Cohen produced the edited docs

Michael Cohen on Wednesday provided the House Intelligence Committee with new documents showing edits to the false written statement he delivered to Congress in 2017 about the Trump Organization's pursuit of the Trump Tower Moscow project into the 2016 campaign season, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

The documents Cohen provided are intended to further explain his public testimony last week, in which Cohen said that President Donald Trump's then-personal lawyer Jay Sekulow made changes to his statement to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, and that it was reviewed ahead of time by lawyers like Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, the President's daughter and son-in-law who are both White House advisers.

It's unclear what Cohen's documents show was specifically changed in the statement. Cohen is testifying Wednesday behind closed doors at the House Intelligence Committee.

[...]

As CNN previously reported, according to two of the sources familiar with the preparation, including one close to the Trump Organization and one close to the President's legal team, the lawyers had no indication that any of the information in the testimony of Trump's now-former longtime attorney and fixer was inaccurate.

  CNN

Which makes me wonder what the changes they made were.







I guess we would need to know even before that, what changes were made.  If they made a change to his statement, then that implies 1) they believed it was false, 2) they knew it was true and they changed it to something false, or 3) they changed it so that it was vauge, but not false.

Two of the people familiar with the documents, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the closed-door session, said that at least some of the changes appeared to play down the knowledge of the president’s eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, about the project.

  NYT

They really want to protect Ivanka.

Cohen currently is scheduled to report to prison on May 6.  That extension from today's original date was in part to allow him to prepare for testimony.  Now that his testimony is complete, it seems like he ought to be able to get started.  Maybe he's being given some extra time for cooperating.  And maybe he's going to have to produce more documents.

But it looks like we might be able to move on from Michael Cohen for a while.  Just in time for Paul Manafort to get sentenced in Virginia tomorrow for bank and tax fraud.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:



UPDATE 3/7:

What did Cohen tell the closed door hearing committees?

Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, declined to comment on the closed-door testimony, though he said on MSNBC on Thursday night that “new information was developed that could be game changing,” and it was about “lying and obstruction evidence.”

“It’s pretty explosive,” he said.

[...]

Privately, lawmakers on the House and Senate intelligence committees pressed Cohen this week on whether he had had any discussions about a possible pardon, and if so, when and with whom those conversations took place, [people familiar with the matter] said. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because the testimony was not public.

[...]

Legal analysts said Cohen’s testimony, while noteworthy, probably offered more new details to lawmakers and the public than it did to law enforcement. Cohen has said he would continue to cooperate with the special counsel and federal prosecutors, and he revealed during his testimony that he was in “constant” contact with the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.

[...]

Cohen also hinted at an investigation involving the president, asserting that federal prosecutors in Manhattan had asked him not to discuss his communication with Trump after the FBI raided his home and office in April.

[...]

Perhaps most notable in the area of obstruction, Cohen said that in May 2017, he met with Trump and Jay Sekulow, one of Trump’s lawyers, to discuss testimony Cohen was to give to the House Intelligence Committee. Trump, Cohen said, “wanted me to cooperate.” But he said Trump also repeated a refrain that is now familiar to those on Twitter.

“He goes, ‘It’s all a witch hunt,’ and he goes, ‘This stuff has to end,’ ” Cohen said.

“Did you take those comments to be suggestive of what might flavor your testimony?” Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) asked.

“Sir, he’s been saying that to me for many, many months, and at the end of the day, I knew exactly what he wanted me to say,” Cohen responded.

[...]

Cohen conceded that Trump had not asked him to lie, though he noted that [attorney Jay] Sekulow, as well as attorney Abbe Lowell — who represents Ivanka Trump, Trump’s daughter, and her husband, Jared Kushner — reviewed his written testimony before it was submitted.

At one point, Cohen suggested that Sekulow was involved in a change about “the length of time that the Trump Tower Moscow project stayed and remained alive.” And Davis, Cohen’s lawyer, said of the statement on MSNBC on Thursday night, “Everybody knew it was a lie” — effectively accusing Sekulow or others of knowingly passing on Cohen’s false statement.

