But "When the president does it, that means it is not illegal": Trump thread LXXXVIII

[lionheart]

I'm still edgy.

Ben Collins
Ben Collins
@oneunderscore__
The amount of ink spilled and airtime spent on Fox News in the last week about this "entrapment" charade, which didn't even wind up being Flynn's defense, is absolutely staggering.

Natasha Bertrand
@NatashaBertrand
It actually worked against Flynn. Judge Sullivan asked Flynn's lawyers how implying that he was entrapped was consistent with Flynn's accepting responsibility for his crime. Flynn's lawyer then had to walk it back, and said the decision to raise those points was counsel's alone.

I think it's both Acrosses points.

And the judge seems to have a thing about National Security - his comment about the Petraus sentence as well as his treason comment. MSNBC also reporting the judge was riled up by the security element of the offence and the judge would have seen the retracted text.

I think Mueller made another clever move by getting the Turkey indictments out on Monday. Mueller's team confirmed that Flynn would have been indicted as a co conspirator if he didn't have the cooperation agreement.

It confirmed the seriousness of his plea deal and undermined the Flynn teams allegations that he was duped into lying.

This comes back to Mueller being experienced at prosecuting organised crime. The order of shoes dropping is important.

It's been fascinating, thank you Pain. We are so used to scraping the bottom of the barrel with the Trump Administration so to hear Flynn's behaviour criticised so strongly is very welcome.

To mix my metaphors, it feels like the parish ferreter of blessed thread memory is alive and well and working in Washington.

Stop off this burrow, close down that tunnel, net this exit over here... then put the ferret down the hole...

Thanks Pain.

Sneerah is at the podium.

Link to live press briefing

Philip Rucker
@PhilipRucker
"We wish General Flynn well" --
@PressSec

That press briefing was painful. Basically she backed tRump to the hilt, with a recurring theme 'it's nothing to do with the President', whilst almost shrugging her shoulders when answering q's about Flynn and basically anything!

The journalists didn't give up asking round the same q's and she just got more and more irritable and finished.
As she left, a journo shouted 'Sarah that was only a ten minute briefing'. Given the pressers are as rare as hens teeth now, they were none too happy.

Short and not particularly sweet as far as I can tell.

twitter.com/pbump/status/1075109024574648324

Do your job, Sarah!" one member of the White House press corps yells out after Sanders curtails the first press briefing of the month after about 20 minutes.

I misheard. I thought someone said 10 minutes. Whatever it was, she took very few questions and really did not want to be there and as usual treated the press with disdain.

I've also seen 10mins quoted Roussette. It was short anyway!

@ByronYork

So in open court Judge Sullivan raised question of whether LTG Michael Flynn committed treason, sold out the United States, and served as an unregistered foreign agent in White House. All terribly damaging, all false. Can Flynn receive fair treatment from Sullivan in future?

(My phone's ability to do links seem to have stopped working)

Remember when the Judge was being lauded by Trump because he wanted to understand why Flynn's sentencing submission said there had been entrapment. Now he's the enemy...

Another thing, and this is just general knowledge for those not in the US.

One of the 'issues' appears to be that the FBI didn't read Flynn his rights before interviewing him. Based on the Miranda Decision, reading rights only has to happen after you are arrested. And in the US being arrested means that you have been accused of a crime by the police and taken into custody for that crime. Not simply that you have been brought in for questioning. Flynn was never arrested, ergo, the FBI did not have to 'Miranda' him.

The other is the issue of 'entrapment'. Here, law enforcement basically has to put your finger on the trigger and squeeze your hand before you can be considered 'entrapped'. Tempting you, enticing you, even lying to you to get you to say or admit something is not entrapment. Flynn was not 'entrapped', even if the FBI lied and said they had his DNA on some evidence or a tape of him colliding with Russia.

Thanks Across. Maybe someone needs to explain to Trump et al how his justice system works.

www.newsweek.com/trump-russia-congress-schiff-ukraine-zamel-cambridge-analytica-1263860

Indeed! Apparently someone shouted '10 minutes, Sarah???'

I don't know why she bothers. The journo who followed up with how short it was says this....

@AndrewFeinberg
39m39 minutes ago
More
Sarah Huckabee Sanders refuses to do the job for which she is paid money raised from US taxpayers. She delays each briefing so she can use a presidential event as an excuse to end it early. She does not respond to emails, she does not meet with (most) reporters. Why is she here?

Many reporters who cover the White House work for smaller media outlets, and it’s clear the administration feels those reporters (including me) are not worth their time.

Since Sarah Sanders took over for @seanspicer as @PressSec MORE THAN A YEAR AGO I have not been able to get a single meeting with her despite my many requests. When I find her in her office she is invariably heading to a meeting and tells me to “shoot me a note.”

Has a single one of those requests been granted in the year and a half she has been in the @PressSec job? Never

Do I ever get responses to my requests to speak with administration officials? Never.

Do I get calls returned or answers to any other questions I am told to pose via email? Never.

I, like many other reporters for smaller outlets, am not part of the rotating “pool” of reporters who are permitted to pose questions to the president and other officials during so-called “pool sprays.” In theory we can still ask to be join the “pool” as “extras” for an event.

Has a single one of those requests been granted in the year and a half she has been in the @PressSec job? Never.

Her office also arranges invite-only pen-and-pad briefings with senior officials (Chief of Staff, Nat’l Security Adviser, etc) on occasion.

I am at the White House nearly every day but do I ever hear about them before I see nearly every other reporter coming out of them? No.

Now, one can argue that the White House press secretary has a limited amount of time and attention, and that she has to be judicious in how she allocates both. I wholeheartedly agree.

But, but, BUT...

I’m not the only reporter who @PressSec has apparently decided is insignificant enough to ignore. By ignoring me and others like me, she effectively ignores those Americans who read our work and rely on us for news each day.

-----

It must be so frustrating for these reporters.

www.theguardian.com/media/2018/dec/18/tucker-carlson-immigrants-poorer-dirtier-advertisers-pull-out

Those scientists.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/18/blind-amphibian-named-after-trumps-climate-change-stance

'A newly discovered blind and burrowing amphibian is to be officially named Dermophis donaldtrumpi, in recognition of the US president’s climate change denial.'

To add to Neopalpa donaldtrumpi.

www.rawstory.com/2018/12/texas-trump-voter-now-fears-president-will-seize-familys-land-build-border-wall/#.XBlKGom6b3k.twitter

www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryancbrooks/kamala-harris-2020-president-black-women-survey

I don't think she has the weight. Now VEEP?