Where’s Paul Erickson? Somewhere near Washington D.C., visiting his Russian shotgun-paramour Maria Butina in jail and lawyering up, say two quiet sources to The Daily Beast:
Butina was indicted back in July, and the federal charging document all-but-named Erickson in its accusations that Butina infiltrated the conservative movement on Moscow’s behalf. But Erickson didn’t lawyer up until a month or so ago, according to two individuals with direct knowledge of Erickson’s affairs. Those sources added that he has struggled to cobble together funds to pay for representation. The former GOP operative appealed to former University of Virginia law school classmates for recommendations on which attorneys to hire, the sources said.
The U.S. attorney’s office in South Dakota is currently leading a fraud investigation into Erickson’s past business dealings and the FBI has questioned those in his orbit for the last several months, according to three people familiar with the probes.
…Despite the ongoing investigations and his reported ties to Butina’s activities, Erickson frequently visits her in jail, two individuals with knowledge of the meetings told The Daily Beast. Erickson apparently expressed frustration to friends over the fact that jail staff forced him to sign into the main visitor log, fearing the media would find out [Erin Banco and Betsy Woodruff, “Maria Butina Beau Paul Erickson Finally Lawyers Up,” The Daily Beast, 2018.11.28].
Meanwhile, Butina’s father, Valery Butin, is helping Russian media press the line that the U.S. is torturing his daughter with a letter asking Russian President Vladimir Putin to intervene:
Being unable to prove her guilt in a fair trial, the American authorities set the objective to break her and force her to confess to the crimes she has never committed. She is subjected to sophisticated torture: for two weeks in prison she was not allowed to sleep, being woken every 15 minutes; she was also kept in a cold facility and denied medical care; subjected to humiliating strip searches, as well as to repeated and lengthy periods of administrative segregation, which, in total, have amounted to nearly three months….
I appeal to you because I am not sure that it is possible for an ordinary person to endure such trials. And, I don’t know how much longer Maria will be able to withstand it, refusing to confess non-existent guilt [letter attributed to Valery Butin, posted on Russian government owned Sputnik News, “‘US Authorities Wants to Break Her’—Butina’s Father Asks Putin for Help,” 2018.11.28].
Valery Butin tells Russian government-owned news agency TASS that after allowing Maria to teach yoga and algebra to her fellow prisoners, U.S. officials have thrown the accused spy back into isolation 22 hours a day. Butin also says his daughter’s legal defense fund has received no donations. Paul, really? What kind of a boyfriend are you, spending money on your own lawyers but not helping your best gal?
Maybe she can a job pen raising pheasants, with the emphasis on “pen”.
One really sad part about all this is that prior to our false WDM pre-emptive attack on Iraq, coupled with the justification of torture policies by the 2nd Bush administration, the allegations by Butina’s father that she is being tortured in America’s prisons would have been dismissed as incredible. But since Bush 2, and now, after the 2016 election, Trump has publicly expressed his (and by implication his followers and apologists) desire for our country to hurt and torture people who have little or no ability to fight back. Indeed, his publicly expressed desire to bring back and increase the use of torture gives these current allegations of torture credibility both nationally and internationally.
It is truly amazing how Trump supporters and apologists seem so angry at the world that they are good with: tear gassing men, women and children seeking our help: ripping infants and children from parents as a deterrent to seeking our help; incarcerating families in interment camps simply because they are seeking our help; acting as if Trump is above the law, while shouting for the jailing of Trump’s political opponents and media critics; disparaging our country’s legal institutions; punishing people who publicly object to the increased use of violence and deadly force by law enforcement; accepting and encouraging lying by our leaders; encouraging private greed and hoarding wealth while people go hungry and our national debt grows out of control; turning on our foreign allies while supporting murderous dictorships that financially benefit Trump; dehumanizing whole groups of people least able to defend themselves; and, as it relates to this thread, using torture to force false confessions.
What have so many of us become and why?
bcb, one word, racists. That has always been under the surface but has been held back by the belief that we all had a stake in Democracy. Here in South Dakota, farmers and ranchers are so blissfully ignorant that they refuse to believe that there products support SNAP. They vote against those receiving them and support the blaring billboards that claim SNAP fraud is clear and present danger to their pocketbooks. They then only see Natives as the ones who receive SNAP benefits and that old racism rises in their blood. Never mind that Aunt Clara, who is as white as the driven snow, needs SNAP to survive.