But Davis corrected the statement and apologized Friday, saying, he had meant to say “the president and many of his advisers must have known” Cohen’s statement was false.

“I should not have used the words that ‘everyone knew’ the statement was false,” Davis said. “My only excuse for the error is sleep deprivation. Apologies.”

A person familiar with Cohen’s account said he cannot say with certainty whether Sekulow, Lowell or other White House advisers knew the discussions about the Trump Tower project extended well into 2016, and thus knew Cohen’s statement was false. Sekulow said in a statement that Cohen’s assertion that “attorneys for the President edited or changed his statement to Congress to alter the duration of the Trump Tower Moscow negotiations is completely false.”

A person familiar with the matter said Lowell did not edit Cohen’s statement but did voice a concern about the accuracy of some mention of Ivanka Trump’s dealings with Russian athlete Dmitry Klokov. Cohen ultimately did not address Klokov in the statement. Lowell declined to comment.

Cohen’s team is working to find drafts of Cohen’s statement that would reflect who edited what, and turn them over to lawmakers, people familiar with the matter said. Even that, though, might not implicate lawyers in knowingly passing along a lie — if their clients had not been truthful with them.

[...]

Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) wrote Thursday to Attorney General William P. Barr asking him to investigate whether Cohen had perjured himself when he insisted to the House Oversight Committee he had not wanted a job in the Trump administration and was content to serve as Trump’s personal lawyer.

  WaPo

That was a ridiculous point made by ridiculous and desperate people. What Cohen wanted can only be known by Cohen, no matter what he ever said to anyone.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Remembering the Buzzfeed story

Remember when Buzzfeed put out a story saying Trump directed Cohen to lie about the Moscow Project?  Remember that the Special Counsel broke protocol to say their story was "inaccurate"?  Remember how all the Trumanzees dumped on Buzzfeed for being Fake News?  And Buzzfeed stood by their story?

That story's looking more accurate than ever now that Cohen testified he submitted his proposed testimony to Trump's team (including Jay Sekulow and Abbe Lowell) for edits before he went before Congress (and lied).

Maybe some day we'll find out why Mueller's team put out that rare statement, and exactly what they meant by it.



...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:









In my experience, always go with Buzzfeed.  They've been doing some incredible investigative reporting.

Live-tweeting the hearing

If you can't or don't want to watch the Cohen hearing, here are some people who did it for you:

Daniel Dale  And when he says someone was shouting, he's correct.  There were indeed some shouters.  Republicans, of course.  Trying to out-indignant each other.  I guess that's the pattern since Lindsey Graham's outburst at the Kavanaugh hearing.  It apparently played well for Trump.

Aaron Rupar provides video clips in his posts.

Here's one I liked.




A couple of points I haven't made so far:

Democrat Jackie Speier asked Cohen about how many times he threatened people at Trump's direction.  He finally comes up with more than 500 times, which includes threatening reporters with lawsuits.

Somebody asked him if he's aware of any other criminal behavior by Trump that hasn't been covered, and he said, yes, but it's part of the SDNY investigation so he can't talk about it.  He also says that Trump never repaid David Pecker for the "catch and kill" money Pecker paid for her story, and that wasn't the only time that happened.  I wonder what Pecker is telling investigators.

Several Republicans complained that the Democrats were horrible for limiting what they were allowed to ask about.  (That was a Democratic complaint when Nunes headed the investigation.)  But, in fact there are some topics that Cohen would have had to refuse to answer because they're being investigated by Mueller and/or the SDNY.  Nobody bothered to waste time pointing that out.

Cohen said he was a Democrat until Steve Wynn had him change so he could become the RNC finance chairman.  I think somebody needs to get an investigation going into the RNC.  I think there may be a lot of shit there, including perhaps collusion with Russia to secure the election for Trump.

Also, I'll point out that one of the Democrats asked for Cohen's original documentation, which he says Trump's lawyers (including Jay Sekulow and Abbe Lowell) edited, that comprised his false statement to Congress about the Moscow Trump Tower project.  That could be a very big deal.

