(UPDATE) WASHINGTON POST and MOTHER JONES articles confirm that Trump Jr. had *two* encounters with the Butina/Torshin team at the 2016 NRA conference in Louisville.
(UPDATE2) On May 19, 2016, Butina was a "last-minute" addition as a speaker at an offsite dinner, the Heroes for Freedom and Liberty Dinner—cocktails at 5PM, dinner at 7PM. She spoke for only 5 minutes—which is odd.
(UPDATE3) The reason that Maria Butina appearing for only 5 minutes at the May 19, 2016 offsite dinner is so odd is that it was this *very dinner* that Alexander Torshin had invited Donald Trump Sr. to (via two separate communications) two weeks earlier. nytimes.com/2017/11/17/us/…
(UPDATE4) Flight data for Trump Sr.'s plane, obtained via FOIA, confirms that Trump Sr. didn't arrive in Louisville until Friday, May 20, 2016, the day after his son dined with Torshin *onsite* (at the conference), i.e. Thursday, May 19. That same night, Butina spoke *offsite*.
(UPDATE5)
1) Butina didn't meet Jr. when Torshin did (onsite, May 19). 2) Torshin invited Jr. to an offsite event on May 19. 3) Butina appeared instead as a "last-minute" add. 4) The event began at 5. 5) Butina told Byrne she brought Jr. to a second site at 2PM the day they met.
(UPDATE6) There are many ways this could have played out, and one *is* that Butina met Jr. separately from Torshin, but only briefly.
But the timeline is also consistent with Butina bringing Jr. to an offsite location the afternoon of his *onsite* dinner meeting with Torshin.
(UPDATE7) So why, when they were mentor/mentee, would Torshin/Butina have met Jr. at different times and/or locations? Why not at the same time/location? Our assumption would be "same"; Butina told Byrne "different" and indeed events confirm Butina and Torshin split up on May 19.
(UPDATE8) So Byrne's story accords with the facts in a way that seems prescient and isn't what one would've assumed were one spitballing. Butina told Byrne she met Jr. offsite—and lo and behold, she went offsite "last-minute" and indeed did *not* meet Jr. when Torshin did onsite.
(UPDATE9) So Torshin invited the Trump campaign to send someone to meet him at a dinner he (Torshin) ultimately *skipped*. Instead, Torshin changed his plans and went to the dinner Jr. was at. How did he know to do that? Butina meeting Jr. that afternoon at 2PM would explain it.
(UPDATE10) It'd also explain Butina being a "last-minute" add to a dinner *she and Torshin had been planning to go to for weeks*. Once she got Jr. offsite at 2PM she wasn't sure—post-meet—which of the dinners she'd go to. Torshin sent her to the original one—as he met Jr. onsite.
(UPDATE11) I want to make sure everyone follows:
1/ Putin tells Torshin to meet Trump in Louisville. 2/ Torshin invites Trump to a specific dinner—twice. 3/ Torshin says he'll give Trump a gift for Melania at the dinner. 4/ Torshin skips the dinner. 5/ But ends up where Jr. is.
(UPDATE12)
6/ Butina tells Byrne she met Jr. in Louisville. 7/ Articles confirm. 8/ Torshin/Jr. say Butina wasn't at their meetup. 9/ Articles confirm a second (Butina-Jr.) meetup. 10/ Butina says she met Jr. offsite. 11/ Butina was offsite. 12/ But oddly unsure of her schedule.
(UPDATE13) Nearly every Trump-Russia suspect has had a lawyer lie for them. Butina's lawyer now says "no second meeting"—which if true (but it *isn't*), would mean either Butina was at the Torshin-Jr. meeting (and they lied) or she lied about meeting Jr. *and* the news lied, too.
(UPDATE14) When you consider that Butina is a convicted Kremlin agent, Torshin has fled the country, Jr. repeatedly lied to Congress, and Trump-Russia suspects' lawyers have lied front to back, we have to go by the news and things people said when they didn't know it'd be public.
(UPDATE15) *Well before* she knew she was going to get in trouble, Butina told her boyfriend she'd met Jr. offsite. Articles confirm she met Jr. and was offsite.
Torshin, Jr., and Butina's lawyers now say Butina never met Jr. and there was no second meeting.
Oh, who to believe!
(PS) There's nothing about Torshin/Butina in the Mueller Report. Mueller sent the case to another prosecutor—which kept it from being shut down if he was fired—and referred all counterintelligence info (which includes all info he got on Butina/Torshin) to FBI counterintelligence.
(PS2) So if you're wondering, "Why haven't we heard more about May '16?" the answer is that a) it was addressed in another case, b) even in that case, any information about Trump campaign-Russian collusion *not attached to a criminal statute* would've gone to counterintelligence.
