White House Calls For Unity To Protect Democracy Following Mueller Indictment

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Daily Caller

The White House responded to the Friday indictment from special counsel Robert Mueller of Russian nationals who attempted to interfere in the 2016 presidential election by calling on the country to “unite as Americans to protect the integrity of our democracy and our elections.”

The statement added that President Trump “been fully briefed on this matter and is glad to see the Special Counsel’s investigation further indicates—that there was NO COLLUSION between the Trump campaign and Russia and that the outcome of the election was not changed or affected.”

“It is more important than ever before to come together as Americans. We cannot allow those seeking to sow confusion, discord, and rancor to be successful. It’s time we stop the outlandish partisan attacks, wild and false allegations, and far-fetched theories, which only serve to further the agendas of bad actors, like Russia, and do nothing to protect the principles of our institutions.”

________

For the good of the country.

[Valin]

Notes on the indictment

Scott Johnson

Feb. 17 2018

John and Steve have written good posts on the indictment against Internet Research Agency et al. handed up by the grand jury in the Special Counsel investigation yesterday. The government has posted the indictment here. My comments follow on theirs. I will try not to repeat their points.

There is no substitute for reviewing the primary documents with your own eyes. I have embedded the indictment at the bottom of this post via Scribd. For some reason, the Scribd software removed it, thinking it was copyrighted material. Government documents are not subject to copyright as a matter of law. The help desk promptly restored it at my request. If you don’t get anything else from these comments, I hope you will have a look at the indictment.

As the Wall Street Journal observes in the related editorial today (behind the Journal’s paywall): “The 37-page indictment contains no evidence of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, but it does show a systematic effort to discredit the result of the 2016 election. On the evidence so far, President Trump has been the biggest victim of that effort, and he ought to be furious at Vladimir Putin.”

The Journal editorial asks a good question: “The indictment also makes us wonder what the Obama Administration was doing amid all of this. Where were top Obama spooks James Clapper and John Brennan? Their outrage became public only after their candidate lost the election. If they didn’t know what was going on, why not? And if they did, why didn’t they let Americans in on the secret? President Obama sanctioned Russia for its meddling only after the election.”

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

Just now, Valin said:

Notes on the indictment

Scott Johnson

Feb. 17 2018

 

(Snip)

 

Comments.

Phillip Absher

I am always amazed when people are shocked, shocked, that foreign entities, both friends and allies, spy on us or meddle in our affairs. I would be insulted if they didn't do so.

[Draggingtree]

February 16, 2018

streiff: Today's Indictments Were a Nothingburger, and If You Disagree, Your Name Must Be Adam Schiff

Good digest of what's in the indictments and, criticially, what's not in them, like any allegation of the non-crime of collusion.

The project began in 2013 as a way of attempting to cause confusion in the U.S. presidential campaign. Mission accomplished. This indictment is a nothingburger. It tells us damned little we didn’t know from press accounts and there are no arrests on the horizon. Two of the three entities were already sanctioned so indicting them does nothing. There is absolutely nothing in here that even hints that the Russians involved in this had any help from anyone in the U.S. Maybe that indictment is coming but there is not a hint of it here.

This interference is exactly what Comey described around September 2016 when he said the object of the Russians was to create division. There is no evidence presented here that there was any greater goal than creating turmoil.