This Times story seems to me to be a useful start at a narrative for the Trump-Russia story, as we were discussing a few days ago. I still have the feeling that there’s a lot more we don’t know, but let’s look at the Times attempt.
Crossfire Hurricane was the name of the FBI investigation, when it started, into Russian influence on the upcoming election. CH started in mid-summer 2016. The name is a reference to the Rolling Stones lyric “I was born in a crossfire hurricane.” The Justice Department is supposed to release its inspector general’s investigation into its handling of the Clinton case this month, and the Times is obviously trying to get out its side of the story some background before that.
CH started when the FBI heard about George Papadopoulos’s drunken ravings to the Australian ambassador about information the Russians had on Hillary Clinton. The FBI treated it with great secrecy and worked fast, because the election was only a few months away.
There are some serious issues with the way they handled it, though, not the least is James Comey’s well-known pronouncements. I would start with the fact that the FBI used the same team to investigate Trump’s Russia problem that investigated the Clinton emails. I can understand why they did this; some overlapping issues like those very emails and corrupt influence on the election. The team would have had some of that in their heads and hands from the Clinton investigation, but they had just finished a big, sensitive investigation and probably could have used a less intense pace for a while. Also, that very background knowledge could have influenced how they saw evidence coming in on Trump. Better to hand over the documents to a new team in my opinion.
From this article, I could see how the Comey fiasco happened. The Clinton investigation was over, the Trump investigation was just beginning, the election was barreling toward them, and everyone assumed Clinton was going to win. But in my opinion, it would have been better not to confirm or deny anything. And the differential treatment suggests unconscious bias against the woman candidate. And all that ties into the notorious Times article of October 31, 2016 that seemingly exonerated Trump. That still needs a separate investigation.
The article takes Trump’s blathering (Witch hunt, witch hunt!) too seriously – they might have noted that such bluster is one of his tactics.
The four who were identified early on are interesting – Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, Carter Page and George Papadopoulos. We still don’t know much about exactly how Flynn fits into all this beyond his showier actions, like that dinner with Vladimir Putin. Manafort, of course, has been charged with money laundering and various other things, but we don’t know how all that fits into Trump’s campaign. Carter Page, like Flynn, has some showy Russian connections. My biggest question about him is how he got connected to Sam Clovis, how Clovis got connected to Trump, and why anyone thought he was a foreign policy expert.
There’s a lot more in the article, but those are my big takeaways. I’ll bury a secondary lead here and link to the report from the Senate Intelligence Committee. Maybe Adam can explicate that for us. I’ll note one thing – the Senate committee sees the NRA as a conduit for Russian money and influence. That could be the Sam Clovis – Carter Page – Donald Trump connection.
Addendum: Clara Jeffrey from Mother Jones has something she’d like to say:
1/ Here we go again. Giant ass covering error by the NYT in this story: https://t.co/ou1eKNykJC pic.twitter.com/Swr933ifzs
— Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) May 16, 2018
3/ 10/31/16 Was also the day that the NYT published this story: pic.twitter.com/yNpeJsHdLZ
— Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) May 16, 2018
5/ But they did so while again pretending as if David Corn's story never ran. I mean… It's only like he's a DC Bureau chief/MSNBC commentator/best-selling author on the subject.
— Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) May 16, 2018
VeniceRiley
I am eager for these guys to be imprisoned or … whatever the harshest penalty that the charges allow.
As for NYT, I wrote them off a long time ago. Every now and then, I get an article on msn for free. They’re a toxic hole … not at the level of Fox Hannity & Rush, but that is the best that can be said.
Who was it that mentioned they wanted Ronan Farrow to get interested in Cohen/Trump et al? CHECK HIS LATEST TWEET #NewYorker piece!
piratedan
yeah but Clara, if Corn was any kind of pundit, he’d be writing for the NYT, EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT… hence, its treated as dismissed since that narrative wasn’t invented there. Besides, we had pretty much ascertained on whose side the NYT reporting favored/disfavored…. cripes breathless wikileaks speculation versus a guy with lawsuits up his ass and absolutely zero transparency… hmmm who do YOU favor?
