DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus Trump dictated misleading statement on son's meeting with Russian: Washington Post

Uh oh. Is this true?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-dictate...-010906092.html

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump dictated a statement, later shown to be misleading, in which his son Donald Trump Jr. said a meeting he had with a Russian lawyer in June 2016 was not related to his father's presidential campaign, the Washington Post reported on Monday.

Trump Jr. released emails earlier in July that showed he eagerly agreed last year to meet a woman he was told was a Russian government lawyer who might have damaging information about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton as part of Moscow's official support for his father. The New York Times was first to report the meeting.


The Washington Post said Trump advisers discussed the new disclosure and agreed that Trump Jr. should issue a truthful account of the episode so that it "couldn’t be repudiated later if the full details emerged."

The president, who was flying home from Germany on July 8, changed the plan and "personally dictated a statement in which Trump Jr. said he and the Russian lawyer had 'primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children,'" the Post said, citing unnamed people with knowledge of the deliberations.

It said the statement, issued to the New York Times as it prepared to publish the story, emphasized that the subject of the meeting was “not a campaign issue at the time.”

An attorney for Trump, Jay Sekulow, issued a statement in response to the Post report: “Apart from being of no consequence, the characterizations are misinformed, inaccurate, and not pertinent.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the Post story, nor did Trump Jr.'s attorney, Alan Futerfas.

U.S. investigators are probing whether there was collusion between the Kremlin and Trump’s Republican presidential campaign.

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Moscow sought to hurt Clinton and help Trump in the 2016 election. Russia denies any interference, and Trump has denied collusion with Russia.The president applauded his son's "transparency" after he released the email exchanges on July 11.

"It remains unclear exactly how much the president knew at the time of the flight about Trump Jr.’s meeting," the Washington Post said.

David Sklansky, a professor of criminal law at Stanford Law School, said that if Trump, as reported by the Post, helped craft a misleading public statement about the meeting, he may have bolstered a potential obstruction of justice case against himself.

To build a criminal obstruction of justice case, federal law requires prosecutors to show that a person acted with "corrupt" intent. A misleading public statement could be used as evidence of corrupt intent, Sklansky said.

"Lying usually isn't a crime," he said. But "it could be relevant in determining whether something else the president did, like firing (former FBI Director James) Comey, was done corruptly."

This is pretty bad.

Dumber than a sack of hair.
And too 'stoopogant'* to take the advice of those smarter than he.

If true, I'm not surprised. This is exactly how those cliched TV Titans/Tycoons behave on every 80's/90's cheezy 'network movie event.'

Scripted right out of Culver City, alt/45* is a real-life caricature of that timeworn cliche: Big Papa dives right in, and fixes another of Sonny's fkupz.

Only problem is this: That kind of behavior- while stupid, ugly and low-class as hell -is not illegal for a private citizen. It is illegal for an elected public official.


Trump was already an elected official when he took this action.
He apparently didn't take even a moment to consult with anyone from Legal to discern whether his immediate impulses were impeachable.


Like I said on Nov 9, 2016:
"Too dumb to realize how stupid he is; too clueless to avoid impeachment."


This has never been a matter of 'if.'
It's always been a matter of: 'when' and 'how.'








* ...from the Encyclopædia Clemtannica Lexicon (of made-up/mashup names):
stoopogant adj.
amalgam of two words, stupid and arrogant

I just listened to the reporter that reported this, Name escapes me.

Man, I gotta tell you, he didn't have one ounce of fact.. Just reporting.

So until they prove it, for me, this just isn't anything to get excited about.

now, if they prove it somehow, then that's a horse of a different color.

yea i dunno bro. don't want this to happen, but wouldn't be surprised.

a lot of the major networks are reporting on it this morning as well. so we will see.

Please now, don't start letting facts get in the way of accusations.
It hasn't been the way of the Left to date.

I know this doesn't help because like all GOOD reporters the reporter did not divulge their sources (PLURAL). And the Washington Post has been batting 1000 on their articles and sources so far.

drip drip drip

This guy Matthew miller said something so true: were so use to lies from the trump administration that now people go "but is it a crime"? What a sad standard we now have.

HAHAHAHA - you wrote that right after posting a bunch of cicumstancial nonsense about Seth !! You're a beauty.

Drip.....Drip.....Drip

Drip and distract.....Drip and distract.....Drip and distract.

soap opera....."As The Drip Drops" new episodes everyday.

.

At some point, I hold out hope that you will come to realize that "the way of the left" and the "the way of the right" are the same way... depending on the circumstances.

I already have a gal.

Only for those who live life atop a fence.

Again, why can there be only two sides to an issue?

