Something's Not Right

[queentonic]

Having done investigative work in the past, there is something about this whole Russian business that really bothers me. It is apparent that everyone was clearly in the open when the Donald Trump Jr. meeting with the Russians went down. They passed through several layers of security to get into the Trump Tower which made it available for the U.S. Intel community to track this from the get-go. That being said, why didn't our Intel community do more to stop this from happening? They appear impotent and incompetent, or, perhaps, they wanted to let it go down for whatever reasons they had. What those reasons might have been escape me, but our election was tampered with by a foreign hostile government and it appears little if anything was done to stop it. In a crime situation, establishing motive is always at the core of the investigation. So what would be the motive for the U.S. intelligence community to not stop the Russians from interfering with our election? They definitely have the resources. Just asking.

[JanetLovesObama]

1. Yup, I agree Queen ---

this entire situation stinks to high heaven. I want some serious answers.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. There's this inconvenient Constitution we've got.

Law enforcement can't stop people from holding meetings, even with suspicious characters, unless they have reason to believe a crime has been or is about to be committed. The FBI's investigation into the hacking began last July, but this meeting occurred in early June. At the time there was probably no clear reason for the FBI or others to conclude there was something criminal going on, at least to the point where they could have interfered with it.

[rufus dog]

9. Well there is that pesky thing again

Damn rights granted through the Constitution.

[Warren DeMontague]

3. What exactly is your "theory", here?

Here's mine: They were building a case. They were letting severely incompetent and corrupt people incriminate themselves.

If they had "stopped" it- then what? The GOP would have lost their minds, arguing that Obama's government was in the tank for Hillary. Trying to "prevent" Trump from winning.

Well, now he won. No one can claim that anyone was out to get him. All the bad shit was done by his associates.

They're fucked.

[madokie]

11. I think maybe

that should read 'We're Fucked'

[Warren DeMontague]

12. Totally possible.

But I'm currently comforting myself by believing there are far more competent professionals in Federal Law Enforcement than there are currently in the White House.

[Shrike47]

4. Not supposed to interfere with the election process and didn't.

[Brother Buzz]

5. The Russian mafia is a tenat in the Trump Tower

So that's a big ass back door right there. A little hopscotch with the elevators, you know, a little three card Monte, or a shell game, and voila, you can hold a clandestine meeting anywhere in the building, except on floors controlled by the Trump et al.

[wishstar]

6. Intel would not have known exactly what was discussed in meetings

Although our intel probably tracked the movements of the Russians and was been able to listen in on phone calls, IC would not be privy to private conversations in a private location.

IC would not have been able to prevent the Wikileaks releases of hacked Russian docs or the use of targeted internet bots and trolls and fake news disseminating from right wing websites with the coordination and timing of media releases by the campaign.

The Trump Co. has been conducting business deals with Russians for years out of Trump Tower and Russians and Manafort even have apartments in the building. They probably have very good private security to prevent bugging. Trump has said he does not use email so that can not be used against him later if his dealings are investigated.

We only found out the incriminating nature of the June meeting because Don Jr. had forwarded the emails to Manafort and Kushner who are in legal jeopardy being investigated by FBI. By providing emails to investigators, they are hoping to diminish their culpability for collusion in that meeting by making it clear that Don Jr and not them arranged the meeting.

[MedusaX]

7. While you describe a scenario consistent with a front door entrance...

There was likely no heavy presence of security at all possible entrances.... remember, this meeting took place in early June.... and the primaries had not yet officially ended...

the IC was already aware that Vlad was up to cyber tricks... but had no hard & fast intel on what the specific tricks were likely to be or when/how they would actually be carried out...

McConnell turned the potential election machine hacking information {presented to him by Obama Admin & IC} into a political issue & refused to agree to issue warnings to the states.

Hindsight is 20/20....
The IC & Law Enforcement & Obama's administration were working within the boundaries of ethics, protocol, rules, regulations etc.

KGOP, *45 campaign team & Vlad were not limited by such constraints....