Mary G
The NYT is so frustrating. I posted a link to Eric Wemple’s piece in the WaPo earlier (linking to my comment, because it was in moderation for a while.)
ETA: Wemple has finally gotten Dean Baquet to cop to the bad headline, but otherwise he’s still defending away.
Corner Stone
“I hated her so much…Flames flames Flames on the side of my face“
oatler.
I miss K-Thug.
TenguPhule
@Mary G:
You misspelled treasonous bastards there.
Jeffro
I think the Flynn connection is, he was going to continue to steer (i.e. manipulate) Trumpov on foreign-policy to the liking of Russia and whomever in the middle east was willing to cough up some big dough
He is the one who was taking directions from the Soviet ambassador after all
TenguPhule
The NRA is a Russian backed terror organization.
Tom
FTFNYT (can’t believe I’m the first one to say this).
TenguPhule
@Jeffro:
Only when he took the helm he realized there was a great gaping void where the steering wheel should be.
Mary G
@VeniceRiley: Wow! That is YUGE. Someone took two Suspicious Activity Reports filed by Cohen’s bank off the federal database. A federal official leaked, fearing a coverup.
He can say that again.
TenguPhule
@Mary G:
Holy shit. That’s a lot farther along the federal appointee corruption path then expected. Who fucking ordered it and more importantly who fucking did the dirty deed?
Jeffro
@Mary G: someone’s gonna go to jail for that one, you bet
VeniceRiley
@Mary G: I know, right? All credit to Mister Farrow, who can go from #metoo to Cohen and break news without skipping a beat. I hope NYT is seething that the New Yorker and Farrow beat them once again!
Jeffro
@TenguPhule: firing Sally Yates for her noble, but misguided, attempt to warn Trumpov about Flynn/Russia should have been cause enough to have him dragged out of the WH
MattF
@Mary G: Ah, oopsie. Who could possibly be responsible for something like that? No, wait, wait, don’t tell me.
But her emails!!
@Jeffro:
Probably the whistleblower.
GregB
I nominate Mitch McConnell for the role of toothless, bearded hag.
YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)
@Jeffro: Yes (ETA someone is likely to go to jail), and quite likely the leaker depending on the circumstances of the disappearance, or perhaps even in spite of it. They took a serious legal risk here.
Chris T.
Huh, I always thought the lyric was “class five” hurricane, kind of like f1-to-f5 for tornados…
Roger Moore
@TenguPhule:
Damn I wish we could get a formal designation of them as international terrorists. OTOH, it would sorely tempt me to go back on my anti-waterboarding stance.
trollhattan
@TenguPhule:
I vote for Scott Pruitt. He done it!
trollhattan
@Chris T.:
“There’s, a bathroom on the right.”
trollhattan
@GregB:
You just made the China people sad.
Mary G
I just hope that Ronan Farrow is better at disguising his sources than Glenn Greenwald was.
trollhattan
@Mary G:
Greenwald outright burned that last gal. Still can’t believe that stunt.
Baud
The NYT continues to deny their garbagosity.
trollhattan
@Roger Moore:
Speaking of the NRA, they finally got their “good guy with a gun in a school.” Somehow buried in the news day, along with the Russian-sounding lady killed in the SoCal bombing.
Baud
@Mary G:
Fucking Hillary. Why won’t she go away?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: It’s probably in her missing emails.
Roger Moore
@TenguPhule:
The full article quotes people saying the most likely explanation is that somebody who’s investigating the reports had them locked down and denied access to people outside their investigation. I could certainly imagine Mueller not wanting anyone else stumbling on those reports, deciding to investigate, and somehow messing up his investigation.
chopper
@Mary G:
damn that is crazy! god, this is so goddamn nixonian.
Viva BrisVegas
Just as a pedantic aside, Commonwealth countries don’t exchange Ambassadors, they have High Commissioners.
It’s a historical hangover that represents that some foreign countries are not as foreign as other foreign countries.
