BREAKING FROM SPECIAL COUNSEL: The court has scheduled a plea hearing for Lieutenant General Michael T. Flynn (Ret.), 58, of Alexandria, Va., at 10:30 a.m.
— Steve Kopack (@SteveKopack) December 1, 2017
Open thread
Go long popcorn
by David Anderson| 111 Comments
This post is in: Election 2016, Open Threads, "Lock Her Up!!", Are these Nazis Walter?, Assholes, Blatant Liars and the Lies They Tell, Fucked-up-edness, Good News For Conservatives, Nobody could have predicted, Not Normal
BREAKING FROM SPECIAL COUNSEL: The court has scheduled a plea hearing for Lieutenant General Michael T. Flynn (Ret.), 58, of Alexandria, Va., at 10:30 a.m.
— Steve Kopack (@SteveKopack) December 1, 2017
Open thread
Go long popcorn
Comments are closed.
Alain the site fixer
Yay!
TK
Give us that good info, Mike. Obstructiony info.
Cheryl Rofer
A bit more info from previous thread. And I’m outa here to do some errands.
Salter Wobchak
Can’t imagine why he’d feel the need to lie to the FBI about his meetings with the Russian ambassador…
henrythefifth
I hope someone compiles a list of past statements from lawmakers and administration officials who praised him for so long, even when everyone knew he was so tainted.
hedgehog mobile
Fuck yeah. Happy Friday, dear jackals.
dmsilev
Pleading guilty, huh? I wonder whether that means that he’s cooperating with the investigation in exchange for getting charges reduced.
tobie
@Chris: Boy oh boy did you get a nice political gift today. Happy birthday!
GregB
It’s a Flynnstivus miracle!
Gin & Tonic
@dmsilev: Is there ever any other reason?
BellyCat
Popcorn with morning coffee… nothing better!
Gravenstone
So if he’s pleading guilty to this specific charge, is this in essence formalizing a plea agreement in advance of becoming a states witness in the Mueller investigation?
raven
Give him 5&10 at Woolworths!
Another Scott
Good, good.
I’m interested in seeing the details, like after Mueller gets done with him will he be forced back to active duty to be stripped of his rank and court-marshaled and sent to Leavenworth. Stuff like that.
We also need to work to defeat the Senate tax bill, also too, today.
Happy Friday, everyone.
Cheers,
Scott.
Davebo
I’d have expected more charges than just lying to the FBI.
I’ve gotta believe he’s spilling his guts.
Cheryl Rofer
dr. bloor
“One count” = “sang like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.”
But let’s not let the Senate slide under the radar, today, kids.
Miss Bianca
Oh, and today is caramel corn day at work. I am going to help myself to a big ol’ barrel of it. (Why, yes, I *do* have a popcorn barrel at work, doesn’t everyone?)
Yarrow
Tick tock, motherfuckers.
Cheryl Rofer
Here’s a speculation from a Twitter colleague.
Taiko
Lock. Him. Up.
Miss Bianca
@Alain the site fixer: Welcome back, friend!
GregB
@Cheryl Rofer:
Doesn’t the admission of guilt make the word allegedly not needed?
Gin & Tonic
@dr. bloor: Precisely. With, basically, conspiracy to kidnap on the menu, if all he’s pleading to is this, then he must have given Mueller a truckload of information.
Mike in DC
A cabinet level official made a plea deal to provide information regarding misconduct by bigger fish. Bigger than a cabinet level official, I guess. Whoever could meet that criteria.
Jeffro
Unprecedented. A former national security adviser…a US general…a key figure in the Trumpov campaign…indicted for lying to the FBI about his contacts with a hostile foreign power. All of which was told to the current POTUS*, who a) kept him on anyway until publicity forced him to let him go, and b) tried to get the FBI director to let that investigation go.
And then fired the FBI director for not halting the investigation.
Beginning of the end for the orange jackass…
Major Major Major Major
Well now that cheered me up.
Quinerly
@Jeffro: I sure like the way you think.
hedgehog mobile
@Alain the site fixer: Good to see you.
japa21
I still think the person who should be most nervous about this is Pence, who denied any knowledge of Flynn’s activities. If Flynn has told Mueller that he did inform Pence, then Pence is open to charges of aiding and abetting any criminal activity Flynn may be involved with beyond the lying to the FBI.
Yarrow
@Jeffro: Exactly right. It’s ONE CHARGE. He plead down to one charge. Imagine what he must have given Mueller to get that….
chopper
oh man I’ll bet trump is hiding his phone in his rectum right now while his staff furiously searches the Oval Office.
