It is completely legitimate to contact the Russians (or any country in the world) when you are an incoming administration, which is the only communication found by Mueller.
You don't know the extent of what Mueller has found, but what we do know is damning for the senior officials involved. The shear number of them are suggestive. Only political affinity can demand that the process be aborted now.
Are you that afraid of what Mueller might uncover? Trump acts guilty. Why do you?
Why Flynn lied about it is anybody's guess but they already had the illegally ordered FISA warrant wiretaps on Flynn before they asked questions (without a lawyer present for Flynn).
I think you're a little bit confused about the events here, but I would surmise that Flynn lied because he was conscious of crimes that he was on the hook for and didn't want them revealed.
Flynn was picked up talking to Sergey Kislyak. Kislyak was being monitored as a matter of routine, because he is a foreign agent in the US. No warrant was required, and there's no serious argument to be made that any part of this is illegal. Then, Sally Yates requested "unmasking" from the information owner to find out who the US person was on the other end of the call. She didn't know who it was when she requested that. So she found out it was Michael Flynn, and consequently learned that he was vulnerable to blackmail, and she then went to the Trump administration and reported it. None of that is illegal whatsoever, none of it required a warrant, and as far as I know, none was ever issued, FISA or otherwise. The person who was intercepted by a FISA warrant was Paul Manafort. But that's a separate interception.
The one thing here that's dubious in legality is that we don't know who leaked those details to the press. That would have been potentially illegal, but one can appreciate that they did, because the new Trump administration decided to do exactly nothing when they learned that Manafort was compromised...until the backlash exceeded their ability to ignore it.
What's illegitimate is the Fake Evidence used to spy on the opposition party during an election.
That didn't happen. Manafort was caught on a FISA wiretap for something completely unrelated. I don't know if anyone else in the Trump campaign was picked up there. We'll have to wait for Mueller's findings. But that's the risk of hiring a criminal as your campaign manager. Trump should have known better. There's no special wiretap exclusion policy just because politics intersects with a federal criminal investigation.
You have to wonder why Trump would associate with a guy like Manafort in the first place. You would wonder, if you had any sense.
What's illegitimate is an FBI agent texting on a work phone to another FBI employee while committing adultery with her.
Nope, sorry, that's completely allowed, including the adultery. As long as they continue to perform their jobs.
Texting things like: "I will save the country. I can do that on many levels". "We need an insurance policy to stop Trump from being President"
Unless they are actually conspiring to subvert the election, which seems unlikely, or otherwise breaking the law or policy, no. You know how I know? Because the scrutiny is coming from Congress, not the IG.
- things like that rex. This guy was a LEAD investigator of Clinton, Flynn, Trump and I think the Fake Russian Dossier used to start this whole Fake investigation.
The Steele Dossier isn't the basis of the investigation, as I've told you in the past, and there's nothing controversial about those texts no matter what he was doing for the FBI.
You have shown repeatedly that you think the FBI and Mueller and the demonrats are above the law,
No, I just require that they be held to the real laws and policies, not the ones you and Trey Gowdy make up. There's no crime called "texting a co-worker about shared political views". You don't like Mueller, the FBI, and Democrats because they get in the way of Trump's consolidation of power.
...should never be investigated...
Investigations must be grounded in fact and law, not political fantasy. That's your problem, Pat. There's no evidence Mueller's done anything wrong, and so far, everything you've advanced against FBI agents are non-crimes and non-scandals.
...and that it's OK to do anything necessary to depose a President that has done nothing wrong, broken no laws and won an election that was rigged against him. I'm afraid it's really going to hurt you deeply when the truth comes out, rex.
It was rigged for him, and he did many things wrong. But, this investigation isn't actually premised upon Trump's guilt. It's an investigation into the Russian efforts to subvert the election. Mueller's charge is to go after anyone falling under American jurisdiction who may have helped. If that leads to Trump, as I'm pretty sure it will, it will be because that's where the investigation leads. But, even if it never leads to Trump, it's well worth our while to discover the truth of the attack on our election, and if Trump is really innocent, it will exonerate him. It's already taken down a few deserving Trump lackeys.
What is it that makes you so sure Trump is innocent?