And then...



...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:



Well, if Cohen can find any documentation, we'll find out.

UPDATE:

The full hearing (video from USA Today)

Lunch break for the Oversight Committee

At last I have an answer as to why the Trump Tower Moscow project fell.  Cohen says he was unable to get proof of who owned the land to get a clear title before Trump was elected to office.

Justin Amash, who after his mild and non-combative, non-accusatory questioning, is going to be ostracized by his fellow Republicans, asked, "What truth does Trump fear most?"  There were several minutes of hesitation and re-asking before Cohen said it was too difficult a question to answer.

Cohen was browbeat regarding a form he signed (I think in preparation for the hearing) by one Republican, whose name I forget and will add in when I find it. (Mark Meadows)  The man tried to make it seem as though - and demanded the Committee follow up on seeing that Cohen get charged with violating FARA requirements for having lied about his represenations that he didn't lobby for any foreigners.  Cohen kept trying to argue that the form didn't require him to list foreign companies, which he admitted to, only governments, but the Congressman, in a righteous fury thought he landed a blow by saying that the form did ask for any foreign entities.  Cohen finally said he'd look at it again after the hearing and amend it if necessary.  A few interrogators later, Katie Hill (D-CA) says the form does not in fact ask for any foreign entites - just for foreign governments.  Oops, asshole.  I wonder if one of his staff thought that was a point, of if he himself actually misread the form.

GOP folk are losing so big that when they yield their time to ranking member Jordan, he's reduced to asking questions and when he gets the answer, just saying, "Wow" sarcastically.   After that, nobody has yielded their time to him.  I never imagined they'd be so bad at this.



Indeed.

Regarding being left hanging on Jamie Raskin's question about other instances of possible hush money payment, Peter Welch asks about other instances.  Cohen relates the question of a possible  love child with an employee, which an elevator operator told some magazine he knew about.  David Pecker paid him  $15,000 for the story in a "catch and kill" move.  Cohen says they turned up nothing.  He also says the rumor of an elevator tape showing that Trump hit Melania is bull, because he knows that Trump would never ever do anything like that.  He's got a lot more faith in Trump than I do.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:





I'm guessing he didn't read it and just thought he knew what it said.   Because if he had, he wouldn't have tweeted this:



Did somebody not say these jackasses shouldn't be tweeting during the hearing?



Annette, Annette, Annette.  Wait until he finds out.  Sadly, I doubt many people who are cheering this will bother to retract.



UPDATE:

The full hearing (video from USA Today)

UPDATE 3/1:

Orange for Ivanka, too

In an interview aired Friday, Ivanka Trump told ABC News that she knew “literally almost nothing” about her family’s secret pursuit of a deal to build a Trump-branded tower in Moscow during the 2016 campaign. Her claim, however, is contradicted by various sources, including information released by special counsel Robert Mueller and emails cited in media reports, which indicate that the president’s eldest daughter was closely involved with the controversial project.

  Mother Jones

Luckily for Ivanka, lying on TV isn't a crime. Which doesn't mean she hasn't committed any.

In a December memo describing [Michael] Cohen’s cooperation, [Special Counsel Robert] Mueller noted that Cohen had said that he “briefed family members” of Trump about the Moscow project. Those briefings clearly included Ivanka. She has acknowledged that in November 2015 she emailed Cohen to suggest he contact Dmitry Klokov, a Russian weightlifter who said he could help secure a meeting for Donald Trump with Russian President Vladimir Putin in order to help facilitate a Trump Tower-Moscow deal. According to Buzzfeed, which first reported these communications, Klokov told Cohen that he could broker a meeting with Trump and Putin to help secure the deal.

[...]

In late 2015, Ivanka also suggested an architect for the Moscow project in an email to Cohen, according to the Associated Press and other outlets. Under the preliminary deal, she received the right to have a spa under her name in the building. [...] If the spa was named after her, Ivanka or her designee would be given sole power to approve “all interior design elements of the spa or fitness facilities.”

[...]