(PS3) You'll note I haven't called a secret Butina-Jr. meeting illegal. I've said what would be illegal would be Jr. thereafter lying about a meeting—as he's lied about other items—under circumstances in which lying is a crime. That no one will investigate it doesn't change that.
(PS4) That said, if Jr. did at the meeting what his conduct thereafter almost guarantees he would've done—asked for Russian aid, which is a crime—*then* you'd have a crime (as well as the necessary evidence of "concealment" from authorities that suggests a criminal mens rea).
(PS5) As ever, this feed is a public cri de coeur for Congress to launch a full Trump-Russia investigation and for FBI Counterintelligence to release the report it's still withholding—to a large extent—even from Congress. But there's little here I/we can say we "know" for *sure*.
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BREAKING NEWS: Kremlin Asset Paul Manafort Confirms He is Already Working on Donald Trump’s 2024 Campaign, Meaning Vladimir Putin Again Has a Direct Line to Trump As Trump’s Allies in Congress Pull Out Every Stop Conceivable to Aid the Kremlin in Its Monstrous Invasion of Europe
Many Americans don’t know that, in legal shorthand, a criminal defendant is represented by the “Delta” symbol, a triangle (∆).
(Yes—really.)
Less well known—but now, due to the Trump trial, just as relevant—is the “sleeping defendant” symbol: a faded, sideways triangle (▷).
When a criminal defendant is awake but angry at having to face consequences for his crimes, it’s OK to use the Red Delta (🔺).
If a defendant is—like Trump—livid at facing consequences *and* “sundowning” during afternoon court sessions, use the *inverted* Red Delta instead (🔻).
What about a criminal defendant who’s at once feeling “sad,” “tired,” and “boxed in” by virtue of having to deal with the same criminal procedures as the average American citizen, whom he considers himself far better than? For this we use the rare Recumbent Boxed Blue Delta (▶️).
BREAKING NEWS: Early signs suggest that Trump’s Monday night bond filing *may* have again misled the court. It says Hankey now has a security interest of $175M in “DJT Trust”—but Hankey’s Axos Bank *already* has a $100M interest in DJT Trust. Is Trump double-dipping? @KatiePhang
1/ Some wondered why Trump went to Hankey’s Knight rather than Hankey’s Axos. It certainly *could* be to swindle the court into thinking him having $175M secured with Hankey is sufficient, when it fact he likely needs at least *$275M* in that Trust to not be misleading the court.
2/ And this is early research—Axos has lent to Trump multiple times, so we’ve no idea how many times he’s used DJT Trust as liquid collateral (including any double-dipping). We *do* know Trump has Bud Light stock in the Trust, which is why he now opposes his MAGAs’ boycott of it.
Everyone knows the criminal trial on 34 felonies Trump begins on Monday is about him committing serious crimes to try to steal the 2016 presidential election, right? I mean, we’re clear on it having nothing to do with his family or propriety, only lying to American voters, right?
This is a man who committed felony after felony after felony after felony after felony after felony after felony after felony after felony—et al.—just to ensure his 2016 presidential campaign wouldn’t die a gruesome death, which it *would’ve* had he not committed those 34 crimes.
I’m not saying this because I used to be a federal criminal investigator and a criminal defense attorney. Anyone who isn’t a child fully understands that this case isn’t about sex, hush money, or business records.
It’s a case about the successful theft of the 2016 U.S. election.
I feel like you could read and watch CNN all day and have no idea that the fully and carefully telegraphed offensive Iran orchestrated yesterday—which it knew would do no damage, and which didn’t—was a response to Israel unilaterally attacking Iranian assets in Syria days ago.
Iran’s a state-sponsor of terror and I have no respect for that regime whatsoever—but it’s journalistic malpractice for CNN to be turning to Bolton and Petraeus to try to lie America into another war in the Middle East by pretending Iran’s offensive was unprovoked and a surprise.
This was exactly the same sort of deliberately ineffectual strike that Iran used to respond the *last* time Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, working in clandestine collusion with one another, assassinated Iranian leaders in violation of international law in January of 2020.
Joe Biden is trying to be POTUS while also fighting off Donald Trump’s shadow administration, Steve Bannon’s insurrection plotting, the fascist “Project 2025,” the Trump-Netanyahu-MBS-MBZ-Putin collusion axis, and—not for nothing—trying to rescue us all from the sh*t Trump broke.
No President of the United States has had to deal with this many domestic threats since Lincoln. Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, Great Redoubters, a resurgent KKK, Stop the Steal remnants, Leonard Leo, a corrupt SCOTUS, election interference by Trump’s allies...
...in China, Israel, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, a fake impeachment inquiry, Bannon and Project 2025, Elon’s sprawling disinformation machine here on Twitter, Newsmax, OANN, RSBN... every day this good man swims against a towering tide, and I think people don’t realize it.