Let's debunk another right wing media myth, shall we? #3

[berg80]

And the left's conspiracy theory: "Trump is colluding with Russia and we have direct evidence."
A massive investigation costing taxpayers $40 million dollars....and...."the Trump administration.... did NOT collude with Russia.

As much as I don't want to go off topic I feel compelled to say there is ample evidence in Mueller's report that Trump's campaign did "collude" with Russians............as well as overwhelming evidence of Trump illegally obstructing Mueller's investigation.

I. Summary of Major Findings

The redacted Mueller Report documents a series of activities that show strong evidence of collusion. Or, more precisely, it provides significant evidence that Trump Campaign associates coordinated with, cooperated with, encouraged, or gave support to the Russia/WikiLeaks election interference activities. The Report documents the following actions (each of which is analyzed in detail in Part II):

1. Trump was receptive to a Campaign national security adviser’s (George Papadopoulos) pursuit of a back channel to Putin.
2. Kremlin operatives provided the Campaign a preview of the Russian plan to distribute stolen emails.
3. The Trump Campaign chairman and deputy chairman (Paul Manafort and Rick Gates) knowingly shared internal polling data and information on battleground states with a Russian spy; and the Campaign chairman worked with the Russian spy on a pro-Russia “peace” plan for Ukraine.
4. The Trump Campaign chairman periodically shared internal polling data with the Russian spy with the expectation it would be shared with Putin-linked oligarch, Oleg Deripaska.
5. Trump Campaign chairman Manafort expected Trump’s winning the presidency would mean Deripaska would want to use Manafort to advance Deripaska’s interests in the United States and elsewhere.
6. Trump Tower meeting: (1) On receiving an email offering derogatory information on Clinton coming from a Russian government official, Donald Trump Jr. “appears to have accepted that offer;” (2) members of the Campaign discussed the Trump Tower meeting beforehand; (3) Donald Trump Jr. told the Russians during the meeting that Trump could revisit the issue of the Magnitsky Act if elected.
7. A Trump Campaign official told the Special Counsel he “felt obliged to object” to a GOP Platform change on Ukraine because it contradicted Trump’s wishes; however, the investigation did not establish that Gordon was directed by Trump.
8. Russian military hackers may have followed Trump’s July 27, 2016 public statement “Russia if you’re listening …” within hours by targeting Clinton’s personal office for the first time.
9. Trump requested campaign affiliates to get Clinton’s emails, which resulted in an individual apparently acting in coordination with the Campaign claiming to have successfully contacted Russian hackers.
10. The Trump Campaign—and Trump personally—appeared to have advanced knowledge of future WikiLeaks releases.
11. The Trump Campaign coordinated campaign-related public communications based on future WikiLeaks releases.
12. Michael Cohen, on behalf of the Trump Organization, brokered a secret deal for a Trump Tower Moscow project directly involving Putin’s inner circle, at least until June 2016.
13. During the presidential transition, Jared Kushner and Eric Prince engaged in secret back channel communications with Russian agents. (1) Kushner suggested to the Russian Ambassador that they use a secure communication line from within the Russian Embassy to speak with Russian Generals; and (2) Prince and Kushner’s friend Rick Gerson conducted secret back channel meetings with a Putin agent to develop a plan for U.S.-Russian relations.
14. During the presidential transition, in coordination with other members of the Transition Team, Michael Flynn spoke with the Russian Ambassador to prevent a tit for tat Russian response to the Obama administration’s imposition of sanctions for election interference; the Russians agreed not to retaliate saying they wanted a good relationship with the incoming administration.

