Because an indictment of a named person will only be issued if Mueller can convince a grand jury that there is enough evidence of criminality by that named person to raise the strong possibility that a jury might convict at trial.
You can't issue an indictment against a person on suspicion alone, or even because everybody with half a brain can see that the person in question almost certainly knew of and approved criminal acts. You need direct evidence to do that. So, assuming Russian spooks know their job, that lets Putin out.
(Quite apart from the question of whether a head of state CAN be indicted on such charges as are involved here. Can they?)
Zadok: I did not have a faith crisis. I discovered that the Church was having a truth crisis. Maksutov: That's the problem with this supernatural stuff, it doesn't really solve anything. It's a placeholder for ignorance.
I don't understand the reason for the indictments. Will any of these accused ever see an American courtroom?
And when the confederates saw Jackson standing fearless as a stone wall the army of Northern Virginia took courage and drove the federal army off their land.
subgenius wrote:Ya know, it is possible to disagree with the findings in one case but agree with the findings in another...its not an all or nothing type of arrangement. Blind allegiance is for Obama supporters.
Can someone explain how this is a reply to the point about Trump's desperate reversal of position?
Or is Subgenius actually suggesting that Big Orange has actually screwed up on this one?
Well, subs did waste some bandwidth in that other thread trying to push the idea that Trump was deploying a masterful 4D chess move on both Putin and Democrats with his painfully clumsy public dissing of the US intel community, until 20 minutes later when Trump chopped subs' entire fantasy scenario off at the knees by stating that he was simply too stupid to know what he was allegedly trying to say.
Subbie seems OK with an indictment that spells out many of the claims against Russian involvement as the Mueller indictments yet disagrees with the Mueller indictments. I am guessing because this case in the OP centers around attempts to gain foreign influence in the NRA which doesn't seem bad at all when compared to trying to gain influence in the White House.... It even does us the favor of quoting Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin in calling out Russian attempts to subvert Western democracy and being guilty malicious cyber attacks. Guess we'll see how Mnuchin feels about this now that his boss claims there's maybe no reason to believe this but maybe there is but maybe it's other bad actors.
If politics was poker, Trump's move to implicate many bad actors is a tell he's holding a hand full of guilty as charged.
The world is always full of the sound of waves..but who knows the heart of the sea, a hundred feet down? Who knows it's depth? ~ Eiji Yoshikawa
John Bolton, yes the National Security Advisor, once made a video for Mariia Butia, for her ostensible group of Gun Rights advocates in Russia. Smart man, our National Security Advisor. Knows a lot about the guns laws and gun advocacy groups in Russia. So much so he made a promotional video for a Russian Spy.
"The great problem of any civilization is how to rejuvenate itself without rebarbarization." - Will Durant "We've kept more promises than we've even made" - Donald Trump "Of what meaning is the world without mind? The question cannot exist." - Edwin Land
subgenius wrote:While i appreciate your emotional appeal on these subjects, it wears thin against the evidence and the persistence of a mature reality.
I hear you on the persistence of mature reality. It is easy to pretend to be dribble free without Depends, but mature reality remains just by noting stains on the underwear.
Trump's performance with Putin is internally consistent with the statements he has been making since he was candidate Trump. None dare called it treason when Trump opined that the hacking was done by some 400 lb guy sitting on the edge of his bed. Most likely everyone thought Jersey Girl would send him the personal care items he required.
Some Schmo wrote:Maria Butina was in court Saturday and is in jail today.
Couldn't she claim diplomatic immunity or seek sanctuary at Trump Tower?
MeDotOrg wrote:John Bolton, yes the National Security Advisor, once made a video for Mariia Butia, for her ostensible group of Gun Rights advocates in Russia. Smart man, our National Security Advisor. Knows a lot about the guns laws and gun advocacy groups in Russia. So much so he made a promotional video for a Russian Spy.
Note the bolded part, highly relevant to the arrest of Maria Butina, and her efforts to gain access to US politics via the NRA.
Incoming White House national security adviser John Bolton recorded a video used by the Russian gun rights group The Right to Bear Arms in 2013 to encourage the Russian government to loosen gun laws.
The episode, which has not been previously reported, illustrates the common cause that Russian and American gun rights groups were forming in the years leading up to the 2016 election through former National Rifle Association President David Keene. Keene appointed Bolton to the NRA's international affairs subcommittee in 2011.
Russian politician Alexander Torshin helped establish The Right to Bear Arms and cultivate ties with American gun rights groups including the NRA. As a Putin ally, Torshin served as the deputy speaker of Russia's parliament for more than a decade and also spent time on Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee, a state body that includes the director of Russia's internal security service.
The Bolton video appears to be another plank in a bridge built by Russia to conservative political organizations inside the United States. It's unclear why Russian leaders wanted to curry favor with the NRA, but Torshin and Keene appeared to have developed close ties in the years prior to the 2016 election.
It's a relationship that has outsize importance now that the FBI is reportedly investigating whether Torshin illegally funneled money to the NRA to assist the Trump campaign in 2016, as McClatchy reported in January. The NRA has denied wrongdoing.
Zadok: I did not have a faith crisis. I discovered that the Church was having a truth crisis. Maksutov: That's the problem with this supernatural stuff, it doesn't really solve anything. It's a placeholder for ignorance.
It even does us the favor of quoting Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin in calling out Russian attempts to subvert Western democracy and being guilty malicious cyber attacks. Guess we'll see how Mnuchin feels about this now that his boss claims there's maybe no reason to believe this but maybe there is but maybe it's other bad actors.