As Individual I
prepares "in his mind" to illegally build his folly using emergency funds already under Executive Branch control after the federal government is shutdown for a second time and
the world pushed closer to nuclear conflagration,
PNG looks at the latest developments in the Russian Connection investigation.
US Person asks: is Robert Mueller's probe the last, best way to remove a
loose cannon from office? Or must the nation endure two more years of reality-TV class government brought to you by Hair Further?
Roger Stone has told reporters he will tell investigators about his conversations with Individual I. Stone told a press interviewer the phone conversations were "benign" and certainly did not constitute conspiracy with Russia to influence the campaign. No surprise here. Prosecutors have complied voluminous files from Stone's digital devices. They are required under federal criminal law to share the material with Stone's defense team, but the have asked the court to impose a protective order to preserve the material's confidentiality. Stone is scheduled to appear in DC federal district court Friday
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credit: RJ Matson
BC Idonwanna sez: You need tattoo removal! |
Another arm of the expanding investigation involves the NRA and a Russian woman,
Maria Butina. Butina plead guilty last year for acting as a unregistered Russian agent and participating in a conspiracy against the Untied States. She helped set up a 2015 Moscow meeting between NRA officials and senior Russian officials. The gun-rights group has tried to distance itself from the meeting, but a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee investigating the connection says that effort is not credible. Butina wrote to NRA delegation members that she would meet them at the Moscow airport with a "big red sign saying welcome NRA" Congressional investigators are focusing on David Keene, a former NRA president, who was the primary organizer of the event for the group. The meeting has drawn interest because it is seen as a key development in the effort of Butina and her Russian government handler, Alexander Torshin, to cultivate influence with American conservatives. Torshin has long standing ties to the organization including attending six annual conventions since 2011. He was treated as a VIP at elite NRA fund raising events. Torshin was one of the Russian nationals sanctioned by the Treasury Department last April. The NRA says that no Russian money went into its $30 million effort to elect Individual I to the presidency.
credit: Kevin Siers, Charlotte Observer
