Anonymous wrote:If this was in the oppo research, how come we are just now hearing about it?

That is what does not make sense to me. It is almost too sensational.

Before the report had no real credibility. Now it has the stamp of approval of the US Intelligence services. That is the only change, the importance of which is debatable.

^^PP again. There is no requirement that negative attacks on a political opponent be verifiably true, but it's better if they are. Clinton might also not wanted to have compromised an ongoing investigation. I know it's hard for some to believe she cares about this country more than winning the Presidency...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If this was in the oppo research, how come we are just now hearing about it?

That is what does not make sense to me. It is almost too sensational.

I made the same point earlier. I can't believe that HRC's campaign would not have used some of this information if there was any basis for it. This is quite apart from Trump's primary opponents who had access to the same information.

It makes me wonder about the veracity of the charges.

I did see some news about it back in the late summer/early fall. It did not get any traction, though I did not see any of the news reports ever being retracted. I actually found it kind of odd that the story just fizzled.

My guess, which is pure speculation, is that the information wrt Russia could not be verified by the Clinton campaign and they figured all the stuff we did know about Trump (including his own words and behavior on the campaign trail) would be enough to sink him. It's a widely held opinion that Clinton's campaign made several gross miscalculations with regard to how to beat Trump.

Anonymous wrote:How can he be impeached if he is not yet President?

Exactly!

The ignorance of some of those posting here is just mind-boggling.

Exactly. Action taken before inauguration?

How can he be impeached if he is not yet President?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is interesting...and scary....

I wonder how the Trump team will respond?

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/10/politics/donald-trump-intelligence-report-russia/index.html

"Classified documents presented last week to President Obama and President-elect Trump included allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump, multiple US officials with direct knowledge of the briefings tell CNN."

What's the purpose of leaking this to CNN? Shouldn't these officials' clearance be revoked? Oh, that's right, those officials are probably Obama's political appointees.

The worm turns, my friend!

It's pretty clear that no matter what happens next, Putin got his wish.

- Worst case scenario, Trump knowingly colluded with Putin. Obviously terrible.
- Only slightly less bad, Trump's surrogates did without his knowledge.
- Absolute best case scenario, everything here is completely, 100% made up and everyone accepts this fact (and I think both are highly unlikely). The fact that the possibility of this kind of collusion was ever seen as even potentially credible will forever taint our view of American elections...undermining our faith in our electoral process, exactly as Putin would want.

Similar situation for what to do next:
- Any Congressional investigation that could be completed by Jan 20 could not be thorough, so any finding would be suspect.
- If Trump is sworn in, there will remain the concern that he is a Russian agent. And Putin wins.
- If he is not sworn in, there is the possibility that through sheer allegation a democratically elected POTUS (no matter how disgusting I may personally find him) was unseated due to innuendo about Russian activities. Again, Putin wins.

Anonymous wrote:If this was in the oppo research, how come we are just now hearing about it?

That is what does not make sense to me. It is almost too sensational.

I made the same point earlier. I can't believe that HRC's campaign would not have used some of this information if there was any basis for it. This is quite apart from Trump's primary opponents who had access to the same information.

It makes me wonder about the veracity of the charges.

They have enough on him to blackmail him. Great. No wonder he's Putin's puppet.

Anonymous wrote:This is interesting...and scary....

I wonder how the Trump team will respond?

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/10/politics/donald-trump-intelligence-report-russia/index.html

"Classified documents presented last week to President Obama and President-elect Trump included allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump, multiple US officials with direct knowledge of the briefings tell CNN."

What's the purpose of leaking this to CNN? Shouldn't these officials' clearance be revoked? Oh, that's right, those officials are probably Obama's political appointees.

Anonymous wrote:Trump impeached and or resigns within the next twenty four months, and Pence sworn in as President 46. It's gonna happen.

Yup that's my prediction too. Such a shame the truth didn't come out during the campaign.

Anonymous wrote:How have other news outlets not picked this up and run with it?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/intelligence-chiefs-briefed-trump-and-obama-on-unconfirmed-claims-russia-has-compromising-information-on-president-elect/2017/01/10/9da3969e-d788-11e6-9a36-1d296534b31e_story.html?tid=a_breakingnews&hpid=hp_no-name_no-name%3Apage%2Fbreaking-news-bar#comments

If this was in the oppo research, how come we are just now hearing about it?

That is what does not make sense to me. It is almost too sensational.

How have other news outlets not picked this up and run with it?