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Is a Grand Jury Now Looking into Trump?

Sure seems like it, based on what we learned this week

Released on 05/04/2017


I'm Keith Olberman, and this is The Resistance.

There is strong reason to believe

that there is a grand jury

sitting in the eastern district of Virginia right now

hearing evidence about the connections between

Donald Trump's presidential campaign and the Russians.

And there is likewise reason to believe that a grand jury

possibly the same one in Virginia,

has already issued warrants in connection with

Trump and Russia.

And there are now new indications suggesting

that the FBI may have targeted

as many as 42 individuals in the Trump/Russia case.

Most importantly, much of this appears to have been

at minimum, quite likely confirmed,

when the FBI director James Comey testified

before the Senate judiciary committee.

This started with a tweet from April 28th

from a former Clinton White House staffer

named Claude Taylor, quote,

This just in from a source with knowledge

of Comey's investigation.

Two grand juries have convened

and I know that one is almost complete.

Republican advertising man

and former Guiliani staffer Rick Wilson

retweeted Taylor adding just one word, quote, Same.

And then James Comey testified.

And three hours into that testimony

as the eyes of reporters and senators alike

began to glaze over,

Comey said it,

at 1:42 Eastern daylight time on Wednesday May 3rd,

he was asked a question

by Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii.

So in the investigations that you're currently doing

on the Russian interference

and the Trump team's relationship,

are you coordinating with any U.S. attorney's office?


On this investigation?

Two sets of prosecutors,

Main Justice, the national security division,

and the Eastern District of Virginia U.S. Attorney's office.

Comey matter of factly confirmed

that the FBI was, to use Senator Hirono's term,

coordinating with, to quote again what we just heard him say

two sets of prosecutors,

the Main Justice, the national security division,

and the Eastern District of Virginia U.S. Attorney's office

I asked the smartest man I know, John Dean,

Nixon's White House counsel

and a survivor of presidential scandals past

to translate what coordinating could mean

to the director of the FBI,

coordinating with the national security division

of Justice Department headquarters

could mean almost anything,

but coordinating with the office of the U.S. Attorney

in the Eastern District of Virginia,

John Dean says Comey's testimony

makes it difficult to believe

that there is not a grand jury

in the Eastern District of Virginia.

A grand jury would obviously be one reason

the FBI would be coordinating with the U.S. Attorney there.

Right after Comey added credence to Taylor's tweet

from April 28th,

Taylor acting as a kind of citizen journalist

took this whole thing to yet another higher level.

I not have two sources within legal community

confirming that a D.C. area judge

has signed two warrants related

to Comey's Trump investigation.


Search warrants or arrest warrants?

Taylor's sources are not certain.

They believe there are at least two sealed warrants.

Those sources are also pointing to the fact

that the reported grand jury in the eastern district

of Virginia

would be under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Attorney

for that region, Dana Boente.

Until last month, Dana Boente was the

acting deputy attorney general of the United States

after the firing of Sally Yates.

But Taylor's sources now add that for months

Boente has maintained a strict quarantine

against any contact

with the Attorney General, Mr. Sessions.

Mr. Sessions has recused himself

from the Trump/Russia story,

because Sessions was not honest

during his confirmation hearing

about his own contact with the Russians.

Taylor's sources say in short

that on the subjects of General Flynn and Trump

and Russia, Boente no longer reports

to Attorney General Sessions

and is essentially operating independently.

And Taylor's sources also report

that the target list in the FBI investigation

of Trump and Russia

ranges between 28 and 42 different individuals.

In any event what Taylor has apparently unearthed,

what Comey has said,

what other independent investigators

like Louise Mench and John Schindler

and Rick Wilson and many others have alleged,

is if it is corroborated,

so far ahead of the so-called professional journalists,

that it almost cannot be quantified.

Taylor even seems to have a handle

on the nature of the cases.

Two grand juries, two cases, he tweeted.

One is a RICO case, RICO, racketeering.

The other is a FARA,

Foreign Agents Registration Act case.

The FARA case loops in the Russians in Trump Tower,

is larger and also does involve RICO.

The other unrelated RICO case

involves no election matters.

It involves money laundering as a predicate offense.

So in short, a man named Claude Taylor

tweets there are two Trump/Russia grand juries.

Five days later James Comey says his FBI

is coordinating with the U.S. Attorney's office

for the Eastern district of Virginia on Trump and Russia.

FBI coordination with the U.S. Attorney's office

could very well mean getting evidence

and testimony seen and heard by a grand jury.

No hyperbole is needed here.

A federal grand jury, perhaps more than one of them,

quite likely actively investigating right now

what links existed between Trump's presidential campaign

and the Russians.

The FBI, in its director's own words,

coordinating with office of the U.S. Attorney

in whose district that grand jury apparently sits.

And from Claude Taylor's sources,

the FBI target list on Trump and Russia

reportedly includes at least 28 names

and as many as 42 names.

These are the most important events

in the investigation of Trump and Russia

since the day of the presidential election.



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