PaulWartenberg
I am posting “MY NIPPLES EXPLODE WITH DELIGHT” on my twitter feed all morning long. this may go into the weekend.
Yarrow
@japa21: Manafort is in play as well and remember that Manafort is the one who pushed to bring Pence into the campaign. Manafort getting his deal yesterday is sign that Mueller is working with him too. Pence should be nervous.
Mueller has likely been playing Flynn against Manafort for weeks. Using one to get info from the other. Not a coincidence that Manafort’s house arrest deal happened yesterday and Flynn’s plea happened today.
Miss Bianca
@japa21: I’d like to see Pence get taken down before Trump. And I’d like to see that Paul Ryan is also implicated up to his lying blue eyes.
Quinerly
@Alain the site fixer: OT: So glad to see you back. I’ve missed you. Lost my mother a little over two years ago. Hardest thing I have ever been through. Been thinking about you. In other news, Poco is planning our Jan/Feb New Mexico trip. He will have pictures.
Tazj
@Jeffro:
Please let it be so for everyone’s sake.
O. Felix Culpa
@Miss Bianca:
From your keyboard to all the gods in Asgard.
ETA: In the meantime, quisling Ron Johnson says he will vote for the GOP TaxScam…because his concerns have been allayed in some mysterious way.
BlueNC
The document says that he lied to the FBI on or about January 24, 2017. That means the FBI was already well into this investigation FOUR DAYS after the inauguration.
Major Major Major Major
@Yarrow: Is it really fair to say that Manafort “got a deal” yesterday? It was bail.
Miss Bianca
@PaulWartenberg: o/t, but did you finish your NaNoWriMo project? I flamed out right at the very beginning of the month when I misplaced my flash drive that had all my current stuff on it, still haven’t got back on track. : /
rikyrah
It’s on an poppin’ now!!!!
Awe Sookey Sookey Now….
Go Bobby Three Sticks!
hedgehog mobile
@Miss Bianca: Yes!
Miss Bianca
@O. Felix Culpa: @Quinerly: Also o/t, but I may be shuttling down to New Mexico soon-ish to scout some relocation possibilities. May be as early as December, but more likely January/February. Shall I let you know? I have a great desire to hike in the National Forest up Pecos way if weather stays like this, Bandolier or Chaco if it becomes properly seasonal.
Yarrow
@Major Major Major Major: It was a deal for bail. He was under house arrest and now he isn’t. He gave up something to get that. It didn’t come free. Not “a deal” in same manner as Flynn today, but there was some kind of deal.
Yarrow
@BlueNC: The investigation was well underway. It’s why Comey was fired. Trump wanted to stop the investigation.
Gravenstone
@BlueNC: Supposedly the counterintelligence investigation started mid-2016 once the Russian interference was confirmed. So yeah they were already well into things when Flynn’s actions occurred.
But her emails!!!
@Major Major Major Major: Having the FBI agree to the bail terms probably means he gave them something in return. Alternately, they’re letting him out hoping that given his past idiocy he’ll lead them to someone more interesting, or maybe the FBI has what they want from him and there’s an office pool going as to how long it will take him to drink some polonium tea or end up with a lethal umbrella facilitated injury.
O. Felix Culpa
@Miss Bianca: Yes! Please let me know if/when you visit. I have no travel plans until end of February.
bemused
It’s a pretty good bet there will be a Dumpty Trumpty freakout but who knows what that will look like with the big news about his bbf Flynn.
Yarrow
SFAW
@Alain the site fixer:
Welcome back. Been thinking of you, I hope all is going as well for you as is possible.
Gravenstone
@Major Major Major Major:
It was a carrot towards continued cooperation with Mueller.
Major Major Major Major
I’m confused though, since I was told the Russia investigation was just a false hope liberals were clinging to so they didn’t have to face how they’ve failed the white working class.
SFAW
@Miss Bianca:
Were I not an atheist, I’d be making that prayer nightly.
PaulWartenberg
This is starting to feel like the Fitzmas we deserved but never got.
Major Major Major Major
@But her emails!!!: Oh, I assumed it was just something a judge agreed to.
bemused
@Yarrow:
Four of Manafort’s properties valued at $11million for bail.
tobie
Mr. tobie tells me James Woolsey had a long conversation with Trump at Mar-a-Lago over Thanksgiving. Didn’t he have some association with Flynn? Any speculation about the content of the conversation?
Chris
@Yarrow:
Pretty sure the investigation was on the way well before the election, too. It’s what made Comey such a piece of crap for spilling the beans on the Hillary investigation (which it turned out wasn’t an investigation at all) while sitting on the Trump one.