The Australian High Commissioner to the UK at the time was Alexander Downer. Known at home mainly for his propensity for fish net stockings, a brief failed leadership of the conservative party and involvement in a corrupt kickback scheme involving selling Australian wheat to Saddam in the 90s.
Baud
@Roger Moore: Rational explanations are the enemy of outrage.
Roger Moore
@trollhattan:
“Excuse me while I kiss this guy”
Roger Moore
@Mary G:
Farrow doesn’t want to burn his source, which gives him a leg up on Greenwald.
chopper
@trollhattan:
“the ants are my friends, they’re blowing in the wind”
Roger Moore
@trollhattan:
Not really. Their “good guy with a gun” is supposed to be a random bystander who’s concealed carrying, not a police officer.
NotMax
Waiting for Dolt 45 to announce (tweet) “I have complete confidence in me.”
That, of course, will be the signal that he’s about to exit.
Bobby Thomson
@Mary G: Greenwald wasn’t burning a source. She came to Assange, not realizing he’s working directly for the Russians.
Bobby Thomson
@Roger Moore: yeah, this.
Peale
@Viva BrisVegas: wearing the stockings or looking at others in the stockings?
Baud
@Roger Moore: I think they are loosening their standards these days.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Viva BrisVegas: The kid’s headed down there in late Sept. since her trip to Korea with her mom got postponed due to her mom getting laid off from her job.
Haroldo
@Viva BrisVegas: And ‘things that batter.’ Our boy Alex, what an unsubstantial git.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: From Macy’s?
TenguPhule
@Roger Moore:
That’s not what the article said.
Brachiator
@Viva BrisVegas:
Fish net stockings?
Well, that’s a Downer.
TenguPhule
@Bobby Thomson:
He did. She went to the Intercept.
ruemara
This won’t end well. These folks having any power is bad. The levels of power they’ve achieved means we are in a fight to the end.
In other news, my parents want me to get my citizenship so they want to foot the bill for the paperwork filing, which is nice. If I don’t need legal representation, I should be able to handle everything that way and be a legal voter type by next year. (I guess, no idea how long it takes.)
Elizabelle
@Roger Moore:
@trollhattan:
“Who’s the cat who won’t come out, when there’s danger all about?”
frosty
OK, we have a name. Let’s stop calling this Russiagate or Stupid Watergate or Trump-Russia. Change the tags and call it Crossfire Hurricane. I likes it!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Yup, her last day was in early February.
schrodingers_cat
@ruemara: It took me two weeks shy of six months from application to the citizenship oath in 2017.
ETA: Its taking slightly longer than that this year.
chopper
@Elizabelle:
“a girl with colitis goes by…”
Jeffro
Actually just had an acquaintance on FB tell me that Trumpov’s disclosing the Stormy Daniels payoff was…wait for it, waiiiit for it…a big “nothing burger”.
I’m like, “it’s HIM…your. own. guy. It’s not some made-up CNN report…it’s HIM. He disclosed that he really did pay off a porn star (via his fixer, via a shell corporation) to keep quiet about the affair they had just after his third wife had his fifth kid”
Response? The two-fer: “I’m still waiting on that evidence of Russian collusion” and “Clinton Foundation/her emails”. No joke.
They’re in a panic. I think they are starting to sense that – glory be! – Trumpov might have possibly misled them at certain points, perhaps.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: That sucks. At least no more ruined Thanksgivings.
NotMax
FYI.
“When we as people, a free people, go wobbly on the truth, even on what may seem the most trivial of matters, we go wobbly on America.”
– Rex Tillerson
From a commencement speech delivered today. Source
Baud
@chopper:
“Her breasts keep shining in the sun….”
Baud
@Jeffro:
C’mon, man. We know it was your dad.
Baud
@NotMax:
“Wobble, wobble.”
Viva BrisVegas
@Peale:
The wearing thereof.
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
September is a good time of year to visit the North, no cyclones. The South of the country is still a bit cold that time of year.
Mary G
@ruemara: @schrodingers_cat: Green card renewal took nine months for the housemate. Very stressful waiting, as there to six months was the estimate.
pappenheimer
“They hae slain the Earl o’ Moray, And Laid him on the Green.”.