There are many sides to every issue but only one side to your beliefs and Character.

Everybody wants to make this a story about misleading but the only thing that is actually misleading is a years worth of stories that have been fueling a false narrative about Russia Collusion in a phony scandal based on anonymous sources.

The Left and the Democrats fight to keep this alive and in the News daily while ignoring the actual collusion that took place between the Clintons
and Russia.

But do enjoy as Trump continues to Make America Great Again in spite of yourselves.

And yet the White House is furious about the leaks coming out. It seems these anonymous sources are leaking out things that the White house doesn't want out there.

I wonder why Jr., Sessions, Jared and all the others keep telling lies that the press has to bring to light before they start to tell the truth? Lie after lie after lie keeps being uncovered. I didn't think innocent people needed to lie?

You guys are focused on a meeting that Don Jr. had which was of no consequence when the Democrats actually colluded with a foreign government like Ukraine as the Democrat linked firm of Fusion GPS actually took money from the Russian government while it created the phony dossier that has been the basis for all the Russia scandal Fake News.

If you want to discuss further about a relationship relationship with Russia look no further than the Clintons. Bill Clinton was paid half a million dollars to give a speech to a Russian bank and was personally thanked by Putin for it.
Hillary Clinton allowed 1/5 of our Uranium reserves to be sold to a Russian firm who's investors were Clinton Foundation donors and the Clinton campaigns brother lobbied against sanctions on Russia's largest bank and failed to report it.

So if you guys want to look under rocks for Trump collusion, I suggest you look up at the mountain of proof of true collusion hanging over your heads.

Then why do they just keep on lying? You want to say there's nothing there, but their consistent lies say otherwise.

You do realize you just repeated everything in todays press conference, right?

You are nothing more than a parrot of GOP talking points. lmao

Here's a fact - it doesn't matter what the facts are, 40 will continue to tow the Trump line. Period. Save your typing.

Honestly I miss the days where we just argued about ideology and the direction of the country.

Arguing about whether or not our president committed treason is probably the lowest we have been as a nation since Nixon got caught.

I've already seen people around the country go "even if he did collude, so what?"

It's getting scary.

lmao, but he had the pen ready in his hand to sign whatever healthcare bill strolls across his desk, no matter what the hell was in it:

White House: ‘Legal review’ holding up Russian sanctions

https://www.yahoo.com/news/white-house-legal-review-holding-russian-sanctions-201250679.html

WASHINGTON — Days after declaring that President Trump would sign legislation imposing tough new sanctions on Russia, the White House said Tuesday that his government lawyers needed to wrap up a “legal review” of the bill first.

Congress approved the bill, which also imposes punitive economic measures on Iran and North Korea, on Friday, sending it to Trump by a veto-proof margin. Later that day, incoming White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued a written statement saying the president “has now reviewed the final version and, based on its responsiveness to his negotiations, approves the bill and intends to sign it.” The statement made no mention of a pending review.

Asked on Monday why Trump had yet to sign the measure, Sanders told reporters at her daily briefing: “There’s nothing holding him back. There’s a review process, a legal process. They’re going through that. And he’ll sign the bill and we’ll let you guys know.”

Sanders added: “As with every very particularly complex piece of legislation — like this is — there’s a legal review.”

Her comments fueled speculation that Trump, who has repeatedly declared his eagerness for better relations with Moscow, could be considering a presidential “signing statement” aimed at watering down the impact of the law. Presidents have regularly used such statements, particularly upon signing measures touching on foreign policy, to reaffirm that they, not Congress, run foreign policy. Doing so in this instance would defy vast bipartisan majorities in both chambers, risking a political backlash.


President Trump shakes hands with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin during their bilateral meeting at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, in July 2017. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)
More
The sanctions are designed to punish Moscow for interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its support for Syrian strongman Bashar Assad. *Trump has sharply questioned his intelligence agencies’ assessment that Russia sought to influence the election.*

The legislation is notable in part for the way it restricts the president’s ability to waive key provisions unless Congress signs off. The unusual limits reflected lawmakers’ concerns that Trump aims to ease sanctions using his executive authority. The White House had argued that it needed greater diplomatic flexibility, joining up with oil and gas companies and defense contractors looking to water down some provisions.

The bill has drawn an angry response from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who over the weekend ordered U.S. diplomatic missions in his country to reduce their staffs by 755 employees overall. The majority will be local Russians, not American diplomats, but the cuts will likely badly hamper some consular services.

Trump has found time in the two days since Putin’s decision to rail on Twitter about the news media and denounce Obamacare but has not said anything about Moscow’s retaliation. During the campaign, Trump routinely heaped praise on Putin.

