Thread: Republicans just introduced a resolution to remove Mueller from the Trump-Russia inve

Republicans just introduced a resolution to remove Mueller from the Trump-Russia investigation

Business Insider
Joe Perticone
Nov 3rd 2017 5:34PM

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz is calling for Robert Mueller to resign as special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Gaetz cites lack of charges in the investigation of "Uranium One" under Mueller's watch as the reason.

WASHINGTON — A group of conservative Republican lawmakers introduced a resolution Friday calling for Robert Mueller to recuse himself as special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, along with Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona and Louie Gohmert of Texas, said Mueller should step down because he was FBI director during the investigation of a botched uranium deal between the Russians and Uranium One, a Canadian energy company, of which a portion of the uranium reserves required US approval.

Gaetz's issue is that despite evidence of corruption, Mueller's FBI did not bring any charges, therefore he should recuse himself from the current investigation of potential collusion between Russian officials and President Donald Trump's campaign, which is unrelated to the uranium deal.

"These deeply troubling events took place when Mr. Mueller was the Director of the FBI. As such, his impartiality is hopelessly compromised," Gaetz said in a statement. "He must step down immediately."

However, many of Gaetz's Republican colleagues have expressed full faith in Mueller and his investigation. Senate Republicans have even introduced bills to create a barrier between Trump and Mueller in the event the president attempts to fire him.

Some conservatives have latched on to the Uranium One deal recently in light of a recent report tangentially tying the deal to former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state, and her husband Bill, the former president.

https://www.aol.com/article/news/201...tion/23266377/

He not only needs to step down because of the Urananium One deal, he needs to step down because of his relationship with James Comey and Rob Rosenstein. He also needs to step down because of what he and his cronies have done to that poor George Papadopoulos over immaterial misstatements to the FBI and conflicts of interests in the Manafort indictment, because Mueller was Director of the FBI when the FBI was investigating/trying to frame Manafort years ago.

Originally Posted by Judy

He not only needs to step down because of the Urananium One deal, he needs to step down because of his relationship with James Comey and Rob Rosenstein. He also needs to step down because of what he and his cronies have done to that poor George Papadopoulos over immaterial misstatements to the FBI and conflicts of interests in the Manafort indictment, because Mueller was Director of the FBI when the FBI was investigating/trying to frame Manafort years ago.

Oh my goodness. Are your honestly attempting to cover for George Papadopoulos? The man has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Furthermore, he attempted to sit up a meeting between Trump and Putin. Thank goodness Trump didn't take the bait. If he would have, can you imagine the mess he would be in right now?

LOL!! Yes, of course I'm defending this poor young man, the same as I would defend anyone who hasn't done anything wrong. George didn't do anything wrong, no one in the Trump campaign has done anything wrong. George has every right to offer to set up a meeting between someone he supports and a candidate for President, Donald Trump, or anyone else, with Vladimir Putin or the leader of any other foreign country, or anyone else in this universe on this planet or elsewhere. Marine Le Pen in France met with Putin during her race for President of France and she's not under investigation or facing house arrest or prison. I would hope to God Americans still have as much freedom as someone in France. I think if Trump had met with Putin during the campaign, it would have been a great thing, I have no idea why anyone has a problem with that. In fact, Trump met with the President of Mexico during the campaign. And Mexico as we all know is a far far greater threat to the sovereignty, freedoms, security and prosperity of our country than ... Russia .... who has never done a thing to hurt the United States.

Trump is smart enough to know the value to our country and citizens of an improved relationship with Russia. He ran on this premise, he was elected on this premise, and he's 100% right. The anti-Russia forces in our government and country are crooks and idiots, in my opinion.

Former Trump campaign adviser, DePaul alum from Chicago pleads guilty to lying to FBI

November 3, 2017
Patrick M. O'Connell, Katherine Skiba and Jason MeisnerContact ReportersChicago Tribune

The 30-year-old Chicago man who entered the first guilty plea in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of the Russian government’s efforts to interfere with the 2016 election is just a “small part” of a much larger investigation, court papers unveiled Monday show.

George Papadopoulos, a 2009 DePaul University graduate, pleaded guilty Oct. 5 to lying to the FBI and signaled he is cooperating with investigators as they attempt to unravel the Trump campaign’s dealings with Russia. He has acknowledged that he misled investigators about his dealings with the foreign power, including interactions with an unnamed overseas professor whom he believed to be connected to the Russian government and who told him the Russians had “dirt” on then-candidate Hillary Clinton via “thousands of emails.”

“There’s a large-scale, ongoing investigation of which this case is a small part,” said Aaron Zelinsky of the special counsel’s office at Papadopoulos’s plea hearing.