Gravenstone
@But her emails!!!: I’m actually torn about whether any of the principals face physical jeopardy from Putin and his stooges. Letting the investigation come to fruition, and through it bringing down the sitting President and his administration (bonus points for including significant numbers in Congress) also serves Putin’s purpose of discrediting our government before the world at large quite effectively. Only a direct, physical threat to his person will get Putin’s attention firmly enough to act against his patsies in the US, in my (likely naive) view.
rikyrah
@Yarrow:
Never fails to make me smile.
Miss Bianca
@O. Felix Culpa: Will do. I think it would be fun to have a NM meet-up. Perhaps we could coax Cheryl R into coming down toward Santa Fe (that’s where you are, right?). Or perhaps we could go up to Los Alamos and get “the insider’s tour”. > : >
Meantime, GO, BOBBY THREE STICKS!!
SFAW
@PaulWartenberg:
Which reminds me: whatever happened to hovercraft? She used to comment here regularly, but my visits here have been infrequent. I’m hoping she’s OK, no issues.
Gin & Tonic
Chris Cillizza gets paid more than you do to provide this trenchant analysis: “A member of Donald Trump’s inner circle — in the campaign and the White House has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his dealings with the Russian ambassador. That is a HUGE deal.”
Thanks, Chris. Without your years of experience I wouldn’t have know that.
rikyrah
@Miss Bianca:
Pence is up to his eyeballs in the Flynn Mess.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 11/30/17
Trump pushed top GOP senators to end Russia probe: NYT
Joyce Vance, former U.S. attorney, talks with Rachel Maddow about Donald Trump’s potential legal jeopardy for obstruction of justice in light of new breaking news from the New York Times that Trump pressured senators over the summer to end the probe.
O. Felix Culpa
@Miss Bianca: Cheryl is in SF and I’m nearby (actually not that far from Pecos)…so happy to meet wherever’s convenient.
And three cheers for Bobby Three Sticks! May he bring that vile house of trumpcards down!
Corner Stone
Will this speed up the GOP’s Tax Scam attempt? Any bets on someone scribbling a full pardon out in crayon about now?
Shalimar
@BlueNC: So Flynn’s FBI interview was 2 days before Yates told the White House that Flynn was susceptible to Russian blackmail. They already had proof of this particular charge in January. Everything they have learned since then is still on the backburner while Flynn cooperates.
eric
no plea for Flynn jr?
Jeffro
@rikyrah: oh yes he is
Chris
@Gin & Tonic:
“Well, now we have a firm grasp of the obvious.”
rikyrah
Special Counsel Mueller takes lying and obstruction very seriously. Very.
— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) December 1, 2017
Miss Bianca
@SFAW: I was wondering the same thing. About hovercraft, missing her and hoping she’s OK.
rikyrah
Pence is in trouble. ? https://t.co/QIGGAGig0m
— Richard Brown (@Richard___Brown) December 1, 2017
I’ve told you…Race Bannon is up to his eyeballs in the Pence mess.
Ben Cisco
Outsourcing my response to Thor: https://media.giphy.com/media/3ohzdFRFAi7zQ0VKKI/giphy.gif
SFAW
@bemused:
Let’s hope that’s their real value, not a Shitgibbon-style value. [“Shitgibbon-style value” == “the Inauguration was attended by 12 million billion people”]
rikyrah
Remember: This is the conversation about which Michael Flynn also supposedly lied to Vice President Mike Pence, which was then used as justification to fire Flynn. This could be Mueller’s in-road to Pence. https://t.co/vTosOmHCSe
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) December 1, 2017
Ben Cisco
@Alain the site fixer: Welcome back, hope you are healing.
SiubhanDuinne
@Alain the site fixer:
So glad to see you!
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 11/30/17
Wray surprises with mention of ‘foreign influence’ task force
Rachel Maddow reports on the latest developments in the investigation into Russia’s attack on the 2016 U.S. election, including FBI Director Wray announcing a previously unheard of task force to counter foreign influence in elections.
Miss Bianca
@O. Felix Culpa: Oh, Cheryl’s the one in Santa Fe? Got it! Love Santa Fe and Pecos area. New Mexico has an amazing energy to it, can’t wait to come back!
Now if y’all could just get rid of your horrible Republican Governor…wouldn’t mind being part of *that* vote process!
Shalimar
What I haven’t heard mentioned yet today is that Flynn faces potential state charges too, at minimum for the kidnapping plot in New York.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 11/30/17
Trump obstruction eyed in Sessions avoidance of pressure question
Rep. Jim Himes of the House Intelligence Committee, talks with Rachel Maddow about new Trump obstruction questions after Jeff Sessions refused to tell Rep. Schiff in testimony before the committee whether Donald Trump pushed him to hinder the Russia investigation.
