Must read - Marshall - TPM - "Taking Stock of Trump/Russia on The Eve of Comeys Testimony"

[NRaleighLiberal]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/taking-stock-of-trumprussia-on-the-eve-of-comeys-testimony

By JOSH MARSHALL Published JUNE 7, 2017 12:49 PM

With everyone prepping for the big testimony tomorrow, I wanted to share a few miscellaneous thoughts on the testimony and the state of the Trump/Russia investigation.

1. There were a number of news reports yesterday, pretty clearly coming from the same set of sources, saying that James Comey would not accuse President Trump of obstruction of justice but rather approach the hearing purely as a fact witness. This strikes me as wholly unsurprising. It really would not be any witness’s place to draw such conclusions, even if they were in the business of drawing those conclusions in their normal line of work. Again, entirely unsurprising. Going back to my discussion of the Comey Myth and James Comey’s embrace of it which I discussed a few weeks ago, Comey of all people wouldn’t be the one to draw such conclusions. ‘Just the facts, neither fear or favor, no vendettas just bringing you the truth’ is entirely James Comey’s shtick. Calling it a ‘shtick’ doesn’t mean it’s not true. But that’s exactly what the Comey Myth would call for.

snip

2. I’ve heard and seen various of bits of evidence, claims, suggestions and so forth that make it seem increasingly likely to me that Jared Kushner is in a lot of trouble and specifically that that meeting with the government-backed Russian banker was what most people must suspect: Kushner took the opportunity of his father-in-law’s surprise win and the budding relationship with Russia (whatever sort that relationship may turn out to be) to hit up the Russians for money to save his family’s real estate empire – specifically, to help get out of under the losses tied to the big building on 5th Avenue in midtown.

snip

3. After yesterday’s news breaks, it seems clear that President Trump spent his first months in office making repeated attempts to end the investigation into Russia and his campaign. He asked Comey repeatedly to stop the probe, to pledge his loyalty. He asked the heads of the other major intelligence agencies, DNI, CIA Chief, NSA Chief to publicly discredit the investigation and also to intervene with Comey to end the investigation. He eventually fired Comey, by his own account, to end the Russia investigation. It is hard to imagine what more he could have done to impede or end the probe. It also seems clear that it must have been widely understood among the President’s top advisors that Trump was doing everything he could think of to end the probe.

4. What happened that Sunday night on Air Force One? What am I talking about? Let’s look at the timeline. We know from abundant reporting that in early May (May 6th-7th) President Trump spent the weekend at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey. He apparently stewed over that weekend about Comey and came back to Washington Sunday night determined to fire him. He proceeded to do just that. He called in Rosenstein and Sessions the next day (Monday), got Rosenstein’s recommendation memo and promptly fired Comey on Tuesday (May 9th).

snip - there is much, much more to read - I just wanted to capture the first four points (there are five in all - and please, do read it all - it's the best assessment of where we are I've yet read).

[Wellstone ruled]

1. The Leaks are coming fast and furious

now. Starting to see words like Stonewalling,Cover-up,misdirection,not in this setting,can not answer.

[furtheradu]

2. Thanks for this!

Intriguing article!