Kasie Hunt MSNBC reports lots of activity by Gang of 8, Comey re: investigation

[wordpix]

Says "something happening:"

Senators may not even know about FBI/Comey investigation but WaPo and NYT have reported there is one---very secretive

Comey's shuttling back & forth to Congress/FBI---seen today at Congress'l "safe room"

Gang of 8 went to view vital documents at Langley, so top secret they did not want docs transported (thus they went to Langley instead)

Some theorizing (as we've discussed on DU) that Trump wasn't wiretapped per se but Russian spies at Trump Tower were, so Trump was caught in the web.

[dchill]

1. "Trump was caught in the web."

Like a clumsy spider.

[JenniferJuniper]

3. Orange spiders are especially creepy...

[dchill]

5. And get easily caught up in their own webs.

Evidently.

[C_U_L8R]

4. Like the insect that he is.

[randome]

8. Arachnid, not insect!

Sorry. Couldn't help myself.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Everything is a satellite to some other thing.[/center][/font][hr]

[Deb]

13. eetsy beetsy finger tweets

[KittyWampus]

36. no like a fly darting around above the shit pile.

[druidity33]

81. he's not the spider that's for sure...

fly, maybe one of those ineffective showy moths you see flitting about....

[Dustlawyer]

78. Good analogy but I prefer, "You lay down with dogs and you get fleas.

For another "flea" analogy, Donald Trump is a flea on Putin's dog. Our spy services watch that bad dog closely.

[L. Coyote]

96. You lay down with fascists and you get crimes against humanity.

Trump is, in effect, making Muslims a "secondary religion" and remember what happens when you "other" a religion? Serious shit!

Link to tweet

[MineralMan]

2. That's interesting. Yes, indeed.

[calimary]

53. Yup.

The bottom-of-screen chyron reads

"Sources: FBI investigation continues into "odd" computer link between Russian bank and Trump Organization" .

MOST interesting. Yes, indeed.

[randome]

6. So...more early morning tweets tomorrow?

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Everything is a satellite to some other thing.[/center][/font][hr]

[leftstreet]

10. Oh, you know it. Gang of 8 Bad, prevent winning Sad!

[Scarsdale]

89. Grown ups

need to take over. Why do these politicians spend time inventing cutesy names for their groups, instead of getting their asses to WORK? Throw the entire group out, replace with ADULTS.

[ButSeeYa]

44. Yup...and another weekend trip to Money-Me-Go

[Laffy Kat]

7. And I totally understanding the Go8 wanting to dot their i's and cross their t's:

But I am getting very frustrated for something to happen!

[LOL Lib]

15. Me too!!

Enough already! Lock them all up!

[manicraven]

31. You mirror my feelings!

I'm tired of this already! We need action.

[Hortensis]

33. Well, this isn't a The Apprentice episode,

after all. No instant "you're fired!" resolution and click to the next show. If only. I'm dying to see Pence in the role. (Not!)

[cannabis_flower]

46. Please, please, please!!

Let Pence be involved too

[TNNurse]

59. Then we get Paul Ryan.

be careful what you wish for.

[Plucketeer]

60. Let the hole mess of them get sent to Gitmo

After all - Sessions says it's a paradise. ALSO round up those in the two houses that have been Enablers of this rotten regime! Any of them who've looked the other way or said "oh well" - they all need to spend time in Gitmo with the Bannon Gang!

[Laura PourMeADrink]

68. Man that's a hard choice - Trump, Pence, Ryan, Turtle. Actually the only Repuke I would welcome

now would be McCain

[pangaia]

76. it HAS gotten that insane, hasn't it.

[NewJeffCT]

61. As bad as Pence is

He has almost no charisma and won't be the media magnet like Trump. So, instead of focusing on the outrageous thing that Trump just said or tweeted, the media might actually focus on some of his horrible policies and actions. If Trump is canned, Pence would also be hobbled politically by association as well.

[moonscape]

72. Agree. And he would have far less chance in 2020

than Paul Ryan would.

[southerncrone]

87. At least Pence wouldn't have the rest of the world on edge that Drumpf, the reactionary madman,

might launch us into WWIII. Pence is more concerned w/domestic controls; we can fight that much better.
I believe I heard David Corn say yesterday that you can't fight crazy, or something like that. He is right!

[Ligyron]

54. I sure hope they find something after all this build up.

Getting everybody's hopes up only to dash them once again would suck.

[berksdem]

98. Ditto!

Honestly, I hate to say this but I don't want to give my hopes up. I feel like the Orange Cheeto is untouchable in some way. I know it is not true but it is getting harder to believe this guy is going to get busted.

