Pierce: George Papadopoulos Is the First Crack in the Wall

[babylonsister]

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a13126089/what-george-papadopoulos-plea-means/

George Papadopoulos Is the First Crack in the Wall

And we already have a clue as to who the second will be.
By Charles P. Pierce
Oct 31, 2017

snip//

The release of the Papadopoulos plea deal was brilliant politics. Mueller plainly understood that, had he announced only the indictments of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, the White House could’ve sluffed it off as old news that did not touch on the Russian ratfcking that is Mueller’s primary assignment. The release of the Papadopoulos plea instantly made those two alibis absurd. Let it never be said that Mueller doesn’t know how to play Washington power politics at an NFL level.

And, needless to say, it worked. And it may already have snared a couple of bigger fish. Apparently, during the campaign, Papadopoulos reported to Sam Clovis, the Iowa wingnut radio guy and perpetual candidate who glommed onto the Trump Train early on, and who now has been nominated preposterously to be the head scientist at the Department of Agriculture. It was Clovis, then the campaign’s national co-chairman, who recommended sending Papadopoulos off to Russia to meet with officials there. From The Washington Post:

“Make the trip, if it is feasible,” Sam Clovis wrote in an August email to George Papadopoulos. The email, included in court papers unsealed Monday, shows how an otherwise low-profile adviser has become a focus of the federal probe into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. Papadopoulos was in contact with several senior Trump campaign aides about his efforts to broker a relationship between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the court papers show. In addition to Clovis, who now serves as senior White House adviser to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Papadopoulos wrote to campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and campaign chairman Paul Manafort, the newly released documents show.

Clovis’s nomination was ridiculous even before all this came out. Now, though, if I were ol’ Sam, I really wouldn’t be buying that Ag Department windbreaker just yet.

However, there is a far more intriguing figure lurking between the lines of that Papadopolous allocution. You may recall that, during his confirmation hearings, Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III was asked the following pointed question by Senator Al Franken. (Major h/t to The Intercept’s Marcy Wheeler for catching this one first.):

“If there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do?”

“Senator Franken, I’m not aware of any of those activities,” Sessions responded. “I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I didn’t have — did not have communications with the Russians, and I’m unable to comment on it.”

As Wheeler points out, and as we now have learned from the statement given to Mueller by Papadopoulos, Sessions sat in on a campaign confab at which Papadopoulos explained in detail the offer made to him by various Russian officials to provide dirt of Hillary Clinton. Read Franken’s question again. Yeah, I see it, too. George Papadopoulos clearly is not planning to go down for this alone. He’s already written his letter to the judge.

[malaise]

1. Hell Yes

Off tothe greatest page for thee

[Eliot Rosewater]

2. Mueller is a fucking MASTER at this shit.

And you know what else?

He

Is

A


??

Come on, you know, you all know


yes

He

Is

A



GOD DAMN REPUBLICAN

What do you fucking deplorables say NOW!

[denbot]

3. Ya know what is worst than the walls closing in..

It’s when the floor drops out. Adios assholes!

[KY_EnviroGuy]

4. GOP think tank spin rooms are adding a second shift! n/t