It's never the crime, it's the cover up. TPM - Josh Marshall - sees this as very big.

[NRaleighLiberal]

There are a few great articles to read on this

Start with "The Gravity is Strong" http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-gravity-is-strong

Key line - "My biggest takeaway is that this scandal has all the attributes of the vast and shattering scandals in which people who at least appear to have only indirect or limited roles themselves keep getting pulled under or compromised by it."

last line - "We can't see yet what's at the center of the Trump/Russia black hole. But we can tell a lot about its magnitude by the scope of the event horizon and the degree of its gravitational pull, which is immense."

Then - "What The CIA and FBI Knew About Trump Before 2016" http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/what-the-cia-and-fbi-knew-about-trump-before-2016

Everything on TPM is worth reading, but start there.


YUUUUGE!

[triron]

1. kick for visibility

[LisaM]

2. In this case, I don't know.

Colluding with the Russians to swing an election, plus the added bonus of possible FBI interference - to thwart the will of the majority of voters - seems as if the crime itself has some magnitude.

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. oh, absolutely. This has it all!

[Amaryllis]

4. What happens if Ryan and Pence are implicated too? What if the entire admin and top GOP are a giant

cabal?

[NRaleighLiberal]

5. what indeed!

we are in uncharted territory, for sure!

[Gabi Hayes]

6. don't buy into that meme, for the most part

Nixon was covering up HUGH crimes, massive corruption, vile war crimes, mass murder, overthrown government, genocide, you name it

he was trying to keep the lid on, because of his utter corruption; he was just better at keeping the wolves at bay than this inept, transparently obvious conman, who couldn't even make money on a fricking caSEENoh.

so much treason, so little time

[Gabi Hayes]

8. ohhh, and there's always iran contra and the october surprise

the KGOP has been the sina qua non of treason, bigly, since the Eisenhower era, during which was planned, from the getgo, the overthrow of Mossadegh, just for starters, and wound up with the planning of the BOP, which got Kennedy assassinated for his trouble

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. Though Josh says there that it *is* the crime, *not* the cover-up

We've all heard the old saw: It's never the crime, it's the cover-up. This is almost never true. Covering scandals for any length of time is enough to tell you that. People are generally able to make judgments about how much trouble they're in. We think the 'cover up' is worse than the crime because it's actually very seldom that the full scope of the actual crime is ever known. The cover up works better than you think. The other reason the cover up is a logical response is that it usually works. You only find out about it when it doesn't. So it's a good bet.

[NRaleighLiberal]

9. yes - just wanted to send people to the articles. It is pretty much an everything mess for them.

[Gabi Hayes]

10. couldn't agree more, as the post I was typing got up there just

after yours attests

[Bernardo de La Paz]

11. JM has a crucial point: "Why did he choose to conceal the meeting?"

The coverup is the keyway into the crime. The coverup cracks before the core is discovered.

Why did Sessions need to lie to coverup the meeting.

But also, and perhaps even more importantly, why did Sessions answer a general question about the campaign's contacts with a specific answer about his contacts?

Was Sessions trying to direct attention away from other deeper campaign contacts that he knew about?

Sessions did not get to where he is by being careless, but he may have gotten involved deeper than he ever expected, due to the gravity of the situation, if we may say it that way.

[bucolic_frolic]

12. My guess

There's a lot of money in selling a whole continent, enough for everyone
who wants in. Don't know who will investigate it ... the opposition has
little political power now

[voteearlyvoteoften]

13. Knr