[Doodley]

9. Please translate. Who is the gang of 8? What is happening? Is Trump about to be arrested?

[leftstreet]

14. Eight leaders in Congress who get intel briefings

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gang_of_Eight_(intelligence)

[Doodley]

22. I see. Thank you

[chillfactor]

62. THANK YOU!

[Maaattcast]

80. gang of 8

Well all members of congress can have access to certain intel briefings regarding certain issues, particularly on issues in which congress will be asked to take a vote on (for instance when President Obama was considering asking congress to authorize the use of airstrikes against Asad's Syria, all members could attend classified briefings on Syria and its use of chemical weapons and to have access to certain classififed information). And generally speaking all members of both the house and senate intelligence committee have access to the vast majority of classified intelligence as required by law ("..ensure that the congressional intelligence committees are kept fully and currently informed of the intelligence activities of the United States&quot .. However, theres a big exception after this, the President and/or senior members of the executive branch (in the intelligence community) can opt to limit access to the so-called "gang of eight" under "extraordinary circumstances" when its believed "essential to limit access" to protect certain covert actions. As mentioned before the gang of eight being the house and senate leadership of both parties and the chairman and ranking member of the intelligence committee in both chambers. So theoretically the gang of eight recieves intelligence briefings on only the most highly classified and sensitive of matters (though i wouldn't doubt that the executive will often push the boundaries for what is considered "extraordinary circumstances" where highly classified material can be limited to only these 8 members). Individuals in the gang of 8 are sworn to secrecy. So whatever Comey told the gang of 8 today, it was considered, for whatever reason, very sensative.

The whole "gang' thing in congress can get confusing, as theres actually other "gang of eight's" including the gang of eight in the Senate who worked on crafting an immigration reform compromise,etc.

[Mr. Ected]

11. Does the Gang of 8 have the authority to request an independent investigation?

My comfort level in the coming days would be greatly enhanced if that was the case. I have absolutely no faith in Congressional Republicans as a bloc.

[OliverQ]

18. Well Nunes and Burr are part of the Gang of 8, so...

[MineralMan]

12. I'm liking Kasie Hunt's reporting more and more.

She speaks well, appears to really understand what she's talking about, and asks hard questions.

I'd like to see more of her on MSNBC. Katie Tur got the desk job, and Kasie's still in the field. I think I wish it was reversed, frankly.

[Chiyo-chichi]

51. Well... we NEED reporters in the field who ask hard questions, don't we?

Why put a good field reporter on the anchor desk?

I like Katie Tur, too, and she deserves the anchor desk if she wants it after covering the Trump campaign for a year and a half.

[EffieBlack]

82. She's really good.

[Initech]

16. The only headline I want to see right now involves Comey's arrest and prosecution.

[randome]

17. What if he provides the evidence to arrest The Doltish One?

Might his ENORMOUS blunder during the election be seen as JUST a blunder and not an end-run around the election?
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Everything is a satellite to some other thing.[/center][/font][hr]

[Initech]

19. That would be sweet.

I do know two things. 1 - McConnell and Ryan know something we don't, and they need to be prosecuted for it. And 2 - Putin must be stopped. It may take an actual war to do that, but it is one worth fighting.

[randome]

21. Putin (and Russia) are weak. Once Europe has proof of Putin's manipulations...

...I think Putin will be depowered. I don't see a major war in our future. And since I'm always right, well...

And yes, Ryan and McConnell need to go down for something even if it doesn't result in their arrests.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Everything is a satellite to some other thing.[/center][/font][hr]

[Initech]

26. McConnell needs to go down for what he did to SCOTUS.

May that seat never be filled until we get those pieces of shit out of office. They don't deserve it.

I hope it doesn't come to WWIII, but if we could prove what Russia did, we need to declare Putin an enemy and cease business with Russia entirely.

[Scarsdale]

90. Cease business with Russia?

Then how will tRump repay those millions in loans to Russian banks? He is doing double duty, screwing up the USA, and having Putin slowly reduce his debt. Maybe we could clip tRump's wings. Have him stay in DC on weekends, and send the $3 Million it costs each time (plus some) to Russia? tRump is living like the king that he thinks he is, draining the treasury on a daily basis.

[forjusticethunders]

32. There are people (led obviously by Louise Mensch) who think Comey is playing an EXTREME long game

The theory goes like this:

Basically he needed to sandbag Hillary by doing the email announcement because he needs to be completely "clean" in terms of partisanship, which is why Lynch and Obama did nothing about it - if Lynch tells Comey not to release the emails, then it taints his investigation into Russia (really important given the virulence of Trump's supporters and fake news conspiracies and what not) which they would see as something MUCH bigger than just the 2016 election, especially if you think HRC will win anyway as it seemed she would up to the day the votes started coming in.

