Trump: The Kremlin Candidate?

Lewis: DT illegitimate

John Lewis didn’t call DT illegitimate in the abstract. He said it because of Russia’s intervention and growing evidence of treason. #MSMdig

Rob Reiner, via Twitter

‘I want to say this about Donald Trump …’

Rep. Jamie Raskin: “I want to say this for Donald Trump, who I may well be voting to impeach…” He’s drowned out by applause.

David Weigel (quoting Representative Jamie Raskin)

John Lewis on Trump: ‘I don’t see this president-elect as a legitimate president’

Rep. John Lewis, the Georgia Democrat and civil rights icon, says he does not see Donald Trump as a legitimate president.

Trump ‘compromising’ claims: How and why did we get here?

[…] The President-elect of the United States is vulnerable to blackmail. Imagine if that’s true. There are already senior Republicans like John McCain talking about hearings. There are Democrats, not just wishful thinking on their part, talking about impeachment […]

Paul Wood, BBC

Timeline: Use the Logan Act against Flynn

The next part of the strategy was the explosive leak to David Ignatius of the Washington Post to legitimize the use against Flynn of the Logan Act, a likely unconstitutional 1799 law prohibiting private individuals, not public incoming national security advisors, from discussing foreign policy with foreign governments. Ignatius accepted the leak from the Obama official. He wrote that Flynn had called Kislyak. “What did Flynn say, and did it undercut the U.S. sanctions? The Logan Act (though never enforced) bars U.S. citizens from correspondence intending to influence a foreign government about ‘disputes’ with the United States. Was its spirit violated?” Flynn’s routine and appropriate phone call became fodder for a developing grand conspiracy theory of Russia collusion. In discussions with investigators, both DOJ’s Mary McCord and Comey conspicuously cite this Ignatius column as somehow meaningful in the approach they would take with Flynn. “Nothing, to my mind, happens until the 13th of January, when David Ignatius publishes a column that contains a reference to communication Michael Flynn had with the Russians. That was on the 13th of January,” Comey said of the column that ran online on January 12. In fact, quite a bit had happened at the FBI prior to that leak, with much conversation about how to utilize the Logan Act against Flynn. And the leak-fueled Ignatius column would later be used by FBI officials to justify an illegal ambush interview of Flynn in the White House.

Ukrainian efforts to sabotage Trump backfire

• Kiev officials are scrambling to make amends with the president-elect after quietly working to boost Clinton.

These reports allege Trump has deep ties to Russia

• The Steele Dossier, compiled by a person who has claimed to be a former British intelligence official, alleges Russia has compromising information on Trump. The allegations are unverified, and the report contains errors.

Timeline: Comey briefs Trump

An ostensibly similar briefing about Russian interference efforts during the 2016 campaign was given to President-elect Trump. After that briefing, Comey privately briefed Trump on the most salacious and absurd “pee tape” allegation in the Christopher Steele dossier, a document the FBI had already used to obtain a warrant to spy on Trump campaign affiliate Carter Page. Comey told Trump he was telling him because CNN was looking for any reason it could find to publish a story about Russia having compromising information on him, and he wanted to warn Trump about it. He did not mention the dossier was completely unverified or that it was the product of a secretly funded operation by the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee.

Timeline: Guidance from Obama

Yates, Comey, CIA Director John Brennan, and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper briefed Obama on Russia-related matters in the Oval Office. Biden and Rice also attended. After the Obama briefing, the intelligence chiefs who would be leaving at the end of the term were dismissed and Yates and Comey, who would continue in the Trump administration, were asked to stay. Not only did Obama give his guidance about how to perpetuate the Russia collusion theory investigations, he also talked about Flynn’s conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, according to both Comey and Yates. Interestingly, Clapper, Comey, and Yates all said that they did not brief Obama about these phone calls. Clapper testified he did not brief Obama on the calls, Yates learned about the calls from Obama himself during that meeting, and Comey also testified he didn’t brief Obama about the calls, even though the intelligence was an FBI product. Rice, who publicly lied but later admitted under oath to her widespread use of unmasked intelligence at the end of the Obama administration, likely briefed Obama on the calls and would have had access to the intelligence. Comey mentions the Logan Act at this meeting.

Timeline: FBI ‘reopens’ Flynn case

Following the closure of a pretextually dubious and politically motivated FBI investigation of Flynn at the beginning of January, the leadership of the FBI scrambled to reopen a case against Flynn, the man who in his role as National Security Advisor would have to review their Russia collusion investigation. FBI officials openly discussed their concern about briefing the veteran intelligence official on what they had done to the Trump campaign and transition team and what they were planning to do to the incoming Trump administration. Flynn had to be dealt with. The FBI’s top counterintelligence official would later memorialize discussions about the FBI’s attempts to “get [Flynn] fired.” No reopening was needed, they determined, when they discovered they had failed to close the previous investigation. They found this mistake “amazing” and “serendipitously good” and said “our utter incompetence actually helps us.” Even more noteworthy were texts from FBI’s #2 counterintelligence official Peter Strzok to FBI lawyer Lisa Page noting that the “7th floor,” a reference to Comey and his deputy director Andrew McCabe, was running the show.

Schumer warns Trump: Intel officials ‘have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you’

The new leader of Democrats in the Senate says Donald Trump is being “really dumb” for picking a fight with intelligence officials, suggesting they have ways to strike back, after the president-elect speculated Tuesday that his “so-called” briefing about Russian cyberattacks had been delayed in order to build a case.

Timeline: CNN leaks dossier

In an amazing coincidence, CNN found the excuse to publish the Russia claims after a high-level Obama intelligence operative leaked that Comey had briefed Trump about the dossier. This selective leak, which was credulously accepted by CNN reporters Evan Perez, Jim Sciutto, Jake Tapper, and Carl Bernstein, may have been the most important step in the operation to harm the incoming Trump administration. The leak of the briefing of Trump was used to legitimize a ridiculous dossier full of allegations the FBI knew to be false that multiple news organizations had previously refused to report on for lack of substantiation, and created a cloud of suspicion over Trump’s campaign and administration by insinuating he was being blackmailed by Russia.

The campaign to impeach President Trump has begun

The effort to impeach President Donald John Trump is already underway.

Collusion with Trump

Russia hacks our election to help DT. FBI violates Hatch Act and colludes with Trump. He is an illegitimate POTUS. #Jan20ImpeachmentDay

Rob Reiner, via Twitter

Donald Trump is actually a fascist

Donald Trump is a fascist.

Unmasking request re former National Security Advisor [Michael Flynn]

First-known request:

Exactly like Nazi propaganda

Trump’s Nat security advisor says Islam is a cancer+we should be afraid of it. Exactly how is that not like Nazi propaganda vs Jews in 1930s

Dean Obeidallah, via Twitter

Professor predicted Trump win, says he will be impeached

(CNN) — The man dubbed “Prediction Professor” for accurately calling almost every presidential election since 1984, including the 2016 election, now forecasts the impeachment of President-elect Donald Trump.

In case I wasn’t clear enough

In case I wasn’t clear enough from my previous tweets:

Hillary Clinton will be the next President of the United States. #ElectionNight

Frank Luntz, via Twitter