A.M. Links: FBI Investigating Possible Trump-Russia Contacts, Gorsuch Confirmation Hearings Day 2, U.S. Bans Certain Electronic Devices on Flights from 8 Muslim-Majority Countries

• 

  C-SPAN

  Today is the second day of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch's confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

• FBI Director James Comey has confirmed that the agency is investigating possible contacts between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russia.
• "Passengers traveling to the United States from 10 airports in eight Muslim-majority countries will be prohibited from bringing laptops, tablets and other portable electronic devices on board with them when they fly, according to new rules set to take effect Tuesday."
• The European Union will hold a summit of its member states on April 29 to plan for Brexit.
• Martin McGuinnes, the former chief of staff of the Irish Republican Army, has died at age 66.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and don't forget to sign up for Reason's daily updates for more content.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

FBI Director James Comey has confirmed that the agency is investigating possible contacts between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russia.

They're just asking questions, that's all.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

[Gordilocks]

Howdy Rufus. Been awhile, what's shakin?

[Rufus The Monocled]

My penis.

[Rufus The Monocled]

My penis.

[OneOut]

that was close Rufus.

cuz if you shake it more than twice you are just playing with it

[Bee Tagger]

FBI Director James Comey has confirmed that the agency is investigating possible contacts

No one else, though. Just those guys are the ones having below-board conversations with a foreign entity.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Today is the second day of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch's confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

AKA the Battle for Camera Time.

[Bee Tagger]

Passengers traveling to the United States from 10 airports in eight Muslim-majority countries will be prohibited from bringing laptops, tablets and other portable electronic devices on board with them when they fly

They notoriously pretend to be asleep when the stewardess tries to get them to turn their ipods off during takeoff.

[Queen of Planet Fuckwit (KK)]

If the tablet ban comes to 'Merika, I'm done flying. Fucking done.

[Citizen X - #6]

Be Muslim like a thug, twiddle your thumbs for 10 hours on a plane like a thug.

[Queen of Planet Fuckwit (KK)]

Fuckin hell. I can't even.

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

If you white, you all right.

[Gadfly]

Or rich. None of the TSA restrictions apply if you are flying on a private plane. You can generally book a private plane for ~$10K per flight (a friend of mine pilots private planes), so all you monocle-wearing, orphan owning libertarians should be fine.

[Careless]

$10k from Iran to the us? Add a zero and then some.

[Fist of Etiquette]

"Passengers traveling to the United States from 10 airports in eight Muslim-majority countries will be prohibited from bringing laptops, tablets and other portable electronic devices on board with them when they fly, according to new rules set to take effect Tuesday."

THE CHRISTIAN-MAJORITY COUNTRY HAS SPOKEN.

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

What are you smiling about? Biology teacher, 26, grins in her mugshot after she is arrested for 'having sex with a 17-year-old student at her school'

Detectives in Lockhart, which is about 30 miles from Austin, interviewed a 17-year-old student who admitted to having sexual contact with Fowlkes.

Husband of Michigan mother who had 'sex with a 14-year-old boy numerous times in her car and sent him naked pictures' SUPPORTS her at trial

The affair was exposed by the boy's mother, and Lajiness later reportedly admitted to having sex between eight and 15 times with the boy in the back seat of her car.

Aviation blondes, bro.

[Gordilocks]

Where were all of these goers when I was in high school?

[Rufus The Monocled]

Seriously.

[Conchfritters]

When I grew up that was a fantasy of mine - unattainable. Today? That shits on the menu.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hot.

[$park? don't care bout yo mom]

If you're gonna marry a "hot" chick, just expect them to be banging everyone.

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

Channeling your inner Robert Mitchum?

Therefore, from a logical point of view
Better marry a woman uglier than you
From a logical point of view
Always marry a woman uglier than you

[$park? don't care bout yo mom]

Robert Mitchum got nothing on Jimmy Soul

[Griffin3]

Lajiness reportedly confessed later on to having sex with the teen and exchanging the nude pictures.

I am not a lawyer, but I am repeating this legal advice to everyone. (h/t Popehat)
STFU, STFU, and especially STFU.

[Free Society]

I wish a woman like her had the decency molest me back in high school.

[Mainer2]

That cute blonde just put on her "camera face". Her trained reflex is to look good in a picture..

[Voros McCracken]

I don't mean to be obtuse, but WRT the teacher and the 17 year old, obviously firing her is appropriate but specifically what is the actual crime she's being charged with? I'm assuming 17 is "of age?"

[Necron 99]

Teacher - student relationship makes it a crime in Texas.

Sec. 21.12. IMPROPER RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EDUCATOR AND STUDENT.

(a) An employee of a public or private primary or secondary school commits an offense if the employee: (1) engages in sexual contact, sexual intercourse, or deviate sexual intercourse with a person who is enrolled in a public or private primary or secondary school at which the employee works;

(b) An offense under this section is a felony of the second degree.

[BYODB]

Oh wow...Lockhart is real close to my original point of origin on this Earth. Scary close, in fact.

