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The investigation into ties between President Trump's campaign and the Russian government has now turned to investigating Trump himself for obstruction of justice, the Washington Post reported Wednesday ... citing unnamed sources, said the investigation into the president's own conduct began shortly after Trump fired Comey on May 9.

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In a move that stunned many members of the media, on Thursday night Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is overseeing the Russia probe due to Jeff Sessions' recusal and who earlier this week confirmed only he has authority to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller,

**** released an unorthodox statement to be “skeptical about anonymous allegations” following the relentless barrage of news reports emerging from the WaPo and the NYT about the evolving probe into Russia’s "election interference" and possible collusion with Trump, all based on "anonymous sources." ****

"Americans should exercise caution before accepting as true any stories attributed to anonymous 'officials,' particularly when they do not identify the country — let alone the branch or agency of government — with which the alleged sources supposedly are affiliated. Americans should be skeptical about anonymous allegations. The Department of Justice has a long-established policy to neither confirm nor deny such allegations.

Rosenstein, who many had seen as a Trump foil at the DOJ, did not cite specific reports. The DOJ released Rosenstein’s statement after 9 p.m., shortly after The Washington Post reported that the special counsel was investigating the business dealings of Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and adviser. That report was attributed to unnamed American officials.

As we said, the media and punditry was "stunned" by the official statement: the NYT' Maggie Haberman said "Have literally never seen a statement like this." The new leader of the Trump "resistance", Preet Bharara also chimed in, tweeting "Americans should also exercise caution before accepting as true lies about firing of FBI Director & defamation of a war hero special counsel"

To be expected, Rosenstein - who the media was ambivalent about and [then] following his recent testimony in which he said there was "no grounds" to fire Mueller, praised - promptly became the latest pariah for insinuating that the media's Trump reportage may be, in fact, fake news.

As the NYT reported this morning, the "statement aligned with the president’s open frustration with unflattering leaks. Mr. Trump has called stories about the investigation “fake news” and complained on Twitter about a Washington Post report on Wednesday night that the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, was investigating the president himself for possible obstruction of justice. That story was also attributed to unnamed sources, as was a New York Times article that same evening about Mr. Mueller’s request for interviews with three top intelligence officials."

What to make of Rosenstein's statement?

On one hand, it could be seen as a validation of Trump's repeated allegations that much of what has emerged in press in recent weeks is "fake news." On the other, as some in the media suggested, it could be an attempt to "chill" communications and leaks to the press. Yet others saw this as a preview of what may be another upcoming story. As Bloomberg's Jennifer Epstein who said "If this statement is preemptive: oh, boy, is the story going to be explosive."

Trump has yet to tweet his approval of Rosenstein's comment, although moments ago he did tweet the following:

After 7 months of investigations & committee hearings about my "collusion with the Russians," nobody has been able to show any proof. Sad! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 16, 2017

He followed up by tweeting "The Fake News Media hates when I use what has turned out to be my very powerful Social Media - over 100 million people! I can go around them"

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Why would the DOJ issue this statement now, at this very moment?? Maybe THIS is the problem ...

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Jonathan Lemire @JonLemire
What an odd statement - that feels consistent with the White House's recent war on leaks
8:49 PM - 15 Jun 2017

DOJ watchers had never seen a press release quite like it come out of the department, and talk immediately turned to what might have prompted Rosenstein — a man not known for making careless public pronouncements — to issue it. According to one theory, at some point after the Washington Post

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broke the

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news Wednesday

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that Trump was being personally investigated by Mueller for obstruction of justice, Trump might have asked — or told — Rosenstein to publicly knock down the story. Maybe Rosenstein’s statement about the folly of trusting anonymous sources was as far as he was willing to go in responding to such a directive. If so

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the fact

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that Trump woke up on Friday barking mad at Rosenstein

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would suggest it wasn’t far enough.
That’s all speculation though

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— an attempt to explain a sequence of events neutralize a warning under a blanket of bullshit that no one everyone including multiple ex–DOJ officials I spoke to on Friday, can claim to really pretends not to understand. What we do know is this: Trump has always hated the fact that Rosenstein .... was given oversight of the Russia investigation

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after the president’s most reliable ally at the Justice Department, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, recused himself from the case in March.