Trump actually winning seriously put a wrench in the plan, but the fact that Comey is seen as a "bad guy" by us on the Left makes it easier for him to do his job, because if and when he drops the hammer, that gives him cover (and I think he knows this, which is why he's calling out the Deep State; the thing is he's not entirely wrong, but it's not Obama, it's the fact that Trump is an existential threat to American interests, sovereignty and power, and those organizations literally exist to take guys like Trump down, it just so happens that THIS TIME it's not someone like Allende or Mosaddegh, it's a genuine, honest to god bad populist actor) as a "neutral" investigator. This is important because even if the Dems took the Senate, you still need enough Republicans on board to not undermine an investigation.

I don't know if this is the case, though it does explain why Lynch didn't tell Comey not to release the letter, but it's not implausible. The key premises of such a move would be:

- Hillary looks like she'll win on Oct 28, 2016
- Win or lose, the Russia attack is *much* bigger than an election, especially one seemingly in the bag, so it's "okay" to hurt HRC's poll a bit to maintain an aura of nonpartisanship, especially since Russian propaganda drives much of the populist flavored fake news that contributes to the dysfunctional politics of America since 2010
- There may be a slight fear of civil unrest if it's perceived Trump was "robbed".

[randome]

35. I guess that's possible. Hard to see anything clearly right now.

But I think the trigger is about to be pulled and then we'll find it hard to keep up with the pace of events. I like when that happens.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Everything is a satellite to some other thing.[/center][/font][hr]

[KittyWampus]

38. let's take it as a given that people are complex and our habits of wanting everyone to be

a clear cut hero or villain is not often how things transpire.

[randome]

39. Absolutely.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Everything is a satellite to some other thing.[/center][/font][hr]

[bigbrother05]

41. My hope is that the FBI/CIA got the goods on Russia swinging the voting machines

with the RNC/Trump campaign turning a blind eye if not complicit

Why would the Russians only hack the DNC/HRC campaign? Sure the releases served their purposes, but you don't hurt the ones that could be useful to you in the long term.

[Doodley]

56. How is DNC/HRC useful when it comes to Ukraine or intrusions into Eastern Europe, or lifting

sanctions to open up the 65 millions of acres of oil fields in an Exxon deal, or weakening US by means of dismantling or diminishing every government department?

[bigbrother05]

97. They aren't, that's why they hurt them and not the RNC

Pretty sure they have plenty on the RNC/tRump to control them. Not sure they expected him to win, so now they have to keep hitting anyone that might expose their play in all of this.

[ElementaryPenguin]

71. Mine too

[poli3]

50. It's BS, how did Chaffetz know to re-endorse Trump 24 hours before the announcement by Comey?

Comey is a diehard republican, why they did it was simple. It was to help the GOP downballot, at that point, they didn't care if the letter also helped Trump, they just wanted to help the downballot. There were a ton of close races that the GOP would've lost if not for the Comey letter, Issa, for example. barely won by 1% in his race.

[WheelWalker]

58. I've subscribed to this theory as possible for quite some time, based on those exact premises.

There was a chance the Comey letter would skew the election, but that risk... of sacrificing HRC... was less than the risk to the nation as seen by the PTB at the time. Call me crazy.

[Amaryllis]

65. Comey also showed some integrity in dealing with the Bush admin...there was that whole thing

with Gonzalez trying to pressure Ashcroft when he was in the hospital and Comey intervened. Also this on Comey Wikipedia page:

Comey was one of the few members of the Bush administration who had tried to prevent or limit the use of torture.[32][33][34]

Comey later stated during his 2013 confirmation hearing that even though his personal opinion was that waterboarding is torture,[35] the United Nations Convention against Torture was "very vague" and difficult to interpret as banning the practice.[21] Even though he considered the practice to be legal at the time,[30] he strongly disagreed with the techniques and opposed implementing them on policy grounds,[31][36] objections that were ultimately overruled by the National Security Council.[37

He may be playing a long end game. Too early to tell, but he has shown integrity in the past.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

83. I don't think he has integrity if he thinks torture is legal ...

...especially if his issue was political, not moral.

[Amaryllis]

84. He didn't like it, but according to the guidelines he was dealing with, it was legal. He wanted the

criteria changed. It's not a question of thinking it's legal or not.