Peter Mirijanian, a spokesman for Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, said this summer that her role in the Trump-Moscow deal was limited to “reminding Mr. Cohen that, should an actual deal come to fruition (which it did not) the project, like any other with the Trump name, conform with the highest design and architectural standards.” Mirijanian also said that Ivanka did not know Klokov but passed on to Cohen an “unsolicited email” from Klokov’s wife, who she also did not know.

Sure, whatever.

In her ABC interview, Ivanka attempted to downplay the project, which her father signed a letter of intent to pursue. “There was never a binding contract,” she said. “I never talked…with a third party outside of the organization about it.” This claim apparently excludes her contact with Klovkov.

[...]

Ivanka said Friday that the project was one of “40 or 50 deals like that that were floating around, that somebody was looking at. Nobody visited it to see if it was worth our time.”

Maybe we ought to know about those, too. What countries were involved?

[A]ccording to Felix Sater, a Trump Organization associate who helped Cohen pursue the Moscow deal, Ivanka herself visited Moscow in 2006 as part of the Trump Organization’s long-running pursuit of a deal there. “I arranged for Ivanka to sit in Putins private chair at his desk and office in the Kremlin,” Sater boasted in a 2015 email to Cohen.

Did not recall. You would remember something like that. She remembers it. That's why she can't say it didn't happen; she just doesn't recall.

UPDATE:







...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Adam Schiff comments on the BuzzFeed timeline story

The BuzzFeed timeline story.

Buzzfeed timeline of Trump campaign & Moscow project

Buzzfeed has published a side-by-side timeline of Trump's Moscow tower project and his campaign as it pertained to Russia, bolstered by documentation, including texts and emails. 

EG:

Full article here.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Trump Tower Moscow plans & negotiations

BuzzFeed News is today publishing a cache of internal Trump Organization documents that lay bare the secret negotiations that continued long after [Michael] Cohen claimed the [Moscow Trump Tower] deal had been abandoned. The documents, many of which have been exclusively obtained by BuzzFeed News, reveal that — despite Trump’s claim that the development was never more than a passing notion — the effort to get the tower built was long-running, detail-oriented and directly entwined with the ups and downs of his campaign.

As Trump went from rally to rally, vociferously denying any dealings in Russia, his representatives, Michael Cohen and his associate Felix Sater, worked with Trump Organization lawyers and even Ivanka Trump to push forward negotiations to build a 100-story edifice just miles from the Kremlin. The fixers believed they needed Putin’s support to pull off the lucrative deal, and they planned to use Trump’s public praise for him to help secure it. At the same time, they plotted to persuade Putin to openly declare his support for Trump’s candidacy.

[...]

This large trove of nonbinding business agreements, architectural renderings, texts, emails, and plans for Trump to travel to Russia to meet Putin offer an unprecedented glimpse inside the negotiations to build the tallest tower in Europe — a deal Trump’s fixers hoped would "help world peace and make a lot of money."

  BuzzFeed

But not in that order.

The plot thickens

The developer of the proposed Trump Tower in Moscow that was negotiating with Michael Cohen and the Trump Organization appears to have an unaccounted 6 billion rubles or $90,000,000 after it received a loan from Sberbank [for two apartment buildings (aka the Novokosino project)] in the weeks following the agreement with Trump.

Exclusively obtained company documents show a massive discrepancy between the purported amount of the loan and the actual amount of capital that Sberbank extended to IC Expert, the developer.

[...]

In December 2015, three offshore companies that comprised the ownership of IC Expert pledged 100% of their share capital to begin executing the loan, and money began flowing from Sberbank to IC Expert.

The true owners of the three shell companies remain unknown, though at least two of those companies (comprising 75% of the shares) were controlled by a Cypriot lawyer known for his ties to Russian elite and involvement in multiple money laundering schemes. The lawyer, Christodoulos Vassiliades, is also a Director for Sberbank’s Cyprus branch — raising questions about a possible conflict of interest in this case.