Deutsche Bank, trumps money men, raided in Frankfurt this morning. Chicago tax preparer for trump, raided this morning by the American Federals. New York Times 11/29/2018
“Federal agents showed up unannounced at the City Hall office of Finance Committee Chairman Ed Burke, kicked everyone out and papered over the windows Thursday morning.
The nature of their visit was not known, but Ald. Burke (14th) has dodged dozens of federal investigations over five decades in Chicago politics.
Federal agents also showed up to Burke’s ward office and papered over the windows there.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment. Calls to the FBI office in Chicago and the IRS criminal investigations division were not immediately returned.”https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/ed-burke-fbi-federal-agents-city-hall-council/
trump cancels big meeting with Putin. Pass the popcorn, should be fun times ahead. How I love the smell of napalm in the morning…it smells like victory https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx5N-4JvVyk
He canceled a meeting with his demi-god, Pootie?!? Wow. This is huge. Orange Imbecile would never turn his back on his best butt body. Wow. 😁😁😁
Drumpf’s G-20 schedule has been pared down because he likes to stay home. His comfort is important. Moar important than actually pretending to be a leader.
Micheal Cohen proves trump colluded with the Russians, a very proud moment for American Democracy that we managed to prove all of that. Once again, history proves that Republicans cannot be trusted to govern on a national level. They simply cannot because they do not believe in Democracy. trump is heading on down to Argentina, good looking gals there so his wife better be on her toes, ask Mrs. Mark Sanford from South Carolina. trump is too damn old and chubby to take the Appalachian Trail though.
More to come and we have not even convicted Dusty Johnson’s NRA gal. 2019 is gonna be way cool to keep those Russian loving guys and dolls in the cooler.
BCB, the Trump generation sees change, sees itself being replaced, and doesn’t like it. They see a world they don’t recognize, and they feel disoriented. People like Trump and the SDGOP can only re-orient themselves by demonizing all the change agents, by dehumanizing them and thus making acceptable all sorts of verbal and physical violence.
Yet they embrace a nice girl like Maria who affirms their love of guns, even as her boss works to undermine America’s real global strength.
bcb – well said. Supporters of all those terrible things you mentioned continue to surprise me with their audacity and their ignorance every single day.
debbo, was that a typo of “body” versus “buddy?” Were you attempting to suggest trump or putin are homosexuals?
cory, is it specifically the trump generation or just the trump crazies in general? I’m sure I could run a few google searches, but maybe you know offhand – is age more of a factor when it comes to people supporting trump than location, net worth, race, or other factors?
I doubt Ole Baldy is gay, and the gay community breathes a giant sigh of relief, but I think he’d do pretty much anything to please Pootie. Yes, I mean Anything. Ole Baldy idolizes dictators and Pootie especially.
Trump electorate: older, whiter, maler, less educated. The Trump vote was less about economic anxiety and more about “dominant groups that felt threatened by change and a candidate who took advantage of that trend“:
Mutz supports my thesis: America’s turning brown, and some white folks fear that means their privilege ends. Welcome to the New World.
I’ve seen similar analyses from other sources too. Ole Baldy knows fear is a powerful motivator.
Half the country voted for trump, plus or minus. I did not. I voted clinton as the less crappy option. I hope trump is removed from office, if only for the dent it would hopefully cause in his psyche. However, it is suggested often on this blog that trump supporters are these stereotypes of bitter old white men, but literally millions of non-white folks and non-male folks voted for trump and disagree with the “reasons” cited, such as nostalgia and fear of brown skin.
The reason trump was elected was the poor timing by democrats in selecting such an unlikable candidate contemporaneous with the unfortunately widespread rise of celebrity-for-celebrity-sake, or people being famous not for actually doing something but for merely having money or having a certain last name.
Not every person who voted for Trump is an old white male racist. But Trump played to the racial anxieties of millions and was thereby able to win the Electoral College.
Butina played to similar fears of old white male anxiety and inadequacy. She makes old white men feel good, just like shooting guns.
And I posit that not all “old white males” are racists, gun shooters or hoarders, feel anxious or inadequate nor voted for Trump. I’m not even sure there is anything inherent about being an “old white male” that is connected to any of those attributes, even among the many Trump voters who just happen to be “old white males.” Indeed, wisdom seems more likely to come with age and is in no way reflected by any of those negative attributes.
Correct bearcreekbat, only white males that feel sexually inadequate would be the best description of trump supporters.