Papadopoulos, who grew up in suburban Lincolnwood and attended Niles West High School, did postgraduate work in London after earning a political science degree from DePaul, according to his social media accounts. Court records show that he has been given permission to live in Chicago, where he owns a home with his mother and younger brother in the Lincoln Square neighborhood, until his sentencing.

Papadopoulos, who has no prior convictions, was convicted of one count of making false statements. It carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to court documents. However, in the plea deal he cut, it is estimated he would face either no prison time or up to six months in prison and a fine in the range of $500 to $9,500, documents show.

A foreign policy adviser to President Donald Trump’s campaign, Papadopoulos was arrested July 27 after arriving at Dulles International Airport on a flight from Munich, according to federal records. He was charged in a sealed criminal complaint the next day and had an initial court appearance before a magistrate judge in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., though the proceedings were held in a courtroom closed to the public, records show.

At that hearing, Papadopoulos agreed to surrender his passport and not to travel outside the federal court districts in Virginia, Washington, D.C., or Northern Illinois. He was also barred from communicating with “anyone associated with the presidential campaign” or others mentioned in the charges, records show.

Meanwhile, the special counsel’s office at the time sought and received permission from the federal judge overseeing Papadopoulos’s case in D.C. to keep all filings under seal, arguing that any public knowledge of the charges against Papadopoulos would have a chilling effect on the investigation, court records show.

The special counsel’s office also has described him in court documents as a “proactive cooperator,” a legal term used to describe someone who actively helps in a law-enforcement investigation. The three-month gap between his arrest and the government’s unveiling of his plea also suggests that kind of assistance.

“This means he’s not just answering questions and telling the special counsel what went on,” said former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Cramer, who is now managing director for the Berkeley Research Group. “It means he took an affirmative step toward helping the investigation. One way of doing that is to wear a wire.”

Papadopoulos’s Chicago-based attorneys, Thomas Breen and Robert Stanley, declined to comment on the case, saying it was in their client’s best interest to do so.

“We will have the opportunity to comment on George’s involvement when called upon by the Court at a later date,” the attorneys said in a statement. “We look forward to telling all the details of George’s story at that time.”

The public was not allowed in the courtroom when Papadopoulos entered his guilty plea earlier this month. According to a transcript made available Monday, Papadopoulos told the judge he was born in Chicago, has a master’s degree and that he understood he was giving up his trial rights.

“I plead guilty,” Papadopoulos said, according to the transcript.

Toward the end of the 45-minute hearing, Breen told the judge he had no objection to the proceedings remaining under seal, which he said was to his client’s benefit.

“I certainly understand the special prosecutor’s position on this matter, considering the very expansive investigation that’s going forward,” Breen said.

Papadopoulos has been living in a large, remodeled brick bungalow on a secluded block of stately homes in the Lincoln Square neighborhood, according to state records and a neighbor who lives across the street.

He is frequently seen walking his dog, but otherwise mostly keeps to himself, said neighbor Kim Zimmerman, who believes he lives in the home with his mother. Papadopoulos did not attend this year's block party or mingle much with neighbors, who often commiserate while doing yardwork, she said.

Zimmerman said she last saw Papadopoulos about a week ago. Someone often picked him up, she said, honking the horn of his car to alert Papadopoulos that it was time to leave.

"They are friendly enough," Zimmerman said. "But I never really had enough encounters to know them at all."

No one answered the door of the home Monday afternoon.

A conservative think tank researcher, Papadopoulos was living in London in early March 2016 when he agreed to join the Trump campaign as foreign policy adviser, according to court records. Trump, at the time, was competing in hard-fought presidential primaries, including Illinois’ mid-March contest, and had not yet secured the GOP nomination.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders downplayed Papadopoulos’s campaign involvement Monday, calling him a volunteer whose role was “extremely limited.” However, Trump referred to him as an “excellent guy” in a March 2016 interview with the Washington Post and touted his expertise on energy and oil-related issues.

Based on a conversation with a supervisory campaign official after joining Trump’s team, Papadopoulos understood that a principal foreign policy focus of the campaign “was an improved U.S. relationship with Russia,” court documents show.

He met with an unnamed overseas professor for the first time in March 14, 2016, according to court documents. On April 26, 2016, the professor told Papadopoulos about the “thousands of emails” he had that could prove damaging to Clinton, court documents show.

Court records suggest Russia regularly uses nongovernmental agents to achieve its foreign intelligence objectives.

Papadopoulos misled FBI agents about those initial conversations when he was interviewed in Chicago shortly after Trump’s inauguration.

