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Donald Trump Suggested Michael Sussmann Should Be Killed because Rodney Joffe "Spied" on Barack Obama

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emptywheel
John Durham's misleading claims in an unrelated motion led Donald Trump to suggest Michael Sussmann should be killed because Rodney Joffe "spied" (by monitoring networks for hacks) on Barack Obama.
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"Fill the Silence:" On Obstruction, Listen to DOJ and Merrick Garland

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emptywheel
Quinta Jurecic and Ben Wittes claim that Merrick Garland's DOJ has been silent about how they think of the Mueller investigation. It seems that, on the contrary, Lawfare simply isn't listening to what is being said.
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Josh Schulte Described the Damage Giving Russia Advance Access to the Vault 8 Files Would Have Caused

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emptywheel
Josh Schulte accurately described how much damage it would have -- and might have -- done if Russia had obtained the source code files he is accused of having leaked to WikiLeaks.
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Kash Patel Knew, and Did Nothing, about the Latest Durham-Related Frenzy

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emptywheel
Like many on the frothy right, Kash Patel is wailing about what he claims is a new disclosure from John Durham. That actually may create problems for Kash going forward. Not only is Kash a witness that Sussmann was not hiding what he did, but he is someone who -- for years -- knew about this, was in a position to do something about it, and did nothing. 
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John Durham, Ask Not for Whom the Statute of Limitation Tolls ...

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emptywheel
Two days after the statute of limitations expired for a meeting at which John Durham claims Michael Sussmann lied, Durham packaged up details from it in a filing about a claimed conflict.
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Mueller Found Probable Cause, but Did Not Charge, Don Jr for Misdemeanor Hacking

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emptywheel
The latest release of unsealed Mueller Report passages has generated some confused reporting. What the currently unredacted passages of the Mueller Report say is that Donald Trump Jr probably committed a misdemeanor CFAA violation, but charging it would have been prosecutorial overkill. The Report also says that Mueller referred multiple issues to the DC US Attorneys Office in an attempt to answer then unanswered questions about whether Roger Stone conspired with Russia in 2016.

Attitudes Toward Freedom And Equality

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Ed Walker
Americans insisted on freedom. The French invaders though freedom was wicked liberty.
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Donald Trump Wanted Jim Comey Prosecuted for Bringing Government Documents Home

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emptywheel
When DOJ IG Michael Horowitz found that Jim Comey had violated FBI policy by taking his memos documenting Trump's corruption home, Donald Trump wanted him prosecuted for it.
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While Trump Was Secretly Loading Up Documents, Mike Ellis Was Hoarding an NSA Document at the White House

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emptywheel
During the same days when, we now know, Trump was packing up official documents in boxes designed for Mar-a-Lago, Mike Ellis was improperly handling an NSA document at the White House.
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On Unrealistic Expectations for Mueller Report Obstruction Charges

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emptywheel
Even assuming Mueller packaged obstruction charges for DOJ to indict, rather than Congress to impeach, the deliberate sabotage Barr did in the interim makes most of those charges impossible. But there's good reason to believe DOJ is investigating the continuation of that very same obstruction.
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The Five Versions of the Mueller Report

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emptywheel
The question of what happened to the Mueller investigation is a good deal more complex than the 10 obstructive acts Mueller laid out in Volume II.
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Imagine if Woodward and Bernstein Buried the Ties between the Burglars and Nixon in Paragraph 26?

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emptywheel
As Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein would have immediately recognized, the story behind Ronna McDaniel's decision to censure Liz Cheney to protect Kathy Berden is with whom Berden was agreeing to serve as a fake elector.
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The Eight Trump Associates Whom DOJ Is Investigating

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emptywheel
Since I last laid out DOJ's investigations into close Trump associates, we've learned of investigative steps targeting two more Trump flunkies.
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Gaslighting of the Obstructive Kind

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Rayne
What if the RNC and Ronna McDaniel's obstructive gaslighting was more than a reframing exercise meant to skew public opinion?
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Why to Delay a Mark Meadows Indictment: Bannon Is Using His Contempt Prosecution to Monitor the Ongoing January 6 Investigation

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emptywheel
The course of the Bannon prosecution shows one really good reason why DOJ is not acting quickly on the Mark Meadows contempt referral: because Bannon is using his prosecution to learn about the larger, more important, ongoing investigation into Bannon, Rudy, and Trump.
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When Lawyers' Lawyers Need Lawyers: The Import of Robert Costello's Toll Records -- for Bannon, for Rudy, and for Donald Trump

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emptywheel
The news that DOJ obtained the toll records of the lawyer for Steve Bannon and Rudy Giuliani is almost certainly not about Bannon. Rather, we may have finally reached the moment in Trump scandals where Trump's lawyers' lawyers need lawyers.
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The John Durham Investigation Turns 1,000 Days Old Today

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emptywheel
In the weeks before the Durham investigation passed the 1,000 day milestone, Durham's team learned basic details they should have known years before indicting Michael Sussmann.
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Steve Bannon's Lawyer Made Himself a Witness and Now Wants To Be Just a Lawyer

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emptywheel
Among the claims Robert Costello made to DOJ at a meeting on November 3, 2021, is that he hadn't discussed Steve Bannon's testimony with any Trump lawyers, but that he had discussed Executive Privilege claims with a lawyer he had been told was representing Donald Trump. And so DOJ pulled his call records to test those claims.
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