You may recall back in 2017 when John McCain and Rand Paul were going at each other in the Senate, once again. This time it was over the admission of Montenegro into NATO, a move which Paul objected to. McCain took to the floor and announced, “The senator from Kentucky is working for Vladimir Putin.” At which point Paul removed his mic and stalked off the floor, later to refer to McCain as “senile” and “a warmonger,” and to advocate for senate term limits.
Well, Senator McCain, we’ve got news for you. The entire GOP is basically working for Vladimir Putin, not just weak sister Senator Paul. MAGA is absolutely working for Putin. And what is truly ludicrous, as we go into the primaries and the conventions of 2024, Putin has publicly stated that he would like to see Joe Biden reelected, all the while moving heaven and earth, for the third time now, to get Donald Trump back in the White House. This is who we are and where we are in 2024, make no mistake.
Flashback to June of 2023: pic.twitter.com/u7srltVlEg
— Isaac Saul (@Ike_Saul) February 20, 2024
Read what Marcy Wheeler has to say on the tangled mess that is Scott Brady (former U.S. attorney) Bill Barr, Alexander Smirnov and finally Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
[Biden lawyer Abbe] Lowell raised the Brady side channel in his selective prosecution filing, too. David Weiss’ responses to such requests always misrepresented the ask, pretending it pertained to no more than directions from Jeffrey Rosen’s office to avoid overt pre-election investigative steps.
And all the while, according to the Alexander Smirnov detention memo, he kept getting on planes to meet Russian spooks.
In October 2023, SMIRNOV had in-person conversations with RUSSIAN OFFICIAL 1 overseas. During these conversations, RUSSIAN OFFICIAL 1 discussed his knowledge and seeming control of two groups of Russian operatives who were previously tasked with the assassination of a high-ranking official of COUNTRY C. RUSSIAN OFFICIAL 1 offered to stop the assassination efforts in exchange for certain things, including an agreement by COUNTRY C to stop targeting civilian-family members of certain Russian officials living in Moscow
[snip]
SMIRNOV attended a meeting in COUNTRY A [probably UAE] in December 2023 that was attended by RUSSIAN OFFICIAL 2, a high-ranking member of a Russian Foreign Intelligence Service. The primary purpose of the meeting was to discuss a potential resolution to the Russia-Ukraine war.
Against that background, there’s a detail in the Smirnov indictment that hasn’t attracted the attention it deserves.
David Weiss bases his authority for charging Smirnov — in California, not Delaware — on his Special Counsel authority.
41. In July 2023, the FBI requested that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware assist the FBI in an investigation of allegations related to the 2020 1023. At that time, the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware was handling an investigation and prosecution of Businessperson 1.
42. On August 11, 2023, the Attorney General appointed David C. Weiss, the United States Attorney for the District of Delaware, as Special Counsel. The Special Counsel was authorized to conduct the investigation and prosecution of Businessperson 1, as well as “any matters that arose from that investigation, may arise from the Special Counsel’s investigation, or that are within the scope of 28 C.F.R. § 600.4(a).”
Wheeler goes on to say that the only way Smirnov could be covered under that Special Counsel grant of authority is if, when investigators interviewed Smirnov on September 27, they were investigating Hunter Biden. She points out that David Weiss was made Special Counsel to investigate Hunter Biden, not those who framed him and his father. Weiss opened up a can of worms here and once he did, he wasn’t sure what to do with it.
There’s a lot that Weiss left out of the indictment, like Scott Brady’s claim to have vetted Smirnov’s travel records and Bill Barr’s claim that Weiss was ordered in 2020 to further investigate the claim and Richard Donoghue’s order to Weiss, just days after Trump yelled at Bill Barr for not doing enough to investigate Hunter Biden, to accept a briefing on Smirnov’s claims.
But that detail makes it clear that the point of the interview was to investigate Hunter Biden, not — not at first, anyway — to investigate Smirnov. This is why, if Abbe Lowell gets discovery on this issue, I think this footnote will be vindicated (an argument I made back in November).
4 The discussion about the scope of the immunity agreement appears shaped by the prosecution’s investigation of the Smirnov allegations, which it began looking into just days before the July 26, 2023 hearing. (Smirnov Indict. ¶ 41 (noting the prosecution team began investigating Smirnov’s claims in July 2023).) While a host of possible crimes had been investigated, the defense understood that the FARA/bribery investigation had been closed and that the only pending issues concerned gun and tax charges. The Diversion Agreement resolved the gun and tax charges, which is why defense counsel believed the immunity agreement covered everything and would conclude the investigation. The push back from the prosecution and its discussion of an “ongoing” investigation—apparently tied to the Smirnov allegations—came as a surprise to defense counsel. (7/26/23 Tr. at 50, 54.) Having taken Mr. Smirnov’s bait of grand, sensational charges, the Diversion Agreement that had just been entered into and Plea Agreement that was on the verge of being finalized suddenly became inconvenient for the prosecution, and it reversed course and repudiated those Agreements.
The reason why David Weiss reneged on a plea deal was to chase this bribery claim. The reason why David Weiss charged Hunter Biden with a bunch of felonies rather than resolving this in a diversion and misdemeanors was because he wanted to chase the false claims floated by someone dallying with Russian spies.
And I’d be willing to bet that if Lowell hadn’t asked for discovery that may expose that fact, David Weiss would never have indicted Alexander Smirnov.
The tentacles of Russia go very far into our government and into our affairs, generally. If you think I’m joking when I say that Trump wants to make America a Russian colony, think again. Trump is only too happy to turn the reins of power over to Putin and there are plenty of Republicans who would help Trump stay in power if he should ever get back in. Elise Stefanik basically signed on for that last week when she said that Mike Pence should not have certified the 2020 election. Stefanik is fully onboard to take over the government along with Trump and not for a four-year period. For life.
