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NYT: F.B.I. Once Warned G.O.P. Congressman That Russian Spies Were Recruiting Him

Well I remember Maddow reporting that Nunes has a vineyard in Russia or something like that. soooo...

That story was interesting. A distributor connected to Putin did buy wine from a vineyard that Nunes invested in, but it was only a one time purchase of a small amount of barrels. If anything it was a little probing first step. I'm not convinced that that act, in itself, shows any real connection.

The takeaway I had about that story was that Nunes invested a large portion of his net worth in that vineyard and that amount was only $50,000. The dude is so small potatoes that he would have a hard time passing up some sweetheart deal that looked too good to be true.
 

LakeEarth

Member
Hey conspiracy theorists, here's one unravelling before your eyes! I hope you enjoy it instead of denying it in favor for some other gibberish.
 

DonShula

Member
Hey conspiracy theorists, here's one unravelling before your eyes! I hope you enjoy it instead of denying it in favor for some other gibberish.

The best argument for the right being racist is that they spent eight years looking for a conspiracy when there was none, and are now breaking their necks to look away from a conspiracy so obvious that our grandchildren will wonder how we could be so stupid.
 
“Did they try to influence our election? We have tried to influence their elections, and everybody’s elections,” Mr. Rohrabacher told The Los Angeles Times in March.

There's that idiotic argument again: We did bad stuff to other countries so it's fine when other countries do bad stuff to us.
 
The fact that this is all the way back from 2012 also means that this has been going on for a while. I wondered if they wanted to cast a bigger net when finding those colluding or if Russia just snuk in more than they ever expected. Either way, if this is true, VERY solid evidence is going to be needed because this is definitely going to look like a partisan witchhunt if Russia only targeted GOP members.


So hopefully they have even MORE incriminating evidence.

I don't think Russia targeted only GOP. I expect Russia funds the Green Party too to stroke the left.
 
I was all ready to come into this thread saying that I was getting tired of all the news, and it would be nice to have a few days without a bombshell story...

But after realizing that this story backs up the McCarthy tape insinuations, I changed my mind. I would be okay with a news story suggesting that Paul Ryan is complicit dropping every 15 minutes for the rest of my life.
 

Zolo

Member
TBH I've long suspected this. Still waiting for confirmation. His subreddit and r/The_Donald operated pretty similarly from an outsiders' perspective.

I'm pretty sure reports have already said Russians did what they could to use him to help put a wedge and create conflict in Dem voters. No signs of collusion like with Trump though.
 
Aren't there pictures floating around of Jill Stein attending a dinner with Putin in Russia?

Flynn too. Pure coincidence surely!

Cp6oPfmWAAA1fX7.jpg
 
Ugh, screw this guy. He's my rep and he votes yes on every backward piece of legislation because he's a Trump stooge. Can't wait to vote him out.
 

BajiBoxer

Banned

Dr.Acula

Banned
Mr. Rohrabacher, for his part, said he was confident that Mr. Trump’s associates had been savvy in their dealings with Russia. “The president has some very astute people around him,” he said. “I can’t imagine someone in a position of power in the United States government not fully appreciating the fact that whoever he’s dealing with who’s a foreigner that he doesn’t know is trying to influence him.”

I'm sure 36-year-old Jared Kushner, and movie producer/blog runner Steve Bannon, who have never worked for the government before this year are totally savvy. Very astute people this Trump has surrounded himself with.
 

Zubz

Banned
... Is this blowing up on major outlets?

Hey conspiracy theorists, here's one unravelling before your eyes! I hope you enjoy it instead of denying it in favor for some other gibberish.

But they can't persecute women or minorities with the real ones!
 

Burt

Member
I'm pretty sure reports have already said Russians did what they could to use him to help put a wedge and create conflict in Dem voters. No signs of collusion like with Trump though.

