What crime were they going to commit? I heard collusion, but what? Is it illegal to get dirt on your opponent now? The "thing of value" is rich. What doesn't have value? A photo op with a foreign leader could have value.
Obama takes campaign trail overseas - CNN.com
So Candidate Obama flew around the world meeting with foreign leaders, as a Senator, not even President Elect, to bolster his foreign policy credentials. Wouldn't that be a thing of value? Meeting and being taken seriously by foreign leaders all to improve your foreign policy cred?
That is the problem when you start down this path. What is a thing of value? Well. Anything could be. That's why there has never been any prosecution of that thing of value before. Because every single candidate gets a thing of value running around the world pumping hands and promising to be great friends with our allies when elected.
There must be some sense there. But since I don't know what it is, I guess there isn't.
Then let me elucidate it a tad more simply.
Is the time of foreign leaders valuable? The President's schedule is often made weeks or months in advance. It is very difficult for someone to get on that schedule. The time of the President is very limited, and he only has so many hours in a day right?
Then it is logical that the foreign leaders time is also limited, and there is only so many people or things that they can do in a day. Yet, they found some time, valuable time, to meet with Candidate Obama. They gave him valuable time, so he could increase his foreign policy cred.
Look at the date on the link. 2008. Before he was President or President elect. Are you saying that then Candidate Obama accepted a thing of value from these foreign leaders? Their time is valuable, people who were waiting months to see those leaders got bumped for Obama's photo op.
Candidate Obama got something of value from them, their time. He got assistance from their police and security people, another thing of value. Did Obama commit the same crime? He not only accepted a thing of value from several foreign leaders, but he requested it.
That would be an excellent post
If those foreign leaders were giving Obama sensitive information about McCain to help him win an election
So the criminal act that describes "any thing of value" really means information but not time. It doesn't really mean any thing of value. Does that summarize your argument?
If stolen information can be weaponized, it can be very valuable. We saw that in the last election.
Did that have to be explained? Seriously, did it have to be explained?
Yet, the opinion of Comey was that the information did not have an effect on the election. In fact, the polls moved in Hillary's favor after the information was released.
The biggest harm to her campaign came from her own actions. The private server in her bathroom.
Hillary Clinton Survived Her Email Scandal, But Not Unscathed, New Poll Shows
The image of Hillary as a criminal was already in people's minds long before the hacked emails were released. Hillary's "Wiped? What with a cloth?" Press conference didn't help at all.
Comey testified that they could find no evidence that the hacked emails affected the election at all. Polls showed a solid Hillary win. My old icon on here was The NY Times estimates for winning, it crossed, one over the other as Trump's chances increased, and Hillary's fell.
Now, what is hilarious to me in all of this is one little thing that seems to have been forgotten. The Trump Dossier put together by a former British Spy who supposedly used Russian assets to get the whole Trump urinating on hookers in the Moscow hotel thing. Talk about foreign influence. Why hasn't this passion for law and order demanded that the DNC who ran with this be locked up?
Donald Trump–Russia dossier - Wikipedia
That's the real problem. That's the real thing going on here. You don't care what it takes to get Trump out of the Oval. Churchill famously said that if Hitler attacked Hell that Churchill would make a favorable mention of the Devil in the House of Commons. You are obsessed. You aren't alone, and it certainly isn't the first time in history.
The DNC knows they violated a ton of laws, and that's why they haven't turned over the Server months later to be inspected.
DNC email server most wanted evidence for Russia investigations
It is like a street basketball game. Both sides were cheating, and all the cheating didn't mean a damn thing in the end. So the losing team which cheated, is screaming that the winners cheated. It just isn't fair that the cheating the losers did wasn't enough to bring victory.
As for me, I honestly think this is all the funniest thing I've seen in a very long time. Nothing is getting done in Washington, which is both good, and bad. Good because the idiots in both parties are usually quick to screw it up. Bad because there is always a chance that they'll do something smart for a change. It wouldn't be the first time, but it is very rare.
In many ways, to return to the Second World War example above, it is like the Eastern Front. Stalin and Hitler. Two of the most brutal dictators in history. Only one is a good guy, supposedly, because he is on our side. The other is a bad guy, because he is not on our side. We loved Uncle Joe. Churchill who had funded and endorsed efforts to defeat the Communists during the Russian Civil war, was suddenly a full throated supporter of Stalin once Barbarossa kicked off.
The truth is that there were no good guys on the Eastern Front. One army commanded by a brutal dictatorial thug was going to be victorious over the other army commanded by a brutal dictatorial thug. Each side committed atrocities wholesale. Each side committed crimes against humanity hourly. Each side raped, murdered, and pillaged their way across Eastern Europe.
The Republicans aren't the good guys, or the bad guys. The Democrats are not the good guys, or bad guys either. They are both political factions that seek out one goal, to gain power. Look at any issue you want. The evil Koch brothers wanted to build a pipeline to carry oil. That is awful, and criminal and just terrible. It's way better for Warren Buffett to carry that oil in tank cars on railroad tracks to the same refineries.
The left wants to protect Buffett, and the Right wants to help the Koch brothers. The same oil moves either way, it's just who makes the profit from the transportation.
It's all bullshit. If the Justice Department was going after the DNC for getting "valuable" information from foreign sources then the media you quote would be up in arms screaming about how this is a political witch hunt. You would be here screaming that it is just abuse of power and Trump being all dictatorial. If Hillary had won, and the questions had been raised about the Trump Moscow dossier, you would be here defending Hillary saying it is all bullshit and there was no crime committed.
I'm going to say it now. It's all bullshit. For everyone. A thing of value my ass.