  Medium

We surely didn't think Trump would work with a reputable developer, did we? Even though the article identifies the project in question as "a massive residential development complex," Novokosino sounds more like a casino project, 'новый' (pronounced no-vee, with novo used in compound words/names) meaning 'new', and 'казино' (pronounced kah-zee-no) meaning 'casino'. Maybe there was a casino planned for the basement?

The Novokosino-2 project, and in particular buildings 16 and 17, were the subject of dozens of lawsuits from angry prospective homeowners. The construction on the buildings was delayed multiple times, and as a result, many homebuyers lost their money. According to one Russian news article, building 16 was finished in 2018 while building 17 remains under construction. Two sources familiar with the matter said that bankruptcy proceedings had begun against IC Expert, though that could not be independently verified.

The project outlines for buildings 16 and 17 noting the Sberbank loan differ greatly from the true amount of the line of credit, per official, audited Cypriot corporate documents. The real value of the Sberbank loan [...] was 10.595 billion rubles — precisely 6 billion rubles more than IC Expert had claimed.

A second document filed with the Cypriot government confirmed that IC Expert (via the Cypriot offshore company which was majority owner of the Russian firm) owed Sberbank the full 10.595 billion rubles, indicating that the entire line-of-credit was executed.

[...]

In response to a request for comment, Anastasia Gula, a Spokeswoman for the Press Office of Sberbank issued the following statement:

Sberbank has to ensure the confidentiality of its clients’ banking secrets and therefore cannot comment on any of the banking operations that clients perform.

Though there is no public evidence that any money flowed between any Trump associates and IC Expert, a letter from IC Expert CEO Andrey Rozov to Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen in September 2015 revealed a plan to use a company in the United States to handle any matters relating to Trump Tower Moscow. Felix Sater, a Trump associate and convicted Russian mob-connected fraudster turned FBI informant, acted as an intermediary between Cohen and Rozov and other Russians throughout the Trump Tower Moscow negotiations.

[...]

Separately, it has been revealed, via the same letter from Rozov to Cohen, that Andrey Rozov was behind a purchase and quick sale of a Manhattan office building in 2015.

[...]

The sale, which was first reported by independent journalist Wendy Siegelman when the buyer of the office building was unknown, saw Rozov turn an $8.1M profit just months after an all-cash purchase of the building for $35.5M. Three LLCs controlled by New York City real estate investment and management firm Dalan Management and real estate developer David Karmi made the 2015 purchase from Rozov, according to New York State property documents.

What do we think, folks? Money launderers? I wonder where Felix Sater is these days and whether he'll show up in some future SDNY Trump trials.

“[The House Intelligence Committee] is already working to secure additional witness testimony and documents related to the Trump Tower Moscow deal and other investigative matters,” Chairman Adam Schiff said in an interview with CNBC in mid-January.

“Our Committee is determined to get to the bottom of this and follow the evidence wherever it may lead.”

Pretty sure it will be some place illegal. 

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Buzzfeed has the receipts on Trump Tower Moscow

On Monday, [Trump's] lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said “the proposal was in the earliest stage,” and he went on to tell the New Yorker that “no plans were ever made. There were no drafts. Nothing in the file.”

However, hundreds of pages of business documents, emails, text messages, and architectural plans, obtained by BuzzFeed News over a year of reporting, tell a very different story. Trump Tower Moscow was a richly imagined vision of upscale splendor on the banks of the Moscow River.

Trump had for 30 years tried to extend his real estate empire to Moscow. He even wrote about it in his book The Art of the Deal. But he never found the right opportunity — until 2013, when he visited Russia to host the Miss Universe pageant. “TRUMP TOWER-MOSCOW is next,” he tweeted after the event.

[...]

By September 2015, a New York architect had completed plans for a bold glass obelisk 100 stories high, to be topped by a gleaming, cut-diamond–like shape emblazoned on multiple sides with the Trump logo.

“The building design you sent over is very interesting,” the Russian real estate developer Andrey Rozov wrote to Cohen in September 2015, “and will be an architectural and luxury triumph. I believe the tallest building in Europe should be in Moscow, and I am prepared to build it.”

[...]

