https://www.lawfareblog.com/notes-mueller-report-reading-diary

Thursday I surveyed the entire Mueller report. I read some sections carefully; I skimmed others. My job was to anchor Lawfare’s initial coverage, so I needed to have a sense of the big picture, as well as detailed knowledge of certain findings and arguments. Starting Friday, however, I am reading the entire document carefully, starting at the beginning. I’m writing up my thoughts as I go in this post. There will be no cohesive argument to this journal. It will simply be a collection of my observations, questions and thoughts as I go through the document. It will get long. I will not attempt to summarize the underlying document, merely to reflect on it, but I will organize this post by document section. I will update the post as I read. I hope people find it useful.

The following table of contents are links to the sections of this journal, which correspond to sections of the report itself:

Introduction to Volume I

The Special Counsel Investigation

Russian "Active Measures" Social Media Campaign

GRU Hacking Directed at the Clinton Campaign

Russian Government Links to and Contacts with the Trump Campaign

Prosecution and Declination Decisions

Introduction to Volume II

Background Legal and Evidentiary Principles

Factual Results of the Obstruction Investigation

B. The President's Conduct Concerning the Investigation of Michael Flynn

C. The President's Reaction to Public Confirmation of the FBI's Russia Investigation

D. Events Leading Up to and Surrounding the Termination of FBI Director Comey

E. The President's Efforts to Remove the Special Counsel

F. The President's Efforts to Curtail the Special Counsel Investigation

G. The President's Efforts to Prevent Disclosure of Emails About the June 9, 2016, Meeting Between Russians and Senior Campaign Officials

H. The President’s Further Efforts to Have the Attorney General Take Over the Investigations

I. The President Orders McGahn to Deny That the President Tried to Fire the Special Counsel

J. The President’s Conduct Toward Flynn, Manafort, [REDACTED]

K. The President’s Conduct Involving Michael Cohen

L. Overarching Factual Issues

Legal Defense to the Application of Obstruction-of-Justice Statutes to the President

Introduction to Volume I

This is a short little section, barely two pages, but it has several interesting items in it, starting with Mueller’s almost casual endorsement of the FBI’s historical account of the Russia investigation’s origins. In the middle of page 1, Mueller describes the investigation as beginning when “a foreign government contacted the FBI about a May 2016 encounter with Trump Campaign foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos.” Papadopoulos, Mueller writes, had “suggested to a representative of that foreign government that the Trump Campaign had received indications from the Russian government that it could assist the Campaign through the anonymous release of information damaging to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.” It was that information, the paragraph concludes, that “prompted the FBI on July 31, 2016, to open an investigation into whether individuals associated with the Trump Campaign were coordinating with the Russian government in its interference activities.”

Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice 1989

https://twitter.com/LordFonzz/status/1121114135071051776

https://twitter.com/Gabriele_Corno/status/1120090336448131073

2 minutes and 20 seconds, courtesy of MoMA

(the motion seems normal, which is slower than typical film I have seen of that era, maybe modified ?)

Case in point:

https://twitter.com/juliaioffe/status/1117968251219263491


https://twitter.com/juliaioffe/status/1118004473107046400

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/07/world/europe/poland-gay-rights.html

WARSAW — Growing up in a small city in southern Poland, part of a religious family and conservative community, Maciej Gosniowski was told again and again that something was wrong with him.

“It would be better if I changed myself,” he recalled teachers telling him. “It would be better if I behaved more like a boy. It would make my life easier.”

Mr. Gosniowski was beaten by other students who used homophobic slurs he did not yet understand. He does not want other young people to suffer as he did, so he welcomed the decision by the mayor of Warsaw to introduce a declaration last month aimed at promoting tolerance.

But the backlash to the declaration has left him shaken.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-05/trump-s-dc-hotel-tagged-with-5-million-in-unpaid-worker-liens

Donald Trump’s new Washington hotel, located just blocks from the White House, owes electricians, wood workers and a plumbing and heating business more than $5 million for unpaid labor, according to liens filed against the property with the District of Columbia.

The 263-room hotel, located on the historic site of the city’s former main post office, opened in October following a $212 million renovation of the 1899 structure. The liens were filed in November and December, according to public records.

(rest behind paywall)

Does anyone know if Trump actually paid these contractors ???? I put this originally in LBN, my apologies.

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/amp/2019/04/ilhan-omar-is-right-stephen-miller-is-a-white-nationalist.html?__twitter_impression=true

https://www.geekwire.com/2019/exclusive-amazon-moving-thousands-employees-seattle-relocating-key-division-nearby-city/

Amazon plans to relocate its entire Seattle-based worldwide operations team to Bellevue, Wash., by 2023, adding thousands of employees to its new campus just across Lake Washington, according to an internal email obtained by GeekWire.

Moving a large and critical team away from Amazon’s Seattle headquarters is a significant relocation of employees on its own, but it’s also a weighty symbolic gesture — the clearest sign yet that the tech giant is cooling on its hometown while doubling down on a neighboring city.

“I’m excited to share the news that we’re planning to migrate worldwide operations to Bellevue starting this year,” said Dave Clark, the senior vice president in charge of the team, in an email to his employees Wednesday. “This move gives room to grow while maintaining the campus feel that we’ve come to love around South Lake Union.”

Sources familiar with the plans said several thousand employees will be moving to Bellevue in the years ahead. Amazon confirmed the authenticity of the email obtained by GeekWire.

reference: https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2019-04-03/debates/5F15A794-4045-4A04-A714-1FED79C45726/EuropeanUnion(Withdrawal)(No5)Bill

(at 9 PM by Sir William Cash, a prominent Eurosceptic)



I thought I heard him say this last night during the debate on parliamentlive.uk, but now the official record confirms it

https://twitter.com/DanRobitzski/status/1113107819799236609

in reference to : https://twitter.com/KBrownianMotion/status/1113150262947008512

and: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/12/amazons-demented-plans-for-its-warehouse-blimp-with-drone-fleet/