Yeah, Maddow touched on it in conjunction with a piece about the California separatist movement (which I want to say calls itself the New California Republic but that can't be right) opening an embassy in Moscow. I think what it came down to was online pro-Bernie groups that outwardly appeared to be based in places like New Hampshire and Vermont actually being run out of Russia and filled with nothing but bots.
 

wildfire

Banned
There's certainly smoke around that right now. I initially thought that was just wishing thinking from Dems. But we're getting closer to that being a legitimate prospect.

I've always suspected (maybe even hoped) that Comey stayed silent on the Russia investigation through the election because whatever he was on to was potentially bigger than keeping one corrupt man from the presidency. Widespread GOP corruption on the representative level would probably meet that criteria.

I've been hoping for months that it would be possible to convict Congressmen for not acting sooner on Trump considering the info we already knew. I hope this all pans oout into there existing enough evidence to do this.
 

Armaros

Member
Didn't Ryan already come out defending himself saying he was joking? It obviously exists otherwise he wouldn't acknowledge it.

The spokespeople did a instant 180 from 'this is absolutely false' -> 'just a joke, Bren' when reporters mentions that the quotes are from a recording.
 

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
"I'm from a solid blue state, I don't need to vote," says random dumbfuck gaf liberal from orange county California.
not saying there is an actual gaf member but based on that other voting thread,
I would not be surprised

And the OC turned narrowly blue this last election as voters get younger and more diverse.
 
Putin doesn't care about Right or Left,

He only cares about Chaos and whatever manipulatable politicians who are anti-NATO, anti-EU, anti-globalist
 
I really hope the FBI investigation has been including possible links to other politicians.

I want them hanged if they were found to be accepting Russian influence while making American policy.
 
"trying" to recruit him? I think they succeeded.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/gop-lawmaker-got-direction-from-moscow-took-it-back-to-dc

Members of the team of Russians who secured a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner also attempted to stage a show trial of anti-Putin campaigner Bill Browder on Capitol Hill.
The trial, which would have come in the form of a congressional hearing, was scheduled for mid-June 2016 by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), a long-standing Russia ally who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe. During the hearing, Rohrabacher had planned to confront Browder with a feature-length pro-Kremlin propaganda movie that viciously attacks him—as well as at least two witnesses linked to the Russian authorities, including lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.

There's that name again!

The Daily Beast reviewed a copy of a document that was passed to Rohrabacher in Moscow in April 2016. The document, marked ”confidential," was given to Rohrabacher and Behrends. It lays out an alternate reality in which the U.S.—and the rest of the world—has been duped by a fake $230 million scandal that resulted in sanctions being imposed on 44 Russians linked to murder, corruption, or cover-ups.

The document, which was handed over by an official from the Prosecutor General's office to Rohrabacher along with means of viewing the Russian propaganda movie, suggested that U.S. ”political situation may change the current climate" and claimed that it was the ideal moment to foment a challenge to the Western narrative on Putin's kleptocracy. A subcommittee hearing that would re-examine the sanctions placed on Russia, the paper claimed, would be appreciated in Moscow.
”Changing attitudes to the Magnitsky story in the Congress... could have a very favorable response from the Russian side," the document said.
What the U.S. would get in exchange for holding a subcommittee hearing was not laid out in detail. But the document promised to help iron out ”key controversial issues and disagreements with the United States."

Funny bit:

During Royce's hearing, Rohrabacher approvingly compared Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin. The congressman also submitted, for the congressional record, testimony that claimed Russia had not been behind the radioactive poisoning of former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko in London.

TLDR: Rohrbacher wanted to screen a Russian propaganda movie in an attempt to soften or stop the Magnitsky Act and change attitudes in Congress to Russia/Putin.
 

BlueTsunami

there is joy in sucking dick
Maybe this was also all about child adoption! The amount of instances of collusion are laughable at this point.
 

KHarvey16

Member
The latest (I think it's the latest) Planet Money podcast episode goes into the background of the Magnitsky legislation and Browder. It's quite a story and it's a good foundation for understanding the issue here. If you aren't too upset about it now you probably will be after hearing the details.
 
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