[Cosmocat]

42. Comay isn't a moron

And it would take a category 5 moron to not know the implications of BOTH hit jobs on Hillary.

I don't know how hard it is to understand, he cut his teeth as a special prosecutor for the whitewater witch hunt. The man hates the Clintons.

[CrispyQ]

94. An FB friend thinks the whole thing was a set up to see how deep the Russian connection is.

That they deliberately took HRC down so Trump would win & they could ferret out who's with him. While I think it's very far-fetched, it would be great if if were true. Take down Trump, Pence, McConnell & Ryan & put HRC in her rightful place.

If you're going to dream, dream big, right?

[jmg257]

20. Hunt said Comey there to brief the 8 on investigation re: trump tower re:trump tweet.

[Amaryllis]

23. Well, essentially there are 4 good guys and 4 bad guys on gang of 8. And the repubs have the

upper hand...or do they all have equal weight as far as gang of 8 stuff? We know McConnell and Ryan are complicit at minimum to the extent that they covered up before the election. And Nunes and Burr covered for the WH...so how does this work if it's 4 against 4 with the Rs in control?

[Brother Buzz]

47. That's the normal status quo, but....

members, Lindsey Graham and John McCain seems to be willing to upset the balance in the name of "Truth, Justice, and the American Way".

[Lucinda]

24. It's what I suspect....will be interesting to see if that's what happened!

[Amaryllis]

25. New Katie tweet:

https://twitter.com/kasie?lang=en
FBI Director Comey came to Hill today to update Gang of 8 senators on matters related to Trump Tower and their investigation, per source

[fun n serious]

27. I think Comey is crooked

and likely will be a part of bringing America down

[Renew Deal]

28. Are the Russian spies named Mike Flynn, Carter Page, JD Gordon, Paul Manafort, etc?

Also have to wonder if Trump wasn't wiretapped because he was running for president.

[kentuck]

43. I think all those names were working for Trump.

Plus Sessions, Kushner, General Kelly, Spicer, and others.

They were used as emissaries and intermediaries to discuss possible "deals". It just so happened that Donald, Jr was right when he said that they had a "disproportionate" amount of investment with Russia? Nobody has ever explained what he meant by that statement?

[underthematrix]

29. We definitely need a SPECIAL PROSECUTOR

[Mr. Ected]

30. So the Senators were shuffled back and forth to Langley

Due to the top secret nature of the documents presented to them.

Could this be about the FISA warrant? Or perhaps some of the intercepted communications obtained pursuant to the FISA warrant?

[dewsgirl]

34. I'm afraid to get my hopes up,

If any one of them watched Rachel last night, how can they not do more.

[triron]

70. bet Rachel will be on this tonite

[jeanmarc]

37. I don't have any faith in her reporting or anyone else's

Will wait until something actually happens.

[Eyeball_Kid]

40. There is no news yet! There's grand speculation, but that and 4 bucks will get you in the door

at Starbucks.

[True Blue American]

55. Flynn just registered as a Foreign agent

Received $530,000.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/michael-flynn-registers-foreign-agent-earned-530k-lobbying-article-1.2993217

[wiggs]

45. Even if the worst suspicions are true, the question the IC and the congressional leadership

will have to debate and grapple with is....What do we do about it? Do they:

...expose everything (except for top secret means and methods), let the public know, let the chips fall where they may, and allow the public and congress to determine if impeachment or other remedy is needed. This would likely trigger a constitutional crisis. Survivable but unstable for a time. Potentially, a time of vulnerability.

or

...take the position that it's TOO BIG to make public. The scandal would result in too much chaos, crisis, and instability worldwide to risk just for the sake of justice, transparency, and democracy. In this scenario, the IC would have leverage over the WH and maybe Russia and could find a way out that gives TPTB some measure of justice AND some measure of stability.

I vote for the former. And I'm afraid of the latter because the truth will never see the light of day. But unfortunately, the decisions might be made by people more interested in stability than transparency. The rest of the world knows what's going on...and I think we could show that we can rise above this scandal and put things right...show that democracy isn't fake and that we can resolve internal political problems.

[gordianot]

48. Trump knows his day is coming.

Attacking the Obama administration by any of these actors should provide clues and is sheer desperation. I felt the same way about Nixon as it developed, compared to Trump it was a mere domestic disturbance. I do not have as much patience as I did at 24. It is easy to forget Trump lost the popular vote by 3 million votes and won his electoral State votes by a very slim margin.

[Kablooie]

49. If there is something damaging but Republican members try to cover it up...

they could be convicted for obstructing justice so I hope they are smart enough to realize that following through with a real investigation is in their own best interests.