According to the New York Times

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Trump has never forgiven Sessions for that decision, which he apparently — and perhaps accurately — believes is responsible for the fact that a fearsome and unforgiving biased and unprincipled special prosecutor is now threatening him and his family with possible criminal charges.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

fake?

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Trump Lawyer: "The President Is Not Under Investigation For Obstruction"

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On Friday morning, when Trump lashed out at what appeared to be Rod Rosenstein on Twitter, many took his statement as confirmation of last week's WaPo report that Trump is under investigation for obstruction of justice by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller: "I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt."

On Sunday, however, Trump's personal lawyer Jay Sekulow made the media rounds to explain that Trump's tweet was not an admission, and that Trump is not under investigation in the probe into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential race, adding that the president has not received any notification that he is being investigated.

Speaking on NBC's Meet The Press, Sekulow said "the president is not under investigation by the special counsel. The tweet from the president was in response to the five anonymous sources that were purportedly leaking information to The Washington Post about a potential investigation of the president. But the president, as James Comey said in his testimony and as we know as of today, the president has not been and is not under investigation... let me be very clear here: the president is not and has not been under investigation for obstruction."

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Todd then asked "if the president is innocent, why is he afraid of this investigation?" to which Sekulow's response: "he's not afraid of the investigation. There is no investigation."

Sekulow later said that Trump was merely reacting to the Washington Post story. "The fact of the matter is the president has not been and is not under investigation," Sekulow said on CBS' "Face the Nation," one of four political shows where he appeared on Sunday.

"There has been no notification from the special counsel’s office that the president is under investigation," Sekulow said.

In other words according to Trump's lawyer, the tweet in question was just a snide response to WaPo -not a confirmation of - the WaPo story. Which means that Trump will likely follow up with more tweets explaining the confusion that his earlier tweet had sowed even as just prior to Trump's tweet, Rod Rosenstein said not to trust reports based on "anonymous officials".

"Americans should exercise caution before accepting as true any stories attributed to anonymous 'officials,' particularly when they do not identify the country — let alone the branch or agency of government — with which the alleged sources supposedly are affiliated. Americans should be skeptical about anonymous allegations. The Department of Justice has a long-established policy to neither confirm nor deny such allegations.

Of course, Trump may well be under investigation, however he has simply not been notified yet.

On Sunday, Trump once again lashed out at what he has called an ongoing "Witch Hunt" against him, tweeting "The MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN agenda is doing very well despite the distraction of the Witch Hunt. Many new jobs, high business enthusiasm,.."

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Originally posted by G:
Seriously - I can't believe any of us of any political persuasion is going to defend any of these people...

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The most straightforward interpretation of the DOJ's warning NOT TO THRUST ANONYMOUS SOURCES, which came RIGHT ON THE HEELS OF THE ANONYMOUS LEAK THAT TRUMP WAS BEING INVESTIGATED FOR OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE was that THE LEAK WAS WRONG.= SIGNY

Naturally - ("don't trust anon sources, therefore don't trust...") so isn't the DOJ's winkie winkie - isn't that leaking? (Yes).

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And how would one of Trump's lawyers know definitively that Trump wasn't under investigation unless someone at the DOJ leaked, er, told him so? Or is he just grand standing, bluffing?

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Face it, this whole "is or isn't" under investigation is bs deflection finger pointing adding up to nothing. In the end it doesn't matter to Mueller & the other 5 investigations. They'll get to Trump if that's where the investigation takes them. And Jarod, and Pence, and any others.

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Seriously - I can't believe any of us of any political persuasion is going to defend any of these people...

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Originally posted by G:

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Originally posted by 6stringJoker:

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Originally posted by G:
Seriously - I can't believe any of us of any political persuasion is going to defend any of these people...

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That's the tactic you're going to take now, huh? lol

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lol, but Jack, you just said: "I know they're full of shit on both sides." So different opinion today?

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"There has been no notification from the special counsel’s office that the president is under investigation," Sekulow said.

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One of these days - *snort*!! How Trumpian again. Can't wait - hope you don't forget it. - GSTRING

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