Liz Cheney said, “When you think about Donald Trump, for example, pledging retribution, what Vladimir Putin did to [Alexei] Navalny is what retribution looks like in a country where the leader is not subject to the rule of law. … You’ve now got a Putin wing of the Republican Party.”
Dan Goldman is hopeful that this madness will come to an end, after this revelation. I don’t share his hope. I think the MAGA/Putin entrenchment is too deep.
The Comer/Jordan impeachment sham appears to have been a Russian intelligence operation from the start.
The only remaining question is whether Rs were witting or unwitting agents of Putin in their desperate quest to get Trump reelected.
Will the GOP continue to work for Putin? pic.twitter.com/erzG7b54sU
— Daniel Goldman (@danielsgoldman) February 21, 2024
This is what we’re dealing with. This is not a normal election.
Well the good news when one hits 70+…if the traitors overthrow our democracy, and we’re forced into the nazi horror on our home soil with no possibility of a fair election again…well whatever response I join, including the response we had to use 1941-1945, I don’t have much time left to worry about retribution. I took an oath as a vet, and, as the son of a war vet, the cousin of war vets, the nephew of war vets, I WILL honor my oath. You nazis will not be sleeping peacefully. Vote! It may be the last time!
I keep having conversations with people about moving to Costa Rica or repatriating to Ireland, or fleeing to Canada. I do have a few friends in Canada. This is not normal. And I’m in your age bracket, I just turned 71 last month. To think about fleeing my home for a foreign country is really out there. But it would be foolish to not explore those options when this kind of a threat exists.
Moving? To each their own! Personally, I now understand how someone gets radicalized. If people can go that way over a mountain of lies…well…it’s a short walk for those of us who know the truth and what the future holds for the children if we stand by and do nothing. Thanks gop for enriching yourself for doubling the number of guns on the street in the last 20 years! Thanks for changing the sale of military weapons from less than 2% twenty years ago to 25% now. So easy now to get a lethal weapon if one feels the only option is to go a huntin as southern boys used to say. Just remember you phucking suits…you’re not that good at hiding as you think. As Michael said to sonny in the Godfather when he and Tom said a police captain couldn’t be killed, “if history has taught us anything…it’s that anyone can be killed”. Hell… if a school full of six year olds can be slaughtered, what makes YOU, WHO ARE RESPONSIBLE, SAFE? Answer: absolutely nothing. Your best bet is to pray you nazis lose in November and slink on back to your spiderholes. There are some real patriots who aren’t going to go quietly into your dictatorship. Canada is too phucking cold. That should make you pause as you bed down on Egyptian cotton sheets after your five star meal assholes. You are NOT PHUCKING INVINCIBLE! FACT! SLEEP PHUCKING TIGHT BUT KEEP ONE EYE OPEN!
My husband and I are stuck here. Our sole income is from his military pension and our Social Security, both of which would no longer exist within a few weeks of Donnie Donuts getting re-elected.
Well, you’ve made it clear more than once that like me if those asshats come for me it had better be in a group cause I’m going to take a LOT of killing. And I intend to go to hell in a crowd. The ole jarhead grunt is still in there and I’ve not doubt he’ll surface if these goobers want to start some shit.
Once a marine…always a marine…the frontline on every battlefield! As Danzel said in Man On Fire…there’s no such thing as tough…there’s trained and untrained…and who’s been trained harder than the marines? I can say that having gone to boot camp in the Navy!
“Will the GOP continue to work for Putin?”
If they think that’s where the money is. Who has more money than anyone else in the world?
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (The bucks really do stop here.)
Tragic but true.
Of course those GOP who are already working for Vlad will continue to work for him. Once you’re “in” there’s no backing out. Just like when you join any criminal Mob Organization, the only way out is in a body bag. Once you accept $, favors, etc. you’re OWNED. They now have dirt on you to destroy you & your family plus you have information to hurt them badly. As we have seen, Vlad’s FSB are trained at making deaths appear like they could be suicides or accidents.
Something to consider…. Putin has cancer & Parkinsons and has been subject to numerous assassination attempts in the past 2 years. He is extremely paranoid. Rump a Dump has accelerating dementia, massive gastrointenstinal problems, and his heart, kidneys and liver are in poor & failing condition. He’s literally losing more of his marbles every day & the MSM has made this a spectacle for the entire world to see his steady decline into 100% madness. Xi’s health is poor. He’s had one brain aneurism after another. Kim Jong-Un’s health is poor. Jong-Un been so ill he hasn’t made a public appearance in over 1 month. Both East Asian dictators keep murdering the doctors assigned to get them well, not exactly an incentive for the best doctors in either country to be next in line or to obtain the best health care available! Bottom line… if we can outlast them…..within the next 2-5 years all four of these dictators should be pushing up daisies.
Was there any doubt? In anyone’s mind? I mean, even the magats know their marching orders, while coming out of dingleberry’s mouth, ultimately came from putie. I wonder if they are supporting trump because the line from him to putie as dictator is the shortest possible route. Regardless they are, every one of them, f*cking traitors who need to be up against the wall at the earliest opportunity.
I don’t know if the MAGAs have connected the dots. I don’t believe they have. They’re too deluded, believing that life will be so much better with Trump running the show. I don’t think they know what the show behind the show is.
“Mr. Speaker, you have a call from President Trump.”
“Johnson? You ever get that aid to Ukraine anywhere near the floor of the House, you will end up ON the floor of the House! Don’t get anywhere near any windows…”
“Yessir, Mr. President.”
I actually have family in Canada and I still can’t move there. I don’t qualify. The thing is I can understand their reasoning.