Treason Season??

[robkelk]

CBC Analysis: Giuliani changes his public position twice in the two days

Giuliani went from his position last July on FOX News that "there was no collusion with the Russians whatsoever on behalf of the Trump campaign" (not his words, but when said to him he said "Correct") to his position Wednesday on CNN that "I never said there was no collusion between the campaign or between people in the campaign" (his words - he didn't say it, but he agreed in public when somebody else said it) to his position Thursday on Twitter that "I can only speak of what I know, and that is that I have no knowledge that anyone on the campaign illegally colluded with Russia" (his words).

The sharp reversal is "very grave," said Harry Litman, a former U.S. attorney and deputy assistant attorney general.

"But it also means this whole trash-talking of the last year and a half of the Mueller probe as a 'witch hunt' has to completely fold up shop now," he said.

"Because from this basic concession, there's certainly no 'witch hunt' now. How can you not seriously go after what you concede is a collusion between the highest members of the campaign - maybe just not the candidate - and a hostile foreign nation?"

In other words, rather than try to dismiss Mueller's probe, Giuliani only served to validate it.

From the order of events presented in the article, Litman's statement appears to have been made before Giuliani's tweet.

Giuliani may be expecting a cascade of damaging new evidence in the coming weeks that might point to collusion.

He has established a pattern of moving the goal posts at interesting times.

Last May, he appeared to surprise Fox News presenter Sean Hannity when he suddenly revealed that Trump had repaid his fixer Michael Cohen the $130,000 that Cohen had paid in hush money to Stormy Daniels, the pornographic actress who alleges she had an affair with Trump.

Trump had previously claimed he had no idea Cohen made the payment.

Under Canadian law, that can be considered to be bribery - just ask Mike Duffy. (Wikipedia link) Funny how that happened under a conservative government ... there must be something to the idea that the USA keeps getting what Canada had a half-decade or more earlier. (Maybe your next President will legalize cannabis use?)

Giuliani might have good reason to try to change the collusion narrative, given what's expected to come. He has reportedly said he expects Mueller's findings to be "horrific" for Trump.

Cohen has since flipped on the president, pleading guilty last year to lying to Congress, as well as to committing campaign finance violations and financial crimes. He began co-operating with Mueller's team and is due next month to testify before Congress.

Trump's ex-campaign manager Paul Manafort, who pleaded guilty in September on financial charges, is alleged to have shared 2016 polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, who has ties with Russian intelligence.

And Mueller's team this week filed nearly 200 pages of new material on Manafort.

I'd say all we need now is missing 18-and-a-half minutes of tape, but I've been told that there's a report that Trump took his translator's notes away from him... so it looking to me a lot like 1972-4 all over again. (Wikipedia link)