Why is the truth so hard to uncover??

[kentuck]

The Russia investigation has been going on for about 2 years and we still do not know the facts.

No doubt, there has been a concerted effort to conceal the truth, by Trump and Putin, and those working between them. Putin knows more than the American people at this time.

Mueller has been searching high and low for the facts and is still searching, as far as we know?

From the beginning, Trump wanted all his people to know that Russia was very important to him and they should not discuss it. So, they all lied about it. Even Jeff Sessions.

It's a puzzle but all the pieces are there. We just have to put them together.

Then we will know the truth.

[JI7]

1. we know many facts

[beachbum bob]

2. where did you come up with 2 years? May 17, 2017 is NOT close to 2 years and the investigation did

not start the minute he was appointed. I do like facts too...

In the end, we may know or not know all the facts.....

[kentuck]

3. It was being investigated before Mueller took charge.

That is why Comey was fired.

[dewsgirl]

4. We actually know more and more each

and every week. There is a ton of evidence in the public sphere.
Also remember nothing in the Dossier has been proven to be false.

[lindysalsagal]

5. Trump knows all. Congress could make him talk and it would all end. This cat-mouse game wears thin.

Just make the fool talk.

[rampartc]

8. trump is a kniwn liar who has shown a propensity

and a talent for lying under oath. do you really think asking him will resuly in anything useful.

i am also not totally confident in mueller, a republican.

[Hortensis]

6. :) What about IT? Mueller team's hiding most pieces in their pockets.

So selfish of that team to keep most of the fun to themselves. But -- what about the IT side? IT was huge in 2018. Trump would never have won without things like targeting special anti-Hillary lies to everyone whose profile showed they came to places like DU. This was reportedly and hardly coincidentally Russia's biggest weapon.

Apparently it's not time for the talking heads to move on to this, waiting for Mueller to signal when it is by setting some pieces in that part of the picture.

But we know Cambridge Analytica's parent Strategic Communication Laboratories specializes in influencing elections. CA's CEO Alexander Nix was integral to both Trump campaign-Facebook, etc., but also Brexit through Leave.EU. Russia was of course also heavily involved in influencing both. Nix testified before Parliament regarding Brexit, but I see no mention that Mueller or our senate committees have interviewed him.

In fall 2017 Mueller did request emails by CA's employees. In spring 2018 we heard Mueller requested other internal documents from Cambridge Analytica. Right after, Cambridge struck its tent and slipped off into the night.

In August we heard lobbyist Sam Patten, who has ties to CA and also worked closely with Russian intelligence agent Konstantin Kilimnik, was cooperating with Mueller, with an offshoot prosecution for violating the foreign agent registration law related to work for Ukraine and agents of Russia. Strong similarities to Manafort.

Of course, we know that Trump 2020's campaign manager, Brad Parscale, who was in charge of the 2018 campaign’s digital operations and worked closely with Facebook, Twitter, and Google, was intimately involved with CA.

Russia provided algorithms to Facebook to target voters, but where'd the Kremlin get the data? Parscale and CA hired on to provide that information to the Trump campaign.

And tying into what is being heavily discussed right now, Michael Flynn, according to Vox, is the thread connecting Russia, Trump campaign, and CA. Flynn worked for a time as an "adviser" to CA. (Coincidentally, so did John Bolton, Trump's current NSA.) Heavy, heavy redaction to the sentencing memo due to "ongoing investigations."

Btw, are billionaire libertarians (like Robert Mercer and Peter Thiel) with various connections to Trump's circle and all these people and companies sleeping well these days? Did they manage to maintain legal separation from all these front-liners? I've developed quite a grudge against them and certainly hope not.

[kentuck]

9. Excellent points!

There are so many tentacles to this conspiracy.

[Hortensis]

10. Another thread's pointing out The Nuclear Power Plant Project.

Giant profits blocked by the sanctions.

Speaking of: Rex Tillerson (personally), Exxon, and Putin all with cumulative many billions tied up in Russian (not) oil development blocked by the sanctions.

I just googled Cambridge and Tillerson, and, imagine, CA does have involvement with the fossil fuel industry, including Exxon. Not surprised that CA's work also included pushing climate change denial. No new murmurings of Tillerson-Russia-Putin despite former cooperation.

Big Oil
The main links to Big Oil companies including, BP, Shell and Exxon, come through a smaller company called Phi Energy, which has a presentation naming the companies as clients.

One of Phi Energy’s directors is Julian Wheatland, who is also a director of Cambridge Analytica’s parent company, SCL Group.

ExxonMobil’s former CEO is Rex Tillerson, who was until recently the US Secretary of State. He was appointed by Donald Trump, who Cambridge Analytica were influential in getting elected.

Big Coal
Cambridge Analytica also has ties to the world’s biggest coal company, Peabody Energy.

The link there is through Christian Patrick Teroerde, who was a director of SCL Elections - a subsidiary of Cambridge Analytica’s parent company, SCL Group.

Teroerde is also a director of Hanson Asset Management, which bought a major stake in Peabody in the 1990s, when it was the world’s largest coal company.

Peabody filed for bankruptcy in 2016 as coal prices crashed. Since Donald Trump got elected, Peabody has bounced back, big time.

https://www.desmog.co.uk/2018/03/29/mapped-cambridge-analytica-s-ties-fossil-fuel-industry

Several key directors at Cambridge Analytica's parent company have direct connections to the fossil fuel industry, records show.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/gymvaw/cambridge-analyticas-fossil-fuel-connections-scl-group

[2naSalit]

11. Oh my...

so many dots! This picture is going to be super high resolution.

[Hortensis]

12. :) So many criminals, so little resolution (even at super high).

Flynn's sentencing memo lists only 3 ongoing investigations: campaign-Russia collusion, a criminal investigation, and a completely redacted investigation described in one paragraph near the end.

If there's anything to be prosecuted here, it might be included in the first open investigation, be addressed in an investigation not related to Flynn's testimony, or be spun off to/come under the jurisdiction of other federal agency(s).

Regarding other investigations that fall under the mandate of the Mueller investigation itself, we don't know all they might be, but we believe we know that only one of the Mueller team's investigators is now assigned to the very cooperative Flynn and whatever. The rest still with the investigation are assigned to others. The two specific experts in cyber issues have now been released from the team, one still with the DoJ, the other in the private sphere.

[2naSalit]

13. Oh, I'm sure this is

just the tip of the iceberg. I think timing is key here. I suspect we will have a really interesting first couple weeks to the new year. I suspect stuff to really get going then, like redactions removed.

[Hortensis]

15. Let's hope. I'd love a good article on timing and

strategy. Much as Mueller might try to stay independent of national politics, he has to consider the effects that revelations would have in order to do no untoward harm.

Not at all the same, but Bill Moyers' Committee to Investigate Russia is keeping a timeline of events, "Everything We Know About Russia and President Trump." Don't know if the title's accurate, but it has 35 years of names and events to click on.

https://investigaterussia.org/timelines/everything-we-know-about-russia-and-president-trump

[2naSalit]

16. Oooh! Thanks for that link! Now I have some freshish reading!

[Hortensis]

17. It's gotten overloaded and was slow and cranky

on my computer just now when I searched it on Pence's name. And it hasn't been updated in a couple weeks. But still very useful.

[spanone]

7. when everyone is lying it's hard to determine. they are all lying.

[onenote]

14. Because real life isn't a one hour tv show.