Robert Mueller indicts George Papadopolous, others from Trump campaign

[Alex]

For those choosing to ignore the continuation of Trump's saga, you may be in for a surprise.

Robert Mueller, ex-director of the FBI, was appointed to head the investigation into possible collusion with Russia by the Trump campaign to help win the presidency. This investigation started shortly after Donald Trump dismissed James Comey, notably because he thought the Trump-Russia investigation "isn't going away".

Yesterday, Mueller indicted three members of the Trump campaign Paul Manafort, Chris Gates and George Papadopolous. The charges pressed against Manafort and Gates don't necessarily point to collusion with the Russian government. However, George Papadopolous pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in January, and has also pleaded guilty to attempting to collude with Russian government officials to obtain "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. He admitted he used a professor with close ties to Russian government officials as a liaison to set up meetings with those government officials. The Russian government officials stated they had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton in the form of "thousands of emails", which Papadopolous knew when attempting to meet. The professor also introduced him to a certain female Russian national, a relative of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who also had ties to senior Russian government officials. He attempted to meet with those Russian government officials through her, as well.

You can read the full statement of offense filed against George Papadopolous here.

It points very decisively to attempted collusion. It sounds like the Russian "dirt" on Clinton was very popular amongst the Trump campaign, and that there might have been big incentives within the campaign for someone to obtain it. We know Don Jr. attempted to meet with Russian government officials with the same intent.

Do you think this public pressure will lead to more admissions of guilt? How deep is the Russian's "dirt" on Hillary rooted into the campaign? Will Donald Trump have the ability to pardon anyone proven guilty in this investigation? Or will he be found guilty for attempted collusion as well? If so, is that grounds for impeachment? Discuss.

 

[gimmepie]

Do you think this public pressure will lead to more admissions of guilt?

The ground is starting to crumble beneath their feet now, it's no longer possible to deny collusion and still be taken seriously by anyone with a brain in their heads... it's even less possible, let's be honest, we all already knew. It's soon going to become more practical to admit guilt and attempt to get off lighter than it will be to allow for further digging into their actions.

How deep is the Russian's "dirt" on Hillary rooted into the campaign?

Honestly who knows, it could be anything from a bad political decision to a bad outfit decision.

Will Donald Trump have the ability to pardon anyone proven guilty in this investigation? Or will he be found guilty for attempted collusion as well?

I'm not an expert on American politics and I won't pretend to be, however I think that while the President is certainly liable to try and pardon those guilty here, there is surely something barring him from interfering in an investigation into a crime he is implicit in. He certainly should be, I highly doubt this was going on without his knowledge even if he wasn't the person who came up with the idea - which he might have been.

If so, is that grounds for impeachment? Discuss.

Is colluding with a foreign nation to secure the Presidency grounds for impeachment. Yes.
The problem is that, when that's all out the way and Trump has lost the Oval Office, Pence gets it instead and he's only better because he's not as shit at politics.

 

[twocows]

Good info at these links, highly recommend reading them.

https://www.popehat.com/2017/10/30/lawsplainer-the-manafortgates-indictment/
https://www.popehat.com/2017/10/30/lawsplainer-the-george-papadopoulos-guilty-plea/