Repatriated
“Secret…Asian Man.
SecretAsianman!”
Steeplejack
@ruemara:
That’s good news, and good luck with the process. If you have any questions, I can run them by my Brazilian brother-in-law, who is now a U.S. citizen. And I’m sure Schrodinger’s Cat would be happy to help.
mike in dc
@frosty:
Stay…uh…well, you know.
schrodingers_cat
@Mary G: This is a useful website to get an idea of the general wait periods people are experiencing for the various steps in the GC application and other immigration applications.
Steeplejack
@mike in dc:
Don’t forget to hydrate!
schrodingers_cat
@Steeplejack: Aww, thanks for the vote of confidence.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: The kid also had to work last Thanksgiving.
Frankensteinbeck
@Roger Moore:
They’re also passing around a video of a woman who used her concealed carry pistol to gun down a mugger.
@Jeffro:
Alas, I don’t think they’re panicking because he misled them. THInk more superficially. They’re pissed that they’re losing a rhetorical conflict, so they shoot squid ink. Actual facts are not the point, only whoever appears conversationally dominant.
@mike in dc:
Stay thirsty, my friend?
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
Yay for the good news! I promise to buy you a drink once you’re official.
Jeffro
@Baud:
No, for realz! I have a few high school folks as FB friends who must have been seeing all the stuff I post and either ignored it ’til now (or more likely, have a life) but whew, they sure are coming out now.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, they’re about a half degree of difference from RWNJ dad and bro. But still.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: When do I get my drink?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Viva BrisVegas: She’s planning on visiting both Australia and New Zealand.
Jeffro
@Frankensteinbeck:
Good point. I think the one guy just realized he had gone to the mat (and for Trumpov, of all people!) quite recently, saying Stormy was making the whole thing up…and then today hit. Oopsie! I guess he really DID pay off a paramour via his fixer via shell corporation just before the election – whocoodanode?
And they always, Always, ALWAYS reach for the Hillary Card, it’s just unreal. Deus Ex Hillary – solves every plot problem a Trumpista encounters, EVER!
TS (the original)
@Viva BrisVegas:
And for that he was rewarded with the best job in London. RW politicians live by different rules.
Viva BrisVegas
@Frankensteinbeck:
I think that would be the video of the off duty cop in Brasil. She was dropping her kids off to school when the mugger held up some kids so she shot him twice. He later died. She would probably also be dead except that the muggers gun jammed.
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Get her to take some winter woolies. NZ can be bitter that time of year.
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
You’re supposed to get a cake decorated like a US flag.
Aleta
@ruemara: That’s wonderful.
Roger Moore
@Jeffro:
Tu quoque is the fallacy of choice among the wingnuts. The pundit class is pretending not to take a side, so they have to say “both sides” instead of “you do it too”.
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
You get to buy that since you were the first to mention it. ?
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
When you come to California! All us LA jackals are nice, you should come visit us.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: She’s too smart to fall for that line.
Baud
Rachel is trying to downplay the NYT’s malfeasance for some reason.
schrodingers_cat
OT: Kangana rocks a saree at Cannes. Want.
Elizabelle
@chopper: Colitis!
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
The NYT as an institution is trash and deserves to burn to the fucking ground.
Amir Khalid
@Chris T.:
Because it’s so typical of Mick, being a meteorologist, to sneak in a technical reference.
Amir Khalid
@Viva BrisVegas:
I myself keep explaining to these Americans the difference between a High Commissioner and an Ambassador, but these non-Commonwealth people just don’t get it … //
Elizabelle
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: the Comte’s link is
Hitler at Home: the houses designed to portray the führer as a morally upstanding man
In the years leading up to the Second World War, media depictions of Adolf Hitler at home – reading, walking his dogs and enjoying fine artwork – were used by the Nazi regime to create a favourable public image of the führer, claims the author of Hitler at Home…
From History extra,
The official website for BBC History Magazine and BBC World Histories Magazine
Recognized it. I own that book, but have not cracked it yet. Trump has kinda taken the wind out of my sails, but desperately curious on how Hitler got “normalized.” Looks like a great read.
