The Russia Investigations and other Trump-related cases

[Voronwë the Faithful]

And then there is this:

Maria Butina’s boyfriend claimed he set up Trump-Russia NRA “conduit” as campaign funds flowed

[Voronwë the Faithful]

And yet more bad news for Mr. Trump. In a press release announcing Cohen's sentence put out by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, they also announced that they had reached a "Non-Prosecution Agreement with American Media, Inc., Related to Its Payment of $150,000 to a Woman to Influence 2016 Presidential Election."


https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/mi ... ars-prison

[Primula Baggins]

It's sad when you can't depend on corrupt people or organizations to stick to the corrupt agreements they made with you.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

This is rather interesting.

Exclusive: Paul Manafort advised White House on how to attack and discredit investigation of President Trump

[Frelga]

Seth Abramson's Twitter feed is just a series of "I told you so last year."

[Voronwë the Faithful]

If your buddy Seth can say who the mystery witness is and what it is all about, then I'd be impressed.

Reporters shooed away as mystery Mueller subpoena fight rages on

[yovargas]

A subpoena is, to my understanding, a court-order for someone to appear in court. How does one fight a subpoena without appearing in court?

(Laws are complicated.)

[Voronwë the Faithful]

A subpoena is not necessarily a court order for someone to appear in court. But it is always an order for a witness to testify somewhere. You can have a subpoena for a witness to testify in a trial in court, but you can also have a subpoena for a witness to testify at a deposition, or even to testify to Congress. In this case, we are likely talking about a subpoena to testify to a grand jury. In order to fight a subpoena, one would have one's attorneys file a motion to "quash" the subpoena (yes, legal terms are funny). Your attorneys would then argue the motion, and if it is important enough, argue the appeal of the decision on the motion, but you yourself would not be going to court, only your attorneys.

[yovargas]

Ah, that (mostly) makes sense. Thanks, V-man.

[Frelga]

If your buddy Seth can say who the mystery witness is and what it is all about, then I'd be impressed.

Reporters shooed away as mystery Mueller subpoena fight rages on

He's not my buddy, but he's been a good aggregate source.

Here's his bet, although he named a few other possibilities.

PS3/ I feel like the man most likely to fight a subpoena—whose identity might lead the feds to close a floor of the DC courthouse; assuming, too, it's not some whistleblower whose name/identity we couldn't possibly know—is Lewandowski. But Sessions, Graff, and Hicks are up there.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

In other words, just like everyone else, he has no idea who it is.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The special counsel's response to Gen. Flynn's complaint that no one warned him that lying to the FBI was a crime:

A sitting National Security Advisor, former head of an intelligence agency, retired Lieutenant General, and 33-year veteran of the armed forces knows he should not lie to federal agents. He does not need to be warned it is a crime to lie to federal agents to know the
importance of telling them the truth. The defendant undoubtedly was aware, in light of his “many years” working with the FBI, that lying to the FBI carries serious consequences.

Ya think?

They nonetheless are sticking by their recommendation that he not receive any jail time.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

So the Flynn sentencing hearing has been ongoing. The judge offered him a chance to rescind his guilty plea and refused to do so, saying that he knew that lying to the FBI was illegal. The judge then harshly criticized him, saying "“All along, you were an unregistered agent of a foreign country while serving as the National Security Adviser to the President of the United States. That undermines everything this flag over here stands for. Arguably you sold your country out." He indicated that he may impose a jail term despite the prosecutors recommendation. He then asked the prosecutors with Flynn could have been charged with treason. The prosecutor would not go there. The judge suggested that Flynn might want to delay his sentencing if there was more cooperation that he could give that he could take into consideration. Then he ordered a recess.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Flynn's attorney took the judge up on his suggestion that the sentencing be delayed. Prosecutors had no objection so the judge agreed, after walking back his previous treason remarks.

Sent from my LG G6 using Tapatalk

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The mystery is somewhat solved, and no it's not Lewandowski, nor is it Sessions, Graff, or Hicks. It is a still unnamed foreign company.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/12/18/poli ... index.html

Sent from my LG G6 using Tapatalk

[yovargas]

You can subpoena a company?

[elengil]

You can subpoena a company?

*If* (and that is a big if) I understand subpoenas correctly, a subpoena can be for records, information, etc, not just a person, so you can subpoena a company for specific records or documents.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Yes, exactly. Most likely in this case the subpoena is for certain documents, but you can subpoena a company to testify about certain subjects and they need to designate the "person most knowledgeable" from the company about that subject. But I doubt that is the case here. As I said, it is likely to be certain documents.

[yovargas]

Interesting!

It's so nice to have smartypants law brains around here.

[elengil]

I may not know a whole lot, I am certainly not a "smartypants law brain" . But what I DO know is "there's no way to subpoena phone calls"! And I have that on the authority of the Deupty AG himself