor did I ask him for clarification,” said John Szobocsan, a friend and business partner who worked closely with Mr. Smith during 2016.

Mr. Smith was in contact with powerful Republicans in Mr. Trump’s orbit into the final months of his life, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Mr. Flynn and others, according to interviews and the emails reviewed by the Journal.

The emails show Mr. Smith brainstormed about business ventures involving Mr. Flynn and later went so far as to copy Mr. Flynn’s government-provided email account on a message to Mr. Trump’s incoming defense secretary, Mr. Mattis. In February 2016, Mr. Smith wrote to a friend to discuss “a possible way into cybersecurity to involve Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn.” An attorney for Mr. Flynn declined to comment. The Pentagon also declined to comment.

Other emails that Mr. Flynn is copied on show Mr. Smith either communicating directly with high-level Trump administration officials and allies or discussing such connections.

[MelissaB]

15. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Looking at that 3rd paragraph it doesn't really say Mattis communicated w/ Smith, just that he was cc'd on an email.

I don't know what to make of this. It seems the author is implying Mattis is dirty or this clickbait? I'd like to know what others here think.

[eleny]

30. Seems like the very last sentence is the zinger

Who all is Smith referring to? Who and how many high level officials in the administration was he making connections with. And why was it important to discuss those connections?

[BumRushDaShow]

32. If Mattis

was aware of any shenanigans, it would behoove that he report it to someone although he was no longer a federal employee. If not, then....

On the other hand, he may have notified someone as we don't know all of what DOJ knew that eventually led up to the Sally Yates warnings to the administration about Flynn (since these communications seems to focus on Flynn).

[triron]

20. Whoa. so many tendrils hath this monster.

[GulfCoast66]

6. Adam Schiff with in charge!

We are going to learn a lot. Can’t wait to see the desperate antics of the minority republicans on his committee. Especially the worm Nunes.

[saidsimplesimon]

7. This is all I could copy, sorry. First time I've had a problem?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/house-democrats-to-step-up-probe-of-trump-russia-ties-1542414187

House Democrats to Step Up Probe of Trump-Russia Ties

Intelligence panel’s Adam Schiff wants to learn more about a deceased GOP activist who sought Hillary Clinton’s private emails

By Warren P. Strobel and Byron Tau

Nov. 16, 2018 7:23 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON—House Democrats, poised to reactivate a probe of President Trump’s campaign ties to Russia, said this week that an investigatory priority is learning more about a Republican activist who sought 2016 Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s private emails, and whether he served as a conduit between the Trump campaign and Russia-tied groups.

“That is an area of continuing interest for us,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), who is expected to become chairman of the House Intelligence Committee when Democrats regain control...

[greyl]

13. Peter Smith killed himself days after an interview with The Wall Street Journal

From July, 2017:

Republican donor kills himself after talking about working with Russian hackers to get Hillary Clinton's emails

A GOP donor and opposition researcher who said he tried to work with Russian hackers to retrieve deleted emails from a private server used by Hillary Clinton, has died in a suicide, according to public records cited in a Chicago Tribune report.

Peter Smith killed himself days after an interview with The Wall Street Journal in which he said he sought out Russian hackers to try to retrieve some 33,000 deleted Clinton emails and pass them to Michael Flynn, then a campaign adviser to Donald Trump.

Death records from Minnesota show that Smith, 81, died in a hotel of "asphyxiation due to displacement of oxygen in confined space with helium" on May 14. Smith was found with a note that said there was "NO FOUL PLAY WHATSOEVER" regarding his death.

Smith also apologized to the authorities for his death and attributed his final decision to a "recent bad turn in health," according to the records cited by the Tribune, which reported that he also said his $5 million life insurance policy was close to expiring.

https://www.businessinsider.com/peter-smith-suicide-clinton-emails-russian-hackers-2017-7

[dhol82]

14. Say what?

How..........Russian.

[greyl]

16. If one had the choice to die alone, or die along with any of their loved ones,

they'd write the note and die alone. Same goes for writing a note to keep the hot poker and pliers away.
Cripes, what a dark subject.

[Grasswire2]

21. Oy. nt

[Grasswire2]

17. I'm gonna have to start a wall chart soon.

Good lord. And they used to refer to the Bushes as an "octopus".

Aside...I wonder why they call Flynn "Mr." and not "General"

[greyl]

18. Would love to see Mueller's right now. nt

[Marie Marie]

19. You're gonna need a bigger house.

[Corktown]

27. Nicely played! ....

As you likely know, the referenced line was ad-libbed ....

[Roland99]

36. lol

[angrychair]

23. Seriously

It would be absurd if it were not true. 30 or 40 years from now no one will believe this shit...we will have to lay it all out again to make people understand but by then we will have the full picture and it will make a lot more sense.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

22. Can someone with more (medical) respiratory knowledge than I have

explain to me what "asphyxiation due to displacement of oxygen in a confined space with helium" actually means ?

I'm trying to understand this and I'm lost.

[Hekate]

24. Sounds like he shut himself in a small room or closet and turned on a tank of helium...

Probably rolling a towel into the space between the door and the floor.

I know it's laughing gas in small quantities, but it is also an anesthetic used to render patients unconscious -- and idiot teenagers have managed to kill themselves in closed cars while playing around with helium.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

25. The whole thing sounds suspicious to me.

Death by helium ?

[Hekate]

28. Everything to do with the GOP these days sounds hinky as hell. I'm only saying ...

...that's how it could be done, as there are any number of documented cases of 20th century suicide by women who blew out the pilot light on their ovens, knelt down and stuck their head in the door with the gas running. Sylvia Plath was one. I believe they all shut the kitchen door and window first and generally made an effort to keep all the gas in the enclosed space.

Sad but true. Of course murder could be done this way as well, making it look like suicide.

[BumRushDaShow]

34. If your body doesn't get enough of the necessary ratio of nitrogen/oxygen to breathe

then you will be in be in bad shape or dead.

Whether it's carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane/propane (like what's used for gas appliances/heat) or any other "gas" like helium -if you are continually exposed to and breathe those gases in excess, they will deprive your body (blood cells) of oxygen, your cells will start to die, you will be rendered unconscious and... the end.

[BumRushDaShow]

33. Helium is used in balloons (and some scientific instruments)

Nitrous oxide is the general anesthetic.

[Hekate]

37. Apologies! My blushes for the mistake. Even so, not meant for breathing...

And the business with the teens made the papers a couple of years ago. Urban legend? When the big tanks for party balloons started showing up in actual retail stores, my first thought was "What could possibly go wrong with that?" But then, I have a low opinion of human behavior.

[BumRushDaShow]

38. People end up sucking in helium

to get a high pitched Daffy Duck voice!

By the way I am down in D.C. (drove down from Philly this morning). The wretched hive of scum and villainy!

[NBachers]

29. It's promoted as a painless and violence-free method of self-euthanasia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_bag

[Progressive Jones]

31. I never bought the story about his suicide.

I'm not saying that he didn't intend to kill himself.
He claimed "health problems". He claimed that his life insurance was about to expire.
His life insurance was not about to expire.
I think he was running from something big.

[Achilleaze]

35. Deep and dark is the republican Skuzzhole of degenerate values

The republican party is a criminal operation directly opposed to American interests and values.