Guide to the Mueller Report’s Findings on “Collusion”

Essential reading on the Mueller Report: an annotation plus key findings, drawing on investigative reports and Special Counsel court filings.

www.justsecurity.org

Obstruction of Justice in the Mueller Report: A Heat Map

The Mueller report describes numerous instances in which President Trump may have obstructed justice. A few days ago, I threw together a quick spreadsheet on Twitter to assess how Special Counsel Robert Mueller seemed to assess the evidence.

www.lawfareblog.com

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

And the left's conspiracy theory: "Trump is colluding with Russia and we have direct evidence."
A massive investigation costing taxpayers $40 million dollars....and...."the Trump administration.... did NOT collude with Russia.

As much as I don't want to go off topic I feel compelled to say there is ample evidence in Mueller's report that Trump's campaign did "collude" with Russians............as well as overwhelming evidence of Trump illegally obstructing Mueller's investigation.

I. Summary of Major Findings

The redacted Mueller Report documents a series of activities that show strong evidence of collusion. Or, more precisely, it provides significant evidence that Trump Campaign associates coordinated with, cooperated with, encouraged, or gave support to the Russia/WikiLeaks election interference activities. The Report documents the following actions (each of which is analyzed in detail in Part II):

1. Trump was receptive to a Campaign national security adviser’s (George Papadopoulos) pursuit of a back channel to Putin.
2. Kremlin operatives provided the Campaign a preview of the Russian plan to distribute stolen emails.
3. The Trump Campaign chairman and deputy chairman (Paul Manafort and Rick Gates) knowingly shared internal polling data and information on battleground states with a Russian spy; and the Campaign chairman worked with the Russian spy on a pro-Russia “peace” plan for Ukraine.
4. The Trump Campaign chairman periodically shared internal polling data with the Russian spy with the expectation it would be shared with Putin-linked oligarch, Oleg Deripaska.
5. Trump Campaign chairman Manafort expected Trump’s winning the presidency would mean Deripaska would want to use Manafort to advance Deripaska’s interests in the United States and elsewhere.
6. Trump Tower meeting: (1) On receiving an email offering derogatory information on Clinton coming from a Russian government official, Donald Trump Jr. “appears to have accepted that offer;” (2) members of the Campaign discussed the Trump Tower meeting beforehand; (3) Donald Trump Jr. told the Russians during the meeting that Trump could revisit the issue of the Magnitsky Act if elected.
7. A Trump Campaign official told the Special Counsel he “felt obliged to object” to a GOP Platform change on Ukraine because it contradicted Trump’s wishes; however, the investigation did not establish that Gordon was directed by Trump.
8. Russian military hackers may have followed Trump’s July 27, 2016 public statement “Russia if you’re listening …” within hours by targeting Clinton’s personal office for the first time.
9. Trump requested campaign affiliates to get Clinton’s emails, which resulted in an individual apparently acting in coordination with the Campaign claiming to have successfully contacted Russian hackers.
10. The Trump Campaign—and Trump personally—appeared to have advanced knowledge of future WikiLeaks releases.
11. The Trump Campaign coordinated campaign-related public communications based on future WikiLeaks releases.
12. Michael Cohen, on behalf of the Trump Organization, brokered a secret deal for a Trump Tower Moscow project directly involving Putin’s inner circle, at least until June 2016.
13. During the presidential transition, Jared Kushner and Eric Prince engaged in secret back channel communications with Russian agents. (1) Kushner suggested to the Russian Ambassador that they use a secure communication line from within the Russian Embassy to speak with Russian Generals; and (2) Prince and Kushner’s friend Rick Gerson conducted secret back channel meetings with a Putin agent to develop a plan for U.S.-Russian relations.
14. During the presidential transition, in coordination with other members of the Transition Team, Michael Flynn spoke with the Russian Ambassador to prevent a tit for tat Russian response to the Obama administration’s imposition of sanctions for election interference; the Russians agreed not to retaliate saying they wanted a good relationship with the incoming administration.

