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pnwmom

(108,925 posts)
Wed Jan 31, 2018, 02:46 PM Jan 2018

Trey Gowdy: "It's not unusual for Russians to contact campaigns."

I wonder what happened to the ethics complaint filed last year by the Democratic Coalition against Trey Gowdy. Anybody know?

I want this sudden decision to be about Gowdy leaving in disgrace. But another alternative is he's setting himself up to be Sessions's replacement, with another Republican safely in his seat (the filing date is 6 weeks from now.)




Manu Raju, Senior Congressional Correspondent, @CNN.

Trey Gowdy, senior GOP member of House Intel, downplayed Brennan's testimony, telling me it's not unusual for Russians to contact campaigns

12:03 PM - 23 May 2017

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/09/trey-gowdys-war-on-the-steele-dossier

A fresh sign of the dossier’s explanatory force is that, increasingly, it has become a target itself. Congressional Republicans appear to be trying to discredit Steele’s work as a way of undermining special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

The House Intelligence Committee’s Republican majority has suddenly been firing subpoenas at the F.B.I. and its director, Chris Wray, plus the Department of Justice and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, demanding documents relevant to the F.B.I.’s relationship with Christopher Steele and to the bureau’s attempts to verify the information in Steele’s Trump-Russia dossier, which was originally compiled as oppo research for one of Trump’s Republican primary rivals.

Trey Gowdy, a South Carolina Republican, has claimed the subpoenas were necessary because the F.B.I. and D.O.J. haven’t cooperated with the committee’s less-formal requests. Some of his colleagues, however, believe they see a darker motive. “It’s an attempt to both delegitimize the dossier and delegitimize the F.B.I., particularly the work that was done under James Comey,” says Jim Himes, a Connecticut congressman who is the committee’s second-ranking Democrat. If Gowdy, who was in the running to be named U.S. attorney general by Trump, and his allies can tar the F.B.I.’s efforts as being founded in a political attack on Trump, it could help muddy the integrity of Mueller’s conclusions if the special counsel draws from the same pool of sources. (Gowdy could not be reached for comment.) “This is the latest installment of ‘don’t look there, look over here!’ ” Himes says.

SNIP
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Trey Gowdy: "It's not unusual for Russians to contact campaigns." (Original Post) pnwmom Jan 2018 OP
"It's not unusual for Russians to contact campaigns." PearliePoo2 Jan 2018 #1
May as well go to jail right now Trey! Wwcd Jan 2018 #5
Contacting campaigns is one thing. What the campaigns do The Velveteen Ocelot Jan 2018 #2
He may be right. marylandblue Jan 2018 #3
Speculation... lapfog_1 Jan 2018 #4
I have been speculating along similar lines. Yonnie3 Jan 2018 #9
He knows lsewpershad Jan 2018 #6
Both parties, Trey, or mostly just one? tanyev Jan 2018 #7
Well he isn't wrong. DetroitLegalBeagle Jan 2018 #8
Lots of others with experience disagree with you about the Russians pnwmom Jan 2018 #10
Well, the only reason the Russians didn't contact all those campaigns gratuitous Jan 2018 #13
Prior to the 2008 elections DetroitLegalBeagle Jan 2018 #15
I've heard Nicole Wallace PatSeg Jan 2018 #11
Liar! Since when? The US battled the former USSR from WWII, procon Jan 2018 #12
But it's unusual for campaigns to contact Russians. kentuck Jan 2018 #14
 

Wwcd

(6,288 posts)
5. May as well go to jail right now Trey!
Wed Jan 31, 2018, 02:50 PM
Jan 2018

"It's not unusual for Russians to contact campaigns."

Mueller heard that! 😐

The Velveteen Ocelot

(115,280 posts)
2. Contacting campaigns is one thing. What the campaigns do
Wed Jan 31, 2018, 02:49 PM
Jan 2018

after having been contacted is something else entirely. Like, for example, agreeing to meet with a Russian in order to get dirt on an opponent.

marylandblue

(12,344 posts)
3. He may be right.
Wed Jan 31, 2018, 02:49 PM
Jan 2018

It's probably not unusual for Russians to contact campaign. What IS unusual is for the campaign to respond by selling them The Statue of Liberty for one billion rubles.

lapfog_1

(29,166 posts)
4. Speculation...
Wed Jan 31, 2018, 02:50 PM
Jan 2018

this is all part and parcel of Nunes memo...