Author is Professor Despina Stratigakos of SUNY Buffalo.
japa21
@Jeffro:
And here’s the thing. All they have are the emails and the Foundation. Yet the very stories that tried to show pay for play actually proved the opposite. IIRC, the percentage of people who received access to Clinton for non directly state department business who had, at some time in the past donated to the foundation, was approximately 50%. What this means is that 50% received that access without donating, thus no pay to play.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Elizabelle:
That whole link is frightening, in that the normalization echoes just like Masha Gessen and Sarah Kendzior predict.
jonas
@NotMax: I don’t care how much Rex showers from now until he shuffles off this mortal coil, he’s never getting rid of that Trumpstink.
J R in WV
Hitler was normalized in exactly the way Herr Fuhrer Trump us being normalized right now by the NYT and other big MSM outlets.
So don’t read history, just look at what’s happening right now, right here!
Jeffro
@japa21: I hear you but facts…the deplorables are most definitely NOT into them…
J R in WV
Posted this on another, dead, thread:
Went to the local YMCA gym today for the first time. After swimming a little, got back into the men’s locker room, recently remodeled and very nice which has couches and such to hang out. Two older guys (remember, I’m an old retiree!) were apparently acquainted, one said “I don’t know if Trump is a good president, but if he can tweet and get 50 or 60 people shot dead, there’s something wrong!”
Then the other old conservative guy said “He cheated on his first wife, left her for a second wife, cheated on her with his third wife, cheated on her with a porn star while she was having his baby, and will be hosting National Prayer Day! There’s something bad wrong with that, too!”
I wasn’t expecting that, actually. Glad to hear that locker room chat, not like Trump’s locker room chatter at all, gave me some hope!
jonas
You can’t discount that straight up misogyny might have played a role, but I think Kevin Drum was on point with this matter: it goes to show how effectively Republicans work the refs — in this case the FBI, as well as the NYT. All this, including Comey’s decision to send the letter about the new emails, was motivated by one thing: not wanting to set off the Wingnut Wurlitzer: Congressional GOP, Fox, talk radio, etc. All the institutions that should provide an independent check on power are continually in a defensive crouch after years of being hounded for “liberal bias” by the WW. And, as Drum observed, it’s largely worked.
jonas
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: @japa21:
…which is hilarious, because Trump’s own “foundation” was so transparently a self-dealing scam. And of course we’re all looking forward to the reactions from these folks when it’s revealed that everyone in the Trump WH is using all sorts of unsecured private communications around the clock for everything and compromising untold reams of highly classified stuff. We’ve never been wrong yet simply going with the assumption that everything Trump accuses Hillary or Obama of is projection. It’s always projection. Always.
jonas
@J R in WV: I hear a lot of these kind of conversations, too, like in the barber shop or something. And they always follow it up with “well, not as bad as Obama was, though,” and all nod in agreement.
Omnes Omnibus
@jonas: I obviously live in a very different place than you do.
Aleta
NYC lawyer Aaron Schlossberg began screaming at employees of a Midtown restaurant on Madison Ave. after he overheard another customer speaking to a waiter in Spanish. Schlossberg then threatened to report the restaurant to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
Aaron Schlossberg, 42, is a registered Republican and 2016 donor of $500 to President Trump’s campaign.
The customer, a medical receptionist with Puerto Rican roots, had just ordered her lunch in Spanish when Schlossberg exploded and screamed at a counter worker to “give me my f—ing sandwich!”
She and her friend took video of Schlossberg that was posted by her husband on Facebook.
A video last year shows Schlossberg yelling, “You are not a Jew” at Jewish people supporting Palestinian rights.
Two online petitions ask for his disbarment (2,100 signatures Wednesday night) or discipline (1,600 signatures).
–Quotes from the Daily News
cwmoss
@Roger Moore: The article also said there is no vehicle for removing the SARS from the database. So based on what appears publicly available, coverup, rather than investigative removal, seems more likely.
Aleta
NY magazine
But hard to say what the truth is.