Guide to the Mueller Report’s Findings on “Collusion”

Essential reading on the Mueller Report: an annotation plus key findings, drawing on investigative reports and Special Counsel court filings.

www.justsecurity.org

Obstruction of Justice in the Mueller Report: A Heat Map

The Mueller report describes numerous instances in which President Trump may have obstructed justice. A few days ago, I threw together a quick spreadsheet on Twitter to assess how Special Counsel Robert Mueller seemed to assess the evidence.

www.lawfareblog.com

Are any of those 14 claims actually criminal?
If they are, please post the claim number, the law broken and the proof it occurred.
Thanks!

 

[depotoo]

From the case against the IRS-
The IRS admits that its treatment of Plaintiffs during the tax-exempt determinations process, including screening their applications based on their names or policy positions, subjecting those applications to heightened scrutiny and inordinate delays, and demanding of some Plaintiffs information TIGTA determined was unnecessary to the agency;s determination of their tax-exempt status was wrong. For such treatment, the IRS expresses its sincere apology.

That's right. It was wrong for the IRS to use the names of organizations to target groups for scrutiny. But since liberal and conservative groups were targeted there is no evidence to back up the accusation the Obama admin was using the IRS to go after political enemies as Repubs suggested. Especially since Obama was unaware of what the IRS was doing.

Honey, read the statement. Quit putting words in their mouth. The targeting of any liberals only occurred after they found out they were being investigated. The media and Dems lied to you.

 

[bripat9643]

First, an acknowledgement. A big shout out to "dudmuck" for his/her post on the "We Need To Speak Honestly About The GOP's Evolution Into A Conspiracy Cult" thread for the link I'm using in this thread. Your post was absolutely fact filled and therefore terrific.

So, without further ado................................

"Now, we have proof that the first prong of the non-scandal was never true. The IRS did use politically-oriented search terms to try to sort through applicants for inappropriate levels of political activity, but it did not do so on a partisan or ideological basis. And even so, they stopped using those search terms, in an effort to avoid even the appearance of political intent in their reviews.

Will this stop the Republicans? Of course not. A New York Times story quotes the chair of the House's tax-writing committee: "This report reinforces what government watchdogs and congressional investigators have confirmed time and time again: Bureaucrats at the I.R.S. ... arbitrarily and haphazardly administered the tax code and targeted taxpayers based on political ideology."

No, the report says exactly the opposite. The IRS covered the political spectrum, meaning that regardless of a group's apparent political ideology, they might receive added scrutiny in applying for status as a not-excessively-political organization."

Remember the IRS Scandal? It was Fake News All Along

Neil Buchanan writes that Trump's dishonesty is a continuation of a strategy of lying Republicans have been honing for years.

www.newsweek.com

......................................................................................................................................................
The myth in question is obviously about the non-existent IRS scandal from Obama's tenure as prez. I mention it due to the frequency with which it is referred to as Trumpleheads seek to make a false equivalence between the unparalleled, daily scandals of the Bigot-in-Chief's admin and Obama's scandal free admin. (Trumpletards will no doubt react to that statement with apoplectic indignation. It is, nonetheless, true.) Obama did not obstruct justice, did not eagerly accept help in an election from Russia, was not impeached for illegally withholding military aid for personal, political gain and for lying about it, and did not make a habit of firing IG's in retaliation as Trump has done. But.................I digress.

Note to Trumpleheads. I'm not going to be responding to any reply that indicates you have not read the entire article or that does not include some sort of attempt to factually dispute its contents. Imbecilic "your mother wears Army boots" replies and or whataboutisms so typical of The Following will be ignored.

Utter horseshit. So they didn't use political search terms, but then they stopped?

You are fucking hilarious.

 

[Rigby5]

The reality is that no political organization is eligible for 501(c) tax exempt status.
That is for community educational purposes only.

The only reason why the IRS got into trouble is that it turns out lots of democratic organizations were also illegally using it.

 

[themirrorthief]

Watch the lame tea bagger trumpoholic efforts to vandalize this thread.

ah the sweet non judgmental liberal ...making the world safe for horseshit