No, it’s not a Witch Hunt

Politics

[View here as a Twitter thread]

 I’m still hearing Witch Hunt🤦‍♂️ I’m not sure facts matter when someone says “witch hunt” but here are a few taken from the Mueller docs* & public statements. *meaning Mueller believes he has evidence to prove them beyond a reasonable doubt.

1/ Michael Cohen’s guilty plea. Pleaded guilty to 8 federal crimes (tax evasion, false statements) including two crimes that he said he committed at the behest of Trump: Making payments to two women in violation of federal campaign finance laws.

2/ Do Cohen’s statements (and Trump’s public response) mean Trump aided and abetted a computer finance violation? See 👇 Spoiler: Yes. (There may be other crimes. I picked an easy one.)

3/ Viktor Borisovich Netyksho, et al. Indictment:  Russian military officials conspired with persons “known and unknown to the grand jury” to hack Democratic computers & weaponize stolen emails to interfere with the 2016 election. Notice the military part.

4/ From the Netyksho indictment, cont: “A person who was in regular contact with senior members” of the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian hacker. Stone says the person was probably him. Notice that “members” of the Trump campaign is plural.

5/ Example of communication between the “person” and the Russian hacker: “what do u think of the info on the turnout model for the democrats entire presidential campaign.” The person responded, “[p]retty standard.” Looks like the hacker and the “person” are talking details.

6/ Manafort and Kilimnik. Indictment:  Obstruction of Justice, Conspiracy against the U.S. (through 2017—while managing Trump’s campaign), failing to register as a foreign agent, conspiracy to launder money, and making false statements. Trial: 9-24-18.

7/ Rick Gates, guilty plea. Docs here:  Pleaded guilty to multiple counts of tax fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering. Acted (with Manafort) as unregistered agents of the pro-Putin government of Ukraine. Gates and Manafort managed Trump’s campaign.

8/ Manafort, convicted of 8 counts: Tax fraud and bank fraud. Crimes occurred through January 2017, while was heading Trump’s campaign. Recall that another of Manafort’s clients was the pro-Putin former Ukranian president Yanukovych—a Russian puppet)

9/ Alex van de Zwaan, guilty plea. (False statements) Docs here:  Lied about communications with both Trump staffers and pro-Putin agents. More evidence that highly placed Trump campaign officials were in secret communication with pro-Putin agents.

10/ Thirteen Russians & 3 Russian Co. Indictment here: Shows a sweeping & and well-financed Russian conspiracy to spread disinformation and sway the 2016 presidential election. Unnamed defendants “other political activists,” are probably American.

11/ Richard Pinedo, guilty plea, 2/12/18 (identity theft)  Stole identities and sold them to Russians to help with the disinformation campaign. (Hey MAGA people: That wasn’t a patriotic thing to do.)

12/ Flynn, guilty plea, false statements:  Under supervision of Trump team “official” (reported to be Kushner) Flynn negotiated sanctions with Russia during the transition. (Did Trump know? Or were his officials acting without his approval & knowledge?)

13/ Papadopoulos, guilty plea.  On 4/26/16 he learned from a Kremlin agent that Russians had “dirt” on HRC. He passed the info onto the campaign. Three other Trump officials are unnamed in the indictment. (I know, he’s hedging a bit on that story now.

14/ “Witch Hunt!” is one of those outrageous lies that works because it’s outrageous. Consider this: How many Americans have heard “Witch Hunt!” or “Her emails!” How many know who Kilimnik is? Or even Gates? That’s because Team Trump is good at propaganda.

15/ The well-oiled right wing propaganda loop CAN be beaten—think by understanding and exposing their methods. The info in these tweets was cryptic. For more details, see:  (Poke around my website! I put lots of stuff there: notes, old threads, etc.)