OzarkHillbilly
@But her emails!!!: Or it could just mean the judge was getting tired of hearing arguments about it all and told them to make a deal or she would.
@Gravenstone: I’ve been saying for a while that chaos is it’s own reward as far as Putin is concerned.
d58826
Seems to me the only way you can get this closer to Der Fuhrer is to have aq photo of Flynn sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office
O. Felix Culpa
@Miss Bianca:
Actively working on it! I think we have a good chance in 2018. Also working on electing or reelecting good Dems all the way up and down the ticket. Your help would be most welcome.
Gremcat
The Senate is going to pass this tax scam, come hell or high water now. They know their time is running out.
Yarrow
Mike in DC
Pence, Sessions, Kushner, Don Jr, 45. That’s the sum total list of “bigs” remaining, after Flynn and Manafort. Doesn’t count peripheral dot-connectors or bit players like Page, Stone, Hope Hicks, Stephen Miller, Kellyanne, Bannon, etc.
ThresherK
Are there more “Russia didn’t interfere” among left of my3me than R’s?
7’ve head plenty of the former saying “I’m not a Trump supporter, surprise! But Russia didn’t interfere. Let’s not pretend Putin did anything.”
schrodingers_cat
@ThresherK: Former blog hero of this blog and other left blogs, GG the verbose has been downplaying the Russian interference from the get go. Me thinks he ar an R asset too.
rikyrah
Trump faces new obstruction allegations in Russia scandal
12/01/17 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
For months, the nation has faced the very real possibility that Donald Trump obstructed justice in the federal investigation into the Russia scandal. Indeed, Special Counsel Robert Mueller already appears to be examining allegations that the president allegedly pressured the director of the FBI in the matter, and then fired him in order to help derail the probe.
But as Rachel explained on last night’s show, those allegations grew louder with this New York Times report.
zhena gogolia
@SFAW:
I’m not an atheist, and I’m making that prayer (along with a lot of other ones) nightly.
zhena gogolia
@Gravenstone:
I think that if we succeed in removing DJT by legal process, the world will look on in awe and admiration.
Ithink
@Alain the site fixer:
Glad to see you back! How’s life been treating you as of late?
ThresherK
@schrodingers_cat: R Russian or R Republican? (Is there a difference?)
Yep, The BernieStein Boors are all in on how Hillary controlled everything, let’s disrupt
the whole systemthe DNC, then….get Wilmer 2020.Honus
@Miss Bianca: then we’re looking at Vice President… Tom Cotton.
Manyakitty
@PaulWartenberg: Okay, what’s your Twitter handle? This I need to see!
Manyakitty
@rikyrah: Oh dear. That’s delicious.
Manyakitty
@rikyrah: This blew my mind last night. I got full body chills just thinking about it.
Calouste
@Mike in DC: Add McConnell and Ryan to the list of bigs.
DesertFriar
And I will be sending out you info on Southern NM. Just hang in there.
MattF
Just for the record 1) let’s not forget that Obama explicitly warned Trump not to hire Flynn. 2) (Basically repeating myself here), any sentence that goes ‘Trump said X’, then X is a lie.
Quinerly
@Miss Bianca: would love to meet you! I’m in Albuquerque starting 1/26 for a month. Frequent trips planned to Santa Fe area to see friends. I’m using Albuquerque as a base this year instead of Santa Fe to change it up. Met dexwood and spouse last year for drinks in Albuquerque. They are loads of fun. We have even talked about the three of us doing a trip to Chaco at some point. Have leads on doggie daycare for Poco. Email me at [email protected].
Quinerly
@DesertFriar: Mapping out a two night stay in Carlsbad area, 3 nights in Las Cruces, and a night or two in TorC. Really interested in the Las Cruces area. Any suggestions would be great. Never spent any time in southern NM except for a couple of nights in Cloudcroft for their sweet little Mardi Gras a few years back, a day at White Sands and at a winery in Alamogordo, and a night in a bad Motel 6 in Roswell.? Did I give you my email? [email protected]. Thanks.
J R in WV
@Alain the site fixer:
Welcome back, fellow jackal !! A good day to be back on the intertubes!!
Miss Bianca
@O. Felix Culpa: Glad to hear it!
@Quinerly: I will keep you posted as events transpire. BJ in NM!
@Honus: Is it too much to hope he’ll go down too? It is assholes all the way down, after all…
WaterGirl
@Ithink: Not sure if you know that Alain’s mom died recently?
Lea
@japa21: I am wondering where Pence is…he has been so quiet on the tax and now this…is he on a scheduled trip?