FBI agents first questioned Papadopoulos on Jan. 27, 2017. He spoke with them a second time on Feb. 16, when he promised to cooperate with their investigation.

The next day, according to federal records, Papadopoulos deleted his Facebook account and created a new one in an attempt to delete any information about his Russian contacts. He also switched cellphone numbers a short time later.

In addition to falsely stating that the March meeting took place before he joined the campaign, Papadopoulos told agents the professor was “a nothing” and “just a guy talk(ing) up connections or something,” court documents show.

In truth, Papadopoulos understood the professor had substantial ties to Russian government officials and had met with some of those officials in Moscow just before telling Papadopoulos about the “thousands of emails,” documents show.

He also told federal investigators, according to court documents, that he met an unnamed female Russian national before joining the campaign and their communications consisted of emails such as “Hi, how are you?”

In fact, he met the woman around March 24, 2016, because he believed she had ties to Russian government officials, court records show. Papadopoulos sought to use the woman over a period of months in an effort to arrange a meeting between the Trump campaign and Russian officials, court documents show.

At one point, he thought the woman was Russian President Vladimir Putin’s niece, but she was not, according to federal records.

“Through his false statements and omissions, defendant Papadopoulos impeded the FBI’s ongoing investigation into the existence of any links or coordination between individuals associated with the Campaign and the Russian government’s efforts to interfere with the 2016 presidential election,” court documents show.

According to the special counsel’s office, Papadopoulos emailed a high-ranking campaign official in May 2016 with the subject line “Request from Russia to meet Mr. Trump.” In the body of the message, he stated that “Russia has been eager to meet Mr. Trump for quite sometime and have been reaching out to me to discuss.”

In later emails, Papadopoulos contacted a “high ranking” campaign official, including correspondence on June 19, 2016, inquiring about setting up a meeting with Russian agents.

“The Russian ministry of foreign affairs messaged and said that if Mr. Trump is unable to make it to Russia, if a campaign rep (me or someone else) can make it for meetings? I am willing to make the trip off the record if it’s in the interest of Mr. Trump and the campaign to meet specific people,” Papadopoulos wrote.

After several weeks of additional communications about a potential “off the record” meeting with Russian officials, the campaign supervisor told Papadopoulos in August 2016 that “I would encourage you” and another foreign policy adviser to the campaign to “make the trip, if it is feasible,” according to court documents.

According to court records, the campaign official forwarded Papadopoulos’s email to another campaign staffer and stated: “Let’s discuss. We need someone to communicate that DT is not doing these trips. It should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal.”

U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, a Chicago Democrat and member of the House Intelligence Committee, said Papadopoulos’s plea suggests this is just the beginning.

“When I’m asked, ‘Are you connecting the dots on the investigation,’ I say, ‘Yes.’ But as we do, I’m finding more dots,” Quigley said at an unrelated event with other Democratic members of Congress on the West Side. “I suggest as you follow this ... you’re going to have other names pop up that you’ve never heard of before, but they’re going to be critical to the investigation.”

Chicago Tribune’s Marissa Page, Stacy St. Clair and Rick Pearson contributed from Chicago.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...030-story.html

The question for Americans is a very simple one. Why is an American being interrogated by the FBI over his role in a campaign, his discussions in private meetings during a campaign, his private conversations with a professor in Great Britain, about setting up a meeting with Russian "officials", including Vladimir Putin? Dennis Rodman just met with Kim Jong Un, the President of North Korea, with whom we will soon be at war. If that's okay, which is certainly is, then what is the problem with a Trump Supporter trying to set up a meeting for Trump or someone from the Trump Campaign with Vladimir Putin?

The FBI has no role in that, no place in that, no authority or involvement in that, so the entire interrogation and investigation by the FBI of George Papadopoulos violated his civil rights, his first amendment rights and is a total and complete abuse of power by the FBI. All of George's "speech" whether in meetings, on the phone or in emails is protected political free speech under the First Amendment, the very and sole reason we have a First Amendment to begin with. All those FBI agents who did the interrogations along with Mueller and his team need to be prosecuted for civil rights violations and abuse of power, unauthorized spying and every other violation of privacy and free speech laws they've committed, which is a very very long list from just what we already know.

This is a Witch Hunt. A witch hunt is a malicious persecution of innocent people with unpopular views.

Witch Hunt | Definition of Witch Hunt by Merriam-Webster

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/witch%20hunt

Definition of witch hunt. 1 :a searching out for persecution of persons accused of witchcraft. 2 :the searching out and deliberate harassment of those (such as political opponents) with unpopular views.
If you're on this forum claiming you support Witch Hunts, then God Help US.