But Vice President Mike Pence, stopping in the eastern European nation of Georgia, said Trump would sign the sanctions measure “very soon” and that Putin’s response would have no effect.

“We hope for better days, and we hope for better relations with Russia, but the recent diplomatic action taken by Moscow I can assure will not deter the commitment of the United States to our security, to that of our allies, and to freedom-loving nations around the world like Georgia,” Pence said.

“As always, our country prefers a constructive relationship with Russia based on cooperation and common interests,” the vice president said. “But the president and our Congress are unified in our message to Russia: A better relationship, the lifting of sanctions will require Russia to reverse the actions that caused sanctions to be imposed in the first place.”

Mueller will settle it all sooner or later. If I'm wrong I'll take my crow raw, but I think I'll be the one serving crow that day.

I do know that if all these little things (big things to most people) keep coming out at the rate they have been, there is no way Trump's Admin survives it.

OCD, you're acting real ungrateful right now!

You don't remember when your daddy helped you cover up collusion with the Eussians? Lmfao

White House: Trump worked on Don Jr.’s Russia meeting statement ‘as any father would’


https://www.yahoo.com/news/white-house-t...-205430097.html

Trump helped with Don Jr.'s statement, ‘like any father would’
The White House goes back and fourth on President Trump's involvement in Don Jr.'s statement. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said today that he didn't dictate, but “offered suggestions.”
White House: Trump worked on Don Jr.’s Russia meeting statement ‘as any father would’

Yahoo News Gabby KaufmanYahoo NewsAugust 1, 2017
The White House downplayed a new Washington Post report that President Trump personally dictated his eldest son’s misleading statement about meeting with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign.
During her Tuesday briefing, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders maintained that Donald Trump Jr.’s statement was truthful and that the president had merely “weighed in as any father would, based on the limited information that he had.”

“Look, the statement that Don Jr. issued is true,” Sanders said. “There’s no inaccuracy in the statement.” She added: “This is all discussion, frankly, of no consequence.”
As the New York Times prepared to publish a report last month confirming Trump Jr. arranged a June 2016 meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, the younger Trump issued a statement saying the attendees “primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children.” He was forced to issue additional statements as more and more details about the meeting leaked out, eventually releasing emails conceding that he attended the meeting hoping to get Russian government dirt on campaign rival Hillary Clinton.
Trump’s personal attorney, Jay Sekulow, has repeatedly denied that the president had any involvement in Trump Jr.’s initial misleading response to the meeting. The Times reported last month that the president’s advisers drafted the statement and that the elder Trump approved it.
“The president didn’t sign off on anything,” Sekulow said during a recent “Good Morning America” appearance, denying the Times reporting on the matter. “The statement … was released by Donald Trump Jr. and, I’m sure, in consultation with his lawyers. The president wasn’t involved in that.”

This continues to be the dumbest investigation in HISTORY! A year and millions spent on what? To this day, they have NOTHING but BS stories.

Hey 40, Clinton WILL get busted. I said this a month ago and it's coming to fruition.

Trump collusion.......YAWN.

My man, if Trump is so stinkin evil why does the Left have to make up evil stuff about him?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY5dcm8j59s&list=RDhY5dcm8j59s

Nixon = A crime was committed and a scandal then broke out.

Trump = A scandal broke out trying to find a crime.

That is not the American way. That is the Liberal media way!!!

No sense in derailing this thread any further. Back on topic.

Washington Post op-ed: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/pos...n-is-crumbling/

The quest to prove collusion is crumbling

While everyone is fixated on President Trump’s unbecoming and inexplicable assault on Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the media has been trying to sneak away from the “Russian collusion” story. That’s right. For all the breathless hype, the on-air furrowed brows and the not-so-veiled hopes that this could be Watergate, Jared Kushner’s statement and testimony before Congress have made Democrats and many in the media come to the realization that the collusion they were counting on just isn’t there.

As the date of the Kushner testimony approached, the media thought it was going to advance and refresh the story. But Kushner’s clear, precise and convincing account of what really occurred during the campaign and after the election has left many of President Trump’s loudest enemies trying to quietly back out of the room unnoticed.

Cable news airtime and in-print word count dedicated to the nonexistent collusion story appear to be dwindling. Democrats and their allies in the media seem less eager to talk about it, and when they do, they say something to the effect of “but, but, but … Kushner didn’t answer every question … He wasn’t under oath … There are still more witnesses … What about this or that new gadfly?” They are stammering. And it hasn’t taken long for news producers and editors to realize that the story is fading.

At last, the story that never was is not happening.