According to a finalized letter of intent signed by Donald Trump on Oct. 28, 2015, the tower would have “approximately 250 first class, luxury residential condominiums.”

[...]

The building would feature a luxury spa and fitness center, a commercial component “consistent with the overall luxury level of the Property,” and an office space “consistent with Class A luxury office properties,” as well as “luxury” parking.

[...]

As with most of Trump’s other big real estate ventures, the plan was for a local developer — Rozov — to build Trump Tower Moscow. Trump’s team would provide the glittering name and would manage the building’s operations, such as restaurants and bars.

The Trump team would also have the option to “brand all or any portion of the spa or fitness facilities” as “The Spa By Ivanka Trump,” according to the plans.

[...]

The top residence of the Moscow tower, enjoying a view without equal in all the continent, was to be a gleaming penthouse, the most luxurious property in a seriously luxurious building.

A show-stopping apartment like that could have been marketed for $50 million. But as BuzzFeed News reported in November, Trump’s fixers planned not to sell it — but to give it away for free, to none other than Vladimir Putin himself.

[...]

The plans included detailed financial arrangements. According to the signed letter of intent, Trump’s company would get a $4 million up-front payment — a quarter when the licensing agreement was executed, another quarter when they finalized a location for the tower, and the other half either a week before the project’s groundbreaking or two years after the execution of the licensing agreement, whichever came first.

From there on out, Trump’s company would also get a cut of all the condominium sales at the tower, the agreement stated.

[...]

The deal also stipulated how much Trump’s management company would get paid for running operations at Trump Tower Moscow over 25 years.

[...]

Trump has many times denied having any business interests in Russia. But last year, BuzzFeed News revealed that negotiations over the tower lasted at least through June 2016, just a few weeks before Trump clinched the Republican nomination. The special counsel has since confirmed this fact, saying in a court filing that Cohen discussed the plan multiple times with the Trump Organization and asked Trump and a senior campaign staffer about traveling to Russia.

Last November, Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about when the deal ended.

[...]

Giuliani has since acknowledged the plan went on longer than previously stated. “It’s our understanding that it — that they went on throughout 2016,” Giuliani told CNN. “Weren’t a lot of them, but there were conversations. Can’t be sure of the exact date. But the president can remember having conversations with him about it.”

[...]

He has since backtracked, stating that his comments on Trump Tower Moscow were “hypothetical and not based on conversations I had with the president.”

  Buzzfeed

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.






UPDATE:

Ample evidence of reason to impeach - and more coming

President Donald Trump directed his longtime attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, according to two federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation of the matter.

[...]

Cohen [...] told the special counsel that after the election, the president personally instructed him to lie — by claiming that negotiations ended months earlier than they actually did — in order to obscure Trump’s involvement.

  Buzzfeed

ACtually, reason to indict.

And even as Trump told the public he had no business deals with Russia, the sources said Trump and his children Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. received regular, detailed updates about the real estate development from Cohen, whom they put in charge of the project.

[...]

The special counsel’s office learned about Trump’s directive for Cohen to lie to Congress through interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organization and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents. Cohen then acknowledged those instructions during his interviews with that office.

[...]

Cohen's testimony marks a significant new frontier: It is the first known example of Trump explicitly telling a subordinate to lie directly about his own dealings with Russia.

[...]

The White House did not return detailed messages seeking comment, nor did an attorney for Donald Trump Jr. or the Trump Organization.

A spokesperson for the Office of Special Counsel declined to comment.

Cohen also declined comment — but the law enforcement sources familiar with his testimony to the special counsel said he had confirmed that Trump directed him to lie to Congress, and also that he had provided details of his conversations about the project with the president and Ivanka and Donald Jr.

[...]

[A] picture of their deep involvement is now emerging, as FBI agents and prosecutors pore over witness interviews and internal documents from Cohen and other Trump Organization officials and executives.

Orange jumpsuits for everyone.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:











UPDATE:  Special counsel spokesman says the report "is inaccurate."

The screws aren't just loose - they're completely missing

Trump says he had a meeting about Iran and the Middle East with lots of good-looking generals: "Like from a movie. Better looking than Tom Cruise, and stronger."