The Hill’s John Solomon goes to work on Mueller charging previous red head Russian agents and their boyfriends were arrested sooner than ♡Maria and Paul♥. She just got a public defender so a plea bargain is expected. The US ATTY SD is looking Erickson but I am starting to wonder if Sessions violated his recusal appointing the new USA. Politics over Justice everytime. That’s GOP.
I love all you white people that know so much about racism while you all live in communities that are 90% white and don’t even know any minorities but you are all so enlightened as to see racism at every corner. You guys are a joke.
White Russian, laugh at yourself while looking in the mirror and keep cashing your paytroll check from the head white Russian, ol’ Pottie poot hisownself.
Red gets a public defender and her lover boy will soon be in the barrel. “Last month, there were hints in court filings that that prosecutors and Butina were negotiating a plea deal. Also, this week it was reported by the Daily Beast that Butina’s boyfriend, American GOP political operative Paul Erickson, had been informed by prosecutors that they were contemplating bringing similar charges against him.”
Meanwhile, Dirty Johnson wonders when they will question his sorry behind for his infatuation with the red headed spy girl. Bang bang.
Another question being raised tonight is, how many more Russian Maria’s are there in the Washington, D.C area?
There are a lot of horny old men that are easily seduced by young women that play to their wants and physical needs.
If Maria makes a plea deal, it could involve more perps than just Paul Erickson.
Roger, who would’ve thunk it that Dirty Johnson would’ve embraced Red so wholeheartedly? You don’t have to be an old horndog to catch the seduction. Boobs and guns man, an ammo-sexual gravy train of delight. Hell, even the right wing youngsters got to see how it all works with their parents approval. SDGOP, the movie.
Butina gets a public defender—interesting, indeed! Let’s see what dominoes fall….
She also has a legal ‘expense’ fund and then there is this from Rawstory via Mother Jones/Trace- https://www.rawstory.com/2018/12/strong-evidence-not-proof-trumps-campaign-may-illegally-coordinated-nra-2016-election-report/
According to the report, Trump and the NRA both targeted ads to the same area in Virginia, during the same timeslot and to the same demographic with ads that were complementary. This wasn’t merely a coincidence, either. The report found that both the NRA and the Trump campaign directed the ad buy through two nominally separated organizations that, in fact, are hard to distinguish.
The ad buys by both the Trump campaign and the NRA were even authorized by the same person, according to the report: Jon Ferrell, the CFO of National Media.
Imprisoned Butina’s criminal activity (spying) upon sneaking into the country under a fraudulent green card seems a major national security breach ICE should put its laser focus on (like it does kidnapping children, Dreamers and splitting up families at southern and northern borders). It was a part of Putin’s major strategy to undermine the 2016 presidential election of a strong, forceful and experienced HRC (who 5’7″ Putin deeply feared). Putin wanted, rather, a weak president and a compromised Republican Party in charge of congress. He used Facebook to do it. He even maneuvered Republican FBI head Comey to slander HRC a week before Election day and Mitch McConnell to bury the cyber attack from voters.
And then Melania’s own migration and resulting chain entry by her extended family.
But no, our dear autocrat leader loves former Soviets and Russians, spies, mob, billionaires and Communists (as well as N. Korean and Saudi autocratic murderers). Trump can stomach them but not asylum seekers from third world countries USA has plundered.
And SD Republican, the deep operative Erickson, who is still i ntimately involved with Maria the sexy Russian spy… Paul gained notoriety planning strategy to shiv powerful Sen Daschle, putting Dems into their recent tailspin. Dems were stunned then by Thune’s win in 2004 (who previously lost to Rep Tim Johnson-Daschle saved Tim in that election) and stunned again by Putin’s 2016 Republican victory over HRC.
True to form, high level Republican operators have colluded, aiding and abetting Russians to win elections. It happened again in 2018. It always falls upon Dems to then waste valuable governing capitol reigning rogue Republican lawbreakers back in. This pattern of Republican devilry has continued for decades. Deplorable! Valueless! See Mother Jones December 2018.
CNN Nov 3, 2004 Thune unseats minority leader Daschle; ect.
Derrick Graff, NPR “On Point” 12.06.18: “Mueller reporting likely due in next two weeks.” Happy Holidays Trump Crime Family/Syndicate.
Mutter’s Ridge Vietnam 50 years ago this week Marine Mueller led bronze star rescue.
Leslie, I guess Mueller didn’t have bone spurs.