[ffr]

52. I'm still not over what he did on October 28th, 2016

[Catherine Vincent]

57. Friday

Maybe we'll get some info tomorrow since Fridays are news dumps.

[defacto7]

63. I knew it...

Aliens... area 51. Finally coming out. Trump is one of them.

[okieinpain]

64. the way things have been going i expect the fbi to arrest p. obama

and say he committed treason for not warning the american public that the russians had compromised trump.

[Bettie]

75. That's kind of what I expect too

it's the way things have been going lately.

[Blue_Roses]

86. And that would be a good way for them to have

their ass handed to them. They know President Obama didn't have any part of this and Comey coming out swinging at Trump after his "tweet fest" last weekend, showed a director who is getting VERY WEARY of Trump.

Not to mention, both Obama's are outstanding lawyers, along with several others who would jump in this shit fast...

[anneboleyn]

66. CNN was just reporting on the Trump server (the server had thousands of "look ups" from the

Russian server connected with a very prominent Russian bank). The activity, as CNN reported, was EXTREMELY odd. Honestly I can't believe the amoun of shit going on with Trump -- if Hillary had pulled ONE of these stunts Gowdy and Chaffetz would have been running hearings for a decade.

The Trump server had contact with two sources that made up 99% of its activity -- the Russia bank and a server connected to the *surprise* big donor DeVos family/foundation (Betsy De Vos of course is now our brilliant, totally deserving Education Secretary).

The numbers were astounding -- the Russian server "looked up" (I don't understand the technical details but the guy they had on said this was EXTREMELY unusual activity) the Trump server thousands of times (close to 3k if I remember correctly). The next highest was the De Vos server at approx 700. Nothing else even came close. This server was on its own, a sort of "secret" server that is now part of the FBI investigation.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

67. So FBI IS looking at Trump Server? missed that part - where they actually got into TT's servers.

How'd they do that? without warrant, that is. I would say it's from studying the Russian end - but how would they know about DeVos.

[theglammistress]

69. Is there a link for the server story?

I just got home.

[wishstar]

73. CNN story link below

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/09/politics/fbi-investigation-continues-into-odd-computer-link-between-russian-bank-and-trump-organization/index.html

[theglammistress]

74. Thanks!

This was reported by Slate months ago and Louise Mensch has been all over it - but the big bit is that the investigation in to this is still ongoing. I was under the impression that was over.

[GliderGuider]

77. The interesting thing for me is how frightened the computer scientists are.

Fear has now silenced several of the computer scientists who first analyzed the data.

Tea Leaves refused to be interviewed by CNN and is now "hiding under a rock," according to an intermediary contact.

They at least suspect what's going on, and don't want to end up like Seth Rich.

[usaf-vet]

79. Ok maybe a really dumb question but....

.... if Trump is guilty of some illegal activity that got him elected POTUS why wouldn't Pence be tainted? Fruit of the poison tree? The were elected as a ticket right? Two sides of the same coin? Then by extension why would the republicans still hold the WH at all? Anyone...?

[zentrum]

85. Very interesting theory.

[L. Coyote]

88. THIS IS IMPORTANT:

The server in the FISA warrant isn't in Trump Tower, it is in Philadelphia. So there is a lot of confusion when Clapper says there was no spying on Trump Tower. It is Trump's server.

[GliderGuider]

91. Here's LM's wording in the original article on this:

https://heatst.com/world/exclusive-fbi-granted-fisa-warrant-covering-trump-camps-ties-to-russia/

The first request, which, sources say, named Trump, was denied back in June, but the second was drawn more narrowly and was granted in October after evidence was presented of a server, possibly related to the Trump campaign, and its alleged links to two banks; SVB Bank and Russia’s Alfa Bank. While the Times story speaks of metadata, sources suggest that a FISA warrant was granted to look at the full content of emails and other related documents that may concern US persons.

It looks like they went after the banks' communications, with the intention of finding out who they were communicating with, and the awareness that Trump associates could become "incidental collection".

[L. Coyote]

92. Her clarifications minutes ago:

Follow #FISA on Twitter for the latest and to watch the Pukes sweating bullets. They are trying to commandeer this hashtag, but still won't touch [link:http://|#TrumpRussia] because Dworkin said it will trend #1.

Link to tweet

[GliderGuider]

93. Yes. There's been a lot of word-twisting going on against her.

She called it correctly.

[L. Coyote]

95. And DU'ers got banned for linking to her.

I don't think the trolls are here in masse any longer, so they can't alert old veterans off DU right now.