Philip Rucker: If Trump Pardons Stone, It Wouldn’t Surprise Anybody | The 11th Hour | MSNBC

The Washington Post's Philip Rucker reacts to reports that Trump is heavily considering pardoning Roger Stone. Aired on 02/20/20.
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Philip Rucker: If Trump Pardons Stone, It Wouldn't Surprise Anybody | The 11th Hour | MSNBC

34 comments

  1. can’t wait to see the conundrum that arises when trumP is charged and the court must build a jury of his peers to judge him.. 😂😂😂

    1. Have you seen DOGMA? With George Carlin & Alanis Morrisette? Roger will summon some Excrementals…. cheers Good Flick, btw.

    1. @Hayden Williams I’m like 2.5months return from a business trip to the U.S. I ask you do live in a house, hotel, car, van, Rv, tent or cardboard box on a sidewalk, park bench or shop entranceway, Los Vagus underground drainage system or perhaps with Yellow Stone Park wildlife, Slab city in the desert, are you a squatter in someone vacant rental house, do you at the age 30-45yrs still live under mum & Dad roof, do you live in Mexico or someone else country. Do you have two or more incomes and still can’t make ends meet? Can you afford hospital and medication? Do you use food stamps to feed yourself? Are sick of the expense of living in the GOLD STATE, Califonia? Hayden take a look around you do you still see this under President Trump?

    2. @Hayden Williams been educated 😂😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣👍

  2. Richard Grenell, Trump’s inexplicable pick for the Director of National Intelligence,  has less than zero experience in intelligence or national security. He had even less experience in diplomacy when Trump named him as the Ambassador to Berlin. What Grenell does have however, are shady connections to Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs, who are connected to the Russian mob, and the Kremlin. And this is the man that Trump’s wants to trust with the entire treasure trove of Amercan intelligence and classified information?!?!😲

    For years, Grenell’s bread and butter had been serving as a political consultant and advisor. He founded Capital Media Partners in 2009, to assist clients with “international strategic communications.” Grenell boasts of having “clients based in the U.S. Iran, and throughout Europe. The former Soviet Republic of Moldova, a little country that few Americans ever think about, became a subject of intense interest to Grenell shortly before our 2016 election. The poorest corner of Europe, Moldova barely has any legitimate economy.

    Moldova is known for its out-of-control corruption and crime, particularly its lurid role in the illegal trade of 5ex slaves. Moldova’s main industry is the selling of its young women, often children, to human traffickers, who dispatch them around the globe to be exploited. Grenell, who does not seem to have shown any interest in the troubled country before, oddly published four American op-eds between mid-August and mid-October 2016, extolling Moldova’s virtues.

    To those familiar with Moldova’s nasty politics, it was clear that Grenell was going to bat for Vladimir Plahotniuc, the most powerful political player in Moldova, not to mention the country’s wealthiest oligarch. In the summer of 2016, Plahotniuc’s charmed life as his country’s most feared Oligarch was in trouble. Mihail Gofman, the country’s anti-corruption czar, went public about Plahotniuc’s crimes. Seeking safety in America, Gofman explained to the FBI how Plahotniuc oversaw the theft of $1 billion from Moldova’s state treasury—one-eighth of the country’s annual GDP—then laundered it with Kremlin help.

    Gofman’s fears for his future and safety were warranted. When Moldova’s former Prime Minister Vlad Filat, a critic of the Kremlin, denounced Plahotniuc for his role in the billion-dollar-theft, he was arrested and sentenced to nine years in prison, reportedly on Plahotniuc’s orders. Gofman’s account, which confirmed what many Western intelligence agencies suspected, was that Plahotniuc is deeply in bed with Russian organized crime, specifically the notorious Solntsevo Brotherhood,  led by Semyon Mogilevich, according to INTERPOL..

    In his 2016 op-eds, Grenell insisted that Gofman was wrong about Plahotniuc. Grenell even  attacked Congressmen, Randy Weber, a Texas Republican, who tried to assist Gofman in exposing Moldovan crime and corruption, accusing Weber as pro-Kremlin.

