(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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Hi, I speak Trump Administration fluently and am here to help.
What Steven is saying is that Trump has recently lost weight because he's suffering from a major medical event and ongoing serious medical condition he's hiding from voters.
Just invert the words and you've got it.
The other thing to remember about speaking Trump Administration is that the angrier they are, the more important the truth they're speaking by shouting the opposite of it is. So apparently this medical condition is really really bad, and the White House is really scared about it.
Some may ask, Seth, as a journalist, how did you learn Trump Administration? And why can so few in media speak it?
The answer is simple: I spent years reading messaging from Trump's political ops, and observed that the truth is always exactly the opposite of what they say it is.
Hey, @PeteHegseth, just because you were born a shitheel doesn't mean you have to spend your life as one. Accept that you have a problem with drinking and women and that the job you now hold is way beyond you. Accept also that it's on *you* for taking the job, not on anyone else.
Pete needs family and therapy, not one of the highest-stress jobs on Earth. He doesn't engage in self-care because he's such a narcissist that he can't accept his flaws. His anger is self-loathing, his accusations are projection, and he doesn't have the heart of a public servant.
Humanity has thousands of years of data on what makes a good leader: someone who performs best under stress, who has great empathy and self-knowledge, and has both respect for process and temperance. Hegseth has none of these...but may not be smart or courageous enough to see it.
(🚨) COMMUNITY NOTE: All of this is a lie being told by a would-be dictator to obscure the fact that he is kidnapping and exiling US residents without due process. This image is crudely doctored, and no court has ever found Garcia to be an MS-13 member or that he harmed his wife.
1/ Garcia *fled* from gang violence in El Salvador when he was a minor, with a federal court finding in 2019 that he was non-removable to El Salvador on the grounds that he is a *victim* of gang violence likely to be killed if returned El Salvador.
He is a permanent US resident.
2/ Years ago, the US citizen Garcia is happily married to filed for a temporary restraining order, i.e. a court order granted "ex parte"—without both parties present—and without due process. She never pursued it further, so Trump is lying about a court finding he harmed his wife.
This was a potential outcome discussed at length in my pinned report.
The Court demands signs of effort but not a result—a win for the Trump administration, as it appears to confirm its theory that Bukele has control over anyone on his soil.
Do be careful in reading analysis of this case. Casual observers who aren't familiar with it will tell you this was a win for Garcia—and it certainly will be if Trump and his pal in El Salvador decide to save his life. But as a matter of the law going forward, this is a disaster.
The legal question was whether a human body comes under the control of a foreign dictator the moment that body is put on a plane to that country and the plane leaves the ground.
The implication of this decision is that the answer is yes. Which means the disappearances can start.
They didn't even care enough about the American economy to do any of the work themselves.
It almost feels... impeachable?
How could sloppily using AI to create domestic policy, then hiding it, be consistent with the Oath of Office? theverge.com/news/642620/tr…
This explains everything. The bad tariff math, placing tariffs on uninhabited islands, the odd errors that keep popping up in administration texts, the fact that Musk has said he wants to replace the humans in our government with AI, the fact that he *runs an AI company*.... JFC!
So much makes sense now. The website deletions that seem based on the most imbecilic reading of search results, the bizarrely high number of EOs, the obsession with the idea that people don't matter because AI can do everything in government... few if any humans are at the wheel!
Musk is now a bigger fount for toxic, self-aggrandizing bullshit than P.T. Barnum ever was.
He’s an utter 🤡—and that’s both a historical and provable fact. There’s nothing non-journalistic about observing when a man has become infamous for his rank nonsense and foolish gambits.
But that’s only the start of the story.
PROOF has outlined—with full sourcing—how Musk for years avoided politics on the advice of his father, and for years avoided revealing his far-right ideologies for fear they would destroy his business empire.
He was right. It’s happening.
In other words, he *knew* his far-right ideologies would be grotesque to consumers.
He *knew* that if he entered politics in America, those ideologies would cause him to become an instant target for hate from a majority of patriotic Americans—who unlike him believe in democracy.