Hearing on confirmation of Trump's new FBI Director today.

[Honeycombe8]

Chris Wray. He's a Republican with deep govt history, but no investigative background. But he DOES have some connections with Russia, I've read.

He's a partner @ King & Spalding, a huge law firm with offices in Abu Dhabi & Moscow. They represent very wealthy huge entities. I assume he's very rich, himself.

Other partners & former partners of the firm include former Senator Sam Nunn (who gave a glowing recommendation of Wray), Trump Administration Director of Nat'l Intel Dan Coats (so Wray has a connection w/the Trump admin.), AND THE TRUMP ORGANIZATION. Repeat: King & Spalding advises the Trump family organization. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_%26_Spalding

"The most troubling issue that Wray may face is the fact that his law firm — King & Spalding — represents Rosneft and Gazprom, two of Russia’s largest state-controlled oil companies." https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/06/08/trump-new-fbi-director-chris-wray-russian-ties-rosneft-gazprom-column/102603214/

"Rosneft is also the company that had a $500 billion oil drilling joint-venture with Exxon in 2012, when Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was Exxon’s CEO. However, the deal was nixed by President Obama in 2014, when he imposed the sanctions that crippled Russia’s ability to do business with U.S. companies. The lifting of sanctions by the Trump administration would enable Exxon to renew its joint venture agreement with Rosneft, and the law firm of King & Spalding could end up in the middle of the contract negotiations between those two companies." https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/06/08/trump-new-fbi-director-chris-wray-russian-ties-rosneft-gazprom-column/102603214/

This is a full circle. Russia...money....deals....Exxon....Tillerson (former Exxon CEO & award-winning "Friend of Russia"...investigation re Russia interference.... The fix would come full circle with Wray?

[Motley13]

1. None of them will be able to vote for trumpcare

someone is coughing, sneezing continually, they will all be ill.

[Shell_Seas]

2. Do people in Govt not see the full circle?

Or do they choose to ignore it?

OR, has the Russian government saturated our government far more than we realize?

[onecaliberal]

3. No one has asked a single question about that now Lindsey is asking about the Ukraine helping clinto

Wtf is wrong with these mother fuckers

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. King & Spalding is a huge law firm. The specific question should be

whether Wray ever represented or had any involvement with any of those clients. Very large law firms often have clients that many of the lawyers who work there don't have any knowledge of; just having worked there is not by itself disqualifying (King & Spalding has 800 lawyers in 17 offices). What we really need to know is what involvement, if any, he had with Russian or Russian-affiliated clients.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

5. Wray's disqualification as FBI Director is clear on its face. Guess it's up to Bernie to lead fight.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. In what way?

[Honeycombe8]

7. OR...how important that client is to the firm.

Whether he worked on any of the matters or not, it is relevant if the client is a big one for the firm. His natural inclination would likely be not to do anything that would significantly harm the firm, esp. if he is still a partner or gets $ from that. Partners are owners, not employees.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. King & Spalding and others like it are so huge that it's not likely that any single client

is essential to the health of the firm. Also, large corporations usually have more than one law firm on retainer.

[Honeycombe8]

9. That's not what I said.

I am disagreeing with you...yes. A large firm, and sections of the firm, has a roster of big clients. Losing a couple of them, or a big recession, may not cause the firm to fold, but DOES affect the finances & business plans of the firm, AND consequently the income of the partners.

Losing a couple of big clients affects the firm going forward, and may seriously impact certain sections of the firm (while having no impact on other sections).

A partner of the firm is not likely to do anything that costs his own business, or former business, the loss of big clients. Not gonna happen.

I worked at a large firm for 25 years. Not large like K&S, but large.

Some large firms didn't make it thru the recession. It just takes a couple or three of the big clients to affect the firm's future prospects. At best, it would trigger layoffs.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

10. I worked for a large-ish firm, too, many years ago.

I left long before it fell it apart during the recession - I hated it. It was the worst job I ever had, and I was sort of pleased in a Schadenfreude sort of way when they folded because it had so many assholes, which I didn't know when I took the job. I thought I was hot shit because they offered it to me (women were still having trouble getting good attorney jobs in the early '80s). They didn't fold from the loss of clients, though, but from what I heard, more on account of partner infighting. Of course the loss of a major client will affect a large firm's finances to some extent, but I don't think it's fair to assume a lawyer will necessarily do anything unethical to prevent losing the client.