There are a few showstoppers from Kushner’s testimony that make it obvious to any fair-minded, thinking person that there was no collusion with Russia. In his own words, Kushner makes it clear that his actions were innocent but, at times, misguided and ill-conceived. He plainly states he had “hardly any” contacts with Russians during the campaign and found his June 2016 meeting with Donald Trump Jr. and the infamous Russian lawyer to be an absolute “waste of time.”

Democrats and their allies in the media have exhausted themselves building a scandalous narrative surrounding the Russian lawyer meeting, but according to Kushner, the meeting was so useless that he “actually emailed an assistant from the meeting after [he] had been there for ten or so minutes and wrote ‘Can u pls call me on my cell? Need excuse to get out of meeting.”’ Maybe the collusion didn’t take very long, or maybe he realized what the lawyer had to say was a useless farce and he wanted to get on with his day.

Much to the dismay of Trump’s haters, Kushner’s account of events even further proves just how far the media has stretched the collusion story. When the campaign received an official note of congratulations from Russian President Vladimir Putin the day after the election, Kushner had to send Dimitri Simes of the Center for the National Interest an email asking for the name of the Russian ambassador so that he could reach out and confirm the message’s authenticity.

So, that’s that. If you can’t remember your handler’s name, you can’t be guilty of nefariously colluding with that person. How much collusion could Kushner have possibly done with someone whom he had so little communication with that he could not remember his name and did not know how to contact him?

Sure, there are others still in the crosshairs of the collusion-hunters, but Kushner has been the biggest target if for no other reason than he is the only one serving in the White House. Paul Manafort is a private citizen, and he departed the campaign before the general election campaign really started. Donald Trump Jr. is implicated only in the one ill-advised and now-shown-to-be-pointless encounter with a few gadflies. The media can knock itself out trying to find some left-behind paperwork or some other scrap to hang onto, but the dead end is in sight. The quest for collusion is crumbling.

With the Democrats and their allies in the media beginning to walk away from the collusion story, the single biggest thing keeping this story alive is the president’s obsession with it. No doubt the issue will continue to be irresistible to some of Trump’s haters. Some will never believe the truth, no matter what else is revealed. But if Democrats and the president’s worst enemies can begin to silently acknowledge the obvious and move on, perhaps Trump can, too. Maybe now he will see the futility of continuing to whine, tweet, moan and seethe about the whole non-affair. Maybe the president will now see that he should leave Sessions alone so that he can get on with his work. Maybe he will let special counsel Robert S. Mueller III quietly do his job and the whole “Russian collusion” affair won’t even be a footnote in the retelling of the story of the Trump campaign.

what happened to you not commenting til the investigation is over?

Man oh man, that was like reading Swish's Resume'.

not really, more like someone who's in denial.

like trump supporters on this board.

You've brought this up a number of times, and I don't believe I ever said I wouldn't comment on it until the investigation is over. I made some vague suggestions (to Pit perhaps?) that I'd wait until the FBI completed its investigations but never had the sense that was a binding promise. It's more of a realization that none of us have inside information and we're all basically wasting our time bickering about this.

In any case, people change their minds on things sometimes. For example, Clem must have posted a dozen times in the last year that he was done with politics and a week later he'd be back. A similar situation arises when an athlete retires, is sure he's done, and then later decides he wants to play again. Sometimes people have a change of heart.

you've made multiple vague suggestions, i suppose. i guess that should be expected from you for now on.

anyway, the opinion piece is exactly that: an opinion.

people keep trying to have an opinion about the dems when the FACT is that this is a conservative led investigation.

The interesting part is that opinion piece was better written and more logical than their officially endorsed reporting.

again, an opinion.

HA! This article is from July 27th! That's like 10 years in Trump Scandal Time!

I heard CNN talking about Trump's dictation of Jr.'s lies today. The Russian connection is everywhere and I watched Congressmen from both houses talking about wanting to get everyone involved in to testify! Just because MSM (not including Fox Fake News) takes a breather from Russia-gate while they cover some of Trump's OTHER DOH's doesn't mean it's going away anytime soon.

WAPO knows better too, they just want to keep the pressure on.

Colossal waste of time.



Wish they would just say that it was all BS to begin with. Wait a minute, a CNN producer said that in an interview about a month ago!



This is one thing I don't care for about Trump. He loves his name in lights. He said in 'The Art of the Deal' he read the front page of all the newspapers just to count how many times his name was mentioned. He didn't care what the story was about.

Give it a couple weeks and the related events since July 27th (five days) will have largely been forgotten. There will be new angles and "discoveries" that will keep people on the edge of their seats thinking the story is "about to break wide open!"

Rinse and repeat for however many more months.

OCD is one that has been, for months, saying "this is it, this is the defining moment. Etc.