Trump added that there were many "computer boards" in this Iran meeting [...] . (I had to wait until other people tweeted "computer boards" to make sure I wasn't imagining this phrase.)

Trump's assessment of Syria: "We're talking about sand and death. That's what we're talking about."

Asked about the Syria withdrawal, Trump said he never said it would be "fast." He said it would happen in 30 days.

Trump: "Russia used to be the Soviet Union. Afghanistan made it Russia. Because they went bankrupt fighting in Afghanistan. Russia."

Trump said he gave U.S. generals "all the money they wanted" for Afghanistan, but they did a bad job. Of Mattis, he says, "What's he done for me? How has he done in Afghanistan? Not too good. Not too good."

Trump mocked Modi, I think, for reminding Trump that India built "a library" in Afghanistan: "We're supposed to say thank you for the library. I don't know who's using it, in Afghanistan..."

Trump said Russia was "right" to invade Afghanistan in 1979, since Russia invaded "because terrorists were going into Russia." Shockingly, that is not at all what happened.

Trump angrily complains about inspectors general doing public reports about the conduct of U.S. wars: "What kind of stuff is this? We're fighting wars and they're doing reports?" He says: "'The public' means the enemy. The enemy reads those reports."

If a wall is "immoral," Trump says, then someone has to "do something about The Vatican," because "The Vatican has the biggest wall of them all." (The Vatican is not encircled by walls.)

Trump criticized the late John McCain by name, twice, for voting against Obamacare repeal.

Trump on his hard line on trade and his unpopularity with European publics: "I could be the most popular person in Europe. I could be -- I could run for any office if I wanted to. But I don't want to."

We do, Bonespurs.  We do.  You haven't even led a successful business, and you've tried many, many times.  Not to mention your loose relation to reality.




And Rudy isn't faring any better, either.



...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  The Times of India says Trump is ignorant.  In a diplomatic way.

Question about the Trump Moscow project

Check out this Twitter thread from Dan Lavoie.

 [...] 

When you click through that “which was ultimately scrapped” link, it takes you to this September 2017 story about how the Moscow deal was scrapped. The story says the letter of intent was signed in October 2015 (four months into his presidential campaign, by the freaking way).
Then, out of the blue, there is this unsourced paragraph, which provides the only evidence that the deal was “scrapped.”

“Cohen pulled out of the arrangement three months later [January 2016] as the project failed to get off the ground.” Unsourced. Stated as fact. And 100% false. Cohen admitted talks went on at least 6 months longer. Giuliani implied they went on until *at least* Election Day.

Yet the assertion that the Trump Tower Moscow deal was “scrapped” continues to make it into stories to this very day. There is no evidence — beyond blind attestations, presumably from very interested parties — that the deal ever stopped. There’s certainly no PROOF it stopped.

Whether the Trump Tower Moscow deal was ever “scrapped” is a major point of dispute in this scandal. A 14-month-old report that has since been overtaken by facts cannot be the primary source for such a vital assertion. Maybe the deal was scrapped. Maybe not. We don’t know!

rumpWorld sources have been lying to reporters from the start. We all have to re-examine what we thought were settled facts. The original CNN story said the Moscow deal was scrapped by January 2016. That’s false. We gotta go back to square one & look at everything again.

I'm guessing Mr. Mueller knows.



...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Rudy is still Rudy

A newly obtained document shows President Donald Trump signed a letter of intent to move forward with negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Russia, despite his attorney Rudy Giuliani claiming on Sunday the document was never signed.

[...]

When asked on Sunday about the letter, Giuliani incorrectly told CNN's Dana Bash that it had not been signed.

"It was a real estate project. There was a letter of intent to go forward, but no one signed it," Giuliani told Bash.

The non-binding document is also signed by Andrey Rozov, owner of I.C. Expert Investment Co., the Russian firm that would have been responsible for developing the property.

  CNN

full document

Rudy just answers questions off the top of his head (or out of his ass), like Trump.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.