    So why did Grenell develope a sudden and passionate need to defend Vlad Plahotniuc. It wasn’t an act of charity, but Grenell has failed to disclose what motivated his public defense of Moldova’s top oligarch, and crime boss. His financial disclosure forms submitted for his appointment as ambassador to Berlin reveal that over the previous year, Grenell made $688,362 from Capitol Media Partners, i.e. for political consulting. For whom, however, is unclear.

    This is important since Plahotniuc isn’t just a corrupt oligarch who is accused of robbing his impoverished country blind. He’s also a human trafficker, in fact the leading one in Moldova. INTERPOL admitted his role in human trafficking in 2012. Although Plahotniuc has never been charged with this crime, this isn’t surprising given the influence he possesses over Moldova’s highly corrupt judiciary.

    What Plahotniuc really is represents one of the worst-kept secrets in Eastern Europe. His criminal enterprises are well known to Western intelligence and police agencies. If Grenell went to bat for Plahotniuc for money, the American public deserves to know how much and from whom.

    1. sounds about right a cryptofascism imported to the most powerful country in the world, let’s go come on! donnie mushrooms is gonna be king for life, hopefully there are still some people with integrity on the inside that can resist the worst of what trump is trying to perpetrate

    2. 2 20 20 Hey David J, Thanks for the review. It’s unfortunate people are too busy with life to see/understand the yes-men DJT surrounds himself with. @ this point, the “swamp” is very swampy. Be well. v

    3. Can you verify all that? It doesn’t surprise me at all, but I don’t want to quote anything I can’t verify is true. Everything Trump comes up Russia, Russia, Russia

  3. This is just a distraction from the real problem: 1) the electoral college, 2) plurality voting, 3) a structurally flawed Senate.

    1. You are correct, but I don’t see how to fix any of this, outside of a civil war. And I’m not so much into civil wars…

    2. @Paul Kern – The first step in solving any problem, is recognizing there is one. And judging from all this insanity, the clear majority are too emotional, and deranged (on both sides), to see the problem clearly. It is CLEARLY in the DNC voting process, with “delegates” misrepresenting the votes. No one should be representing anyones vote. We should NOT be having “popular vote” discussions. We should not be having conversations and speculations about “splitting the vote”. It’s right in people faces, but they are not outraged by this. They would rather be outraged over some far-flung conspiracy theory. What the Russians need to understand is…we don’t require hacking. Our voting system is already screwed up. So…the wheels on the bus go round and round. Destination…who knows. I hope people are NOT surprised when the electoral college fails them again, for an even worst person than Trump. And will idiots look for someone to blame..they only have themselves to blame. THE SAD TRUTH ABOUT THE USA. Always heading in the wrong direction.

    3. None this makes a lick of sense. The electoral college is kind of dumb, but hardly fatal. “Plurality voting,” is a STUPID conspiracy theory. The “structure of the Senate is fine. The problem is that the two party system no longer works. And this is for a reason that nobody wants to talk about. Because Republicans and Democrats are divided along ideological lines. Whose constituencies won’t allow compromise.

    4. 2 20 20 Hey@Paul Kern, Funny, I was thinking the same thing; what to do. I was reading an intersting post & the suggestion is have people know that voting & participating in the process is important to them. The example given involved students understanding the process of voting. I’m going to go back & read the post again & take notes. Be well. v

  4. Well, THIS is where it Starts: Folks claim not to be surprised by The Donnie anymore, but what have they done to CHECK him? Bugger all. So let’s all be Laissez-faire when Roger Stone gets his pardon. sheesh

  5. He’ll sign the pardon using lindsey grahams blood (that he gave to IQ45 as a personal favor, of course)
    Lindsey will tell the world how proud he is. Fox will call him a patriot.

  6. As a non-American, it absolutely dumbfounds me that a politician can pardon criminals in the USA. What possible justification could there be for putting such power in the hand on one person – especially when that person is an orange toddler.

  7. The pardon may not be a surprise but what media needs to do is amplify that he is pardoning someone who has been convicted of covering for the President. Amplify this message.

  8. Vote on November 3, 2020 to restore competence, honor and integrity to the office of the President of the United States.

  9. Get him out of here, take him out, and quit pussyfooting around.
    Remove this m*********** from the Oval Office and throws furniture out in front of the White House lawn in the rain.

  10. We fought the English to get rid of the royal throne.
    And replaced it with an even worse system of ruling class.

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