Follow me here for a second. Nunes writes a memo that details some of the sources and methods the FBI has been using to listen in to both Russian spies and their collaborators. The intention was to claim that the supporting documentation used to get the FISA warrants was flawed so, therefore, the entire Mueller investigation is flawed ( fruit from the poisonous tree is the legal theory here ) .

However...

I don't think that the FISA warrants stoped with Carter Paige.

There were other important people caught up in this ( either directly in the sense that they had their conversations recorded OR that there were simply mentioned in crosstalk between Russians ) .

The more aware ( and possibly the more guilty ) of those caught up in this counter-intelligence operation are scuttling out of town in the hopes that resignation or not running for Congress is enough "punishment" for their collaborative actions.

Gowdy might be one of those so compromised.

Yonnie3

(17,376 posts)
9. I have been speculating along similar lines.
Wed Jan 31, 2018, 03:00 PM
Jan 2018

It is hard to tell which are trying to hold on to power versus who are trying to say out of jail in my speculation.

Some may be in so deep that they aren't resigning. Their only option is to fight. I think no easy plea deals for them.

I also speculate that they don't know exactly what the FBI knows. They are trying their damnedest to find out under the guise of investigations because they know if it all comes out they are toast.

DetroitLegalBeagle

(1,904 posts)
8. Well he isn't wrong.
Wed Jan 31, 2018, 02:55 PM
Jan 2018

Other world powers absolutely contact campaigns to get a feel for them. There is nothing wrong with that. Same with meeting them, having dinner, etc. The problem comes when you actively try to enlist their help to undermine your opponent and promise things in return if you win.

pnwmom

(108,925 posts)
10. Lots of others with experience disagree with you about the Russians
Wed Jan 31, 2018, 03:14 PM
Jan 2018

absolutely contacting campaigns. Makes me wonder where you got your info.





Replying to @mkraju
Never happened to me in 2000 or 2004, never happened to Begala in 1992 and 1996, never happened to Schmidt in 2004 and 2008.

12:46 PM - 23 May 2017




Replying to @matthewjdowd @mkraju
Involved in presidential politics since 1984, never heard of it until Trump world.

7:23 AM - 24 May 2017




Replying to @matthewjdowd @mkraju
Axelrod, Podesta & McFaul all say no as well

5:56 PM - 23 May 2017





Replying to @matthewjdowd @JohnJHarwood @mkraju
Shit, they never even reached out to me when I was running Edwards - and I even *speak* a little Russian. (очень плохо

1:08 PM - 23 May 2017






Replying to @matthewjdowd @mkraju
@stuartpstevens also says it never happened to him in 5 campaigns.

2:44 PM - 23 May 2017

gratuitous

(82,849 posts)
13. Well, the only reason the Russians didn't contact all those campaigns
Wed Jan 31, 2018, 05:15 PM
Jan 2018

Is because the people running those campaigns would have gone straight to the FBI. The Russians did contact that one campaign*, and instead of being reported to the FBI, the people running that campaign responded quite enthusiastically.

*Trump. I'm talking about Trump.

DetroitLegalBeagle

(1,904 posts)
15. Prior to the 2008 elections
Wed Jan 31, 2018, 06:34 PM
Jan 2018

President Obama, then candidate Obama, flew overseas specifically to meet world leaders. How do I know this? I was in Iraq when he visited there. This was mid summer 08, before he was officially nominee. World leaders and Presidential candidates speak with each other. Anyone denying this is out for cheap political points over the Russian situation. It makes sense for world leaders and candidates to meet or speak to each other in some way in order for the outside leader to assess what type of person they will have to deal with, and it helps the candidates with their foreign relations cred. None of this is a problem. It's a problem when a candidate tries to leverage a foreign power against their rival, as it appears trump did.

PatSeg

(46,804 posts)
11. I've heard Nicole Wallace
Wed Jan 31, 2018, 03:30 PM
Jan 2018

say numerous times that she has never knowingly spoken with a Russian. She worked for the Bush White House and later the McCain presidential campaign............not one friggin' Russian! Other Republicans have said the same thing. All of a sudden, Russians are the new normal.

procon

(15,805 posts)
12. Liar! Since when? The US battled the former USSR from WWII,
Wed Jan 31, 2018, 04:22 PM
Jan 2018

and when the communist state fell, Russia and its client states became our arch foe as well. It's only been since Trump came along that he, and his Republican enablers, offered Russia a seat at the table.

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