To say/believe that IC Should have prevented this from taking place is one's right...
but that would be no different than
saying the FBI should have prevented the bank robbery
because the bank has security cameras and the deposits are federally insured.


As for your reference to the link between crime & motivation....
the investigation seeks to establish the motivation of the perpetrators....
not the motivation of the policeman who were on duty the day the crime took place....
Which is basically what you are claiming should be the case ...
that the IC somehow purposefully chose not to prevent some type of criminal act from taking place somewhere at some undisclosed point in time?
WtF?

How about.. gee, too bad we did not have sufficient information to have prevented this...
but now that we have such information let's aggressively pursue
1. Security measures/ necessary changes to ensure such acts are not repeated in future elections
And
2. Criminal indictments for all who participated in these criminal acts

*45 chose to partner with Vlad...

McConnell & Ryan chose to allow *45 to continue the partnership without oversight...

The Senate chose to confirm all of *45's unqualified cabinet picks despite huge conflicts of interest

The entire KGOP klan has refused to serve as the check/balance on Exec&judicial branches that they are constitutionally obligated to be ....

These are the perpetrators & co-conspirators that need to be called out for allowing this to happen .. not IC.

IMO/FWIW

[njhoneybadger]

8. Maybe because they were after bigger fish.

And they didn't think trump would win. If it wasn't for Comey they wouldn't have pulled it off. The big players needed some one(ones) to be the fall guy. If you notice Bannon is not involved, doesn't even need a lawyer but sees himself as Napoleon. Mercer is his billionaire benefactor who likes how Putin operates. Would be surprised if the Koch brothers and Murdoch were not involved in some way.

[fob]

10. I've been having a similar feeling, that they're setting up the old switcheroo to get this off their

backs and kill the interest in investigation.

Recalling that the russians were tenants in TT, as noted elsewhere on this thread, and with someone else asking, "what's your theory?", here is mine.

1. I think the russian hacking and interference took place IN trump tower, in the space the russians had there. This allows trump to continue to assert that RUSSIA had no role, because it was really Russians in America, a distinction with little overall difference but allows just a bit of wiggle room for a snake like trump et al to slither through.

2. The whole give up the info so easy from snake trump jr, seems a bit contrived. The main thing it has allowed is for the story to focus on one particular point/day/aspect and that is the dangerous part from a truth perspective. If they can ratfuck one little point, then, just like Dan Rather's story on shrubby blowing off the Nat Guard and the typewriter font instant obfuscation, the story is over.

3. From 2 also comes the slow but sure interjection of Hillary Clinton's name into mix. The "dirt" that they didn't have/never had/but brought anyway/etc is alleged to have been dirt on the DNC and HRC. Add in the Russian #6 at the meeting the Ashetnikov or whatever who's specialty is hacking and mis/disinfo campaigns and I suspect they(russians/trump camp/rnc) have made up some fake docs, based on real hacked emails, doesn't matter the topic, pancake recipe is fine, they strip out benign email topic, hop up some "money from foreigner to 3rd party, then back to whoever, then to dnc, then hrc campaign" and bang, now DNC/HRC has to disprove a negative.

4. And the fake email will get redhot coverage because everyone knows trump colluded and the focus is now on this one meeting and the media LOVES to report anything that will disparage HRC/DNC.

5. The added bonus to team trump would be that if somehow the docs are proven to be fake, then when real ones come out about collusion the media will let them sweep it under the same "fake" banner.


I've been trying to think what step could be predicted ahead of time that would show this is the trajectory we are on. I think for sure if/when the hrc/dnc rhetoric steps up in volume, and if side stories start popping up with hrc and ukraine or dnc and russian in higher quantity it will be a signal. What else will tip their hand? If one of the persons at the meeting with jr. brings up the non-existent "missing" 30000 emails that dumbfuck sr. asked russians to find during campaign, and says they had some of them or something/anything broaching that subject, this will get team chump off the russian hot seat.

[Demsrule86]

13. What do you suppose they should have done? welcome to DU...

I for one thank God for the intel community, or we would still have Michael Flynn.