Stacking the Deck: Mueller and Investigation Team Donate Primarily to Democrats

And CNN is reporting this, so you know it's bad.

"Washington (CNN)Three members of the legal team known to have been hired so far by special counsel Robert Mueller to handle the Russia investigation have given political donations almost exclusively to Democrats, according to a CNN analysis of Federal Election Commission records. 

More than half of the more than $56,000 came from just one lawyer and more than half of it was donated before the 2016 election, but two of the lawyers gave the maximum $2,700 donation to Hillary Clinton last year. 

Over the weekend, news outlets including CNN identified five attorneys that Mueller has already brought on board to help investigate potential collusion between associates of President Donald Trump's campaign and Russia. 

The group includes seasoned attorneys who worked on cases ranging from Watergate to the Enron fraud scandal and have represented major American companies in court. While only five attorneys have been publicly identified as working on the Russia probe, there could be more on Mueller's team. 

Three of the five lawyers have donations in FEC records. They gave overwhelmingly to Democrats, totaling more than $53,000 since 1988. More than half of the donations came from just one of the lawyers, James Quarles, whom Mueller brought over from his old firm, WilmerHale. 

Quarles has given nearly $33,000 to political campaigns over the years. He gave money to Democratic presidential candidates Michael Dukakis, Al Gore, John Kerry, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. In addition, Quarles gave more than $10,000 to help Democrats get elected to the House and another $10,000 on the Senate side, including money to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. 

But Quarles is also the only lawyer among Mueller's team for which records were available who ever donated to Republicans. He gave $2,500 to Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz in 2015 and gave $250 to then-Sen. George Allen of Virginia in 2005. 

Only about 30% of the donations were for elections in 2016. But Quarles and Jeannie Rhee, who also left WilmerHale to work on the Russia probe, gave the maximum contribution of $2,700 to Clinton's campaign last year."

So how exactly will Mueller and his investigator be impartial when their money goes where their heart is?

Together with Mueller's strong (joined at the hip) bro-mance with James Comey, you might say the fix may be in.

Appointment of a Special Counsel was a mistake in the first place.  A knee-jerk reaction to Republicans bowing to Democrat demands.  Had they waited until after Comey's perjury filled testimony there likely would have been no Special Counsel.

All the more reason for Trump to end it now, there is no good that can come out of this charade, none at all.

James Comey Becoming the Subject of the Investigation he Created

Over the course of Jim Comey's testimony last week to the Senate Intelligence Committee, it's now more apparent that he lied and fabricated the happenings leading up to his firing.

As I said Comey was fired simply because it was discovered by Trump, through other disgruntled FBI agents and sources that Comey was, in fact, the leaker he had been looking for.  Specifically, with regards to the memo, Comey supposedly created (no one can find it now), where he kept notes of his meetings with Trump.

Comey admitted during the hearing that he himself leaked them the memo, a government document that no longer belonged to him, to a friend who has since gone into hiding, to give to the NY Times.

But there are several other leaks that have appeared since Trump left office that Comey either directly or indirectly leaked info to the media, in an effort to damage Trump.

In an article on The Medium, "Comey Almost Definitely Leaked Twice, and Therefore Lied to Congress"

"MAY 11 — NYT reports that two Comey “associates” leaked information about a one-on-one dinner between Trump and Comey in which Trump asked for Comey’s loyalty. The article makes no mention of a memo, but contains information about the private conversation so detailed that it would be weird if it weren’t derived from a memo written by Comey after the dinner. It makes little sense that “associates” of Comey would remember the verbiage of the conversation with such detail, and then independently leak that verbiage without any direction from Comey himself, particularly when Comey admitted that he was willing to make such leaks only a week later. 

May 12 — Trump tweets that Comey had better hope there weren’t recordings of the dinner that would go against the quotes in the May 11 NYT article. That tweet makes a whole lot more sense now that Comey was leaking. Trump was saying to Comey: “I know you’re the leak, and I might have recordings of our actual conversation that will prove that you’re lying.”

Somewhere in between May 12-May 16 — Comey, according to Comey, wakes up in the middle of the night and feels the sudden need to leak a memo from February to the NYT. 

May 16 — NYT prints another article alleging that Trump asked Comey to leave Flynn alone. The source of this article is specifically listed as a Comey memo recorded by Comey after an Oval Office meeting in February. 

The memo was not given to the NYT, but rather read to the NYT by a Comey “associate”(notice the use of the word “associate” again). We now know that Comey gave the memo to his associate with the specific instructions to leak it to the NYT."

( Ed. Note: I've heard that there are indeed tapes, as Trump has always recorded an important business transaction, and carried that practice into the White House.  In fact, I believe that in this case he did so to Trap and bury Comey.  Trump is a smart man, he protects himself.)

So we can assume that Comey orchestrated at least two leaks to the NY Times, and so orchestrated the current investigation as he admitted during his testimony that was the goal of his second memo.

Of course, that goal of getting a Special Counsel appointed happen to be his friend Robert Mueller, his friend and confidant over the last 16 years.

As a former investigator I would say at this point it's a slam-dunk that Comey has now become a key subject of the investigation, and even more a new investigation to see if he is guilty of orchestrating a coup to overthrow the President.

In any case, calls are now coming in to have Mueller recuse himself from the case due to his relationship with a subject of the investigation.

For Comey his problem that in his zeal to get the President he might have just gotten himself - hung.

Comey Testimony: Self-Serving Comey clears Trumps - Indicts himself

Jim Comey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday and he basically cleared Trump of any wrong-doing in the Russia Investigation.  Per Trump's attorney.

The largest revelation is that Comey revealed that he did, in fact, tell Trump on 3 occasions that he wasn't the subject of the investigation.

Additionally, as Trump's attorney, Marc Kasowitz outlined:


"[Comey] also admitted that there is no evidence that a single vote changed as a result of any Russian interference."

"Comey's testimony also makes clear that the President never sought to impede the investigation into attempted Russian interference in the 2016 election."

"The President never, in any form or substance, directed or suggested that Mr. Comey stop investigating anyone."

"The President also never told Mr. Comey, 'I need loyalty, I expect loyalty' in any form or substance."

"Mr. Comey admitted that he unilaterally and surreptitiously made unauthorized disclosures to the press of privileged communications with the President."

"We will leave it to the appropriate authorities to determine whether [these] leaks should be investigated along with all those others being investigated."


The major revelation we learned from Comey is about that memo he wrote after he was fired.  Comey admitted to having that memo, which is a government document, detailing a classified talk he had with Trump wherein Trump reportedly asked him to consider dropping the investigation into former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn.  Comey testified that he released the document to a friend, a college professor at Columbia Law school to actually leak the memo to the NY Times.

Two things to consider in this revelation.

1.  Comey was no longer a government employee and thus had no authority to give to or have leaked a document detail a private conversation with the POTUS.

2.  Moreover, Comey not only leaked the document, he actually gave it to a friend who is not known to have such clearances to possess in the first place.  Comey's astonishing admission also begs the question asking what else may he had leaks.

After the statement of Trump's attorney, Mr. Kasowitz asked the Department of Justice and the FBI to look into whether Comey had broken any laws in having the memo leaked.

More on this to come.