I honestly can't say I'm surprised though. I recall way back when they would hire teaches that literally just graduated from College (~22) and have them start teaching kids that were 17. I thought even back when I was in high-school that it was a recipe for...extended office hours.

Not saying that has anything to do with your link, but I'm afraid to click it for a number of reasons while I'm at work.

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

China's High-Tech Tool to Fight Toilet Paper Bandits

Before entering restrooms in the park, visitors must now stare into a computer mounted on the wall for three seconds before a machine dispenses a sheet of toilet paper, precisely two feet in length. If visitors require more, they are out of luck. The machine will not dispense a second roll to the same person for nine minutes.

[SRVolunteer]

precisely two feet in length

Shenanigans. China is metric.

[Citizen X - #6]

The feet are bound, so they're real tiny.

[Anomalous]

I LOL'd.

[FreeRadical]

I really wish we could react to posts a la Facebook without having to respond.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The European Union will hold a summit of its member states on April 29 to plan for Brexit.

And how best to spank the splitters.

[Citizen X - #6]

And then, the oral sex!

[FreeRadical]

Wait, is Citizen X a nurse? Bad Citizen X!

[Citizen X - #6]

Martin McGuinnes, the former chief of staff of the Irish Republican Army, has died at age 66.

Republican?? Good riddance!

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

House Republicans Turn to Upstate New York to Lure Votes for Health Bill

House Republican leaders, trying to lock down the votes of wavering upstate New York Republicans, inserted a last-minute special provision in their health care bill that would shift Medicaid costs from New York's counties to its state government.

The move ? one of a number of late changes designed to gain more votes ? would affect New York State only. It could save county governments outside of New York City $2.3 billion a year. But it could shift costs to state taxpayers or deny New York that same total in matching federal aid if the state continues to require those counties to contribute to the cost of Medicaid. Upstate New York Republicans, backed by local government officials, pressed for the measure over the angry opposition of New York's Democratic governor, Andrew M. Cuomo.

"The more we learn about the repeal and replacement for the Affordable Care Act, the sicker New York gets," Mr. Cuomo said in a statement Monday night.

[Rhywun]

I have no special insight into this issue but if Cuomo's agin' it, I'm fer it.

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

Fox News pulls Judge Napolitano over his Trump wiretap claims

Fox News senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano is being kept off the air indefinitely amid the controversy over his unverified claims that British intelligence wiretapped Trump Tower at the behest of former President Obama.

"By bypassing all American intelligence services, Obama would have had access to what he wanted with no Obama administration fingerprints," Napolitano wrote in a column on FoxNews.com.

But Napolitano said on one program that "Fox News has spoken to intelligence community members who believe that surveillance did occur, that it was done by British intelligence."

[Fist of Etiquette]

Judge Nap should have waved around tax return documents. Those are the acceptable conspiracy theories these days.

[DanO.]

Trump's returns were fake?

[Fist of Etiquette]

It sure would have made for a more interesting conspiracy theory.

[DanO.]

But does the conspiracy-theorizing, Bible-thumping, conservative Republican partisan still have a home at Reason?

[Free Society]

Most of Reason's staff isn't worth a bucket of Napolitano's piss. They're lucky to have him.

[Stormy Dragon]

Yes, who else, faced with a looming deadline, could half-ass a bunch of rhetorical questions and call it an article?

[Free Society]

You weren't even here for that. You just get to hear second hand accounts of the rest of us making fun of him about it. Don't feign insight into thing's Stormy, no one's buying it.

[Stormy Dragon]

I wasn't?

I've been here since 2004.

[Free Society]

My apologies. I've been here for years and must have only recently noticed your spate of poorly reasoned arguments.

[DanO.]

You were just, as the kids used to say, PWND.

[WakaWaka]

Reporters at the NYT, WaPo, and CNN have made a whole cottage industry out of perpetuating wild-eyed conspiracy theories about Russia without a shred of proof, yet Napolitano gets in trouble. Why? He criticized the wrong president.

Reason won't have Napolitano's articles anymore, because of cocktail parties and such.

[Not a True MJG]

Yes, FOX is punishing him for attacking Obama. Spot on.

[Zeb]

You don't understand. Reason actually secretly controls all media.

[Domestic Dissident]

No, we all know it has been almost completely taken over by Alinskyite left wing JournoList scumbags like you, Weigel.

[Stormy Dragon]

He's being air brushed out of all Fox's staff photos as we speak.

[DanO.]

There Goes The Judge

Fox News has reportedly pulled senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano off the air over statements he made claiming President Barack Obama asked British intelligence officials to wiretap Trump Tower in an effort to spy on Donald Trump.

Napolitano was curiously absent from Fox's coverage of the Supreme Court confirmation hearing of Neil Gorsuch on Monday, with sources telling the LA Times that Napolitano is not expected to appear on the network any time in the near future. He has not appeared on Fox News since last Thursday.

https://tinyurl.com/mr7f2fn

[Fist of Etiquette]

Being a bit of a Truther didn't get the Judge tossed but start talking crazy about Obama spying on people and you've gone too far. What's next? Claiming the IRS targeted political enemies?

[DanO.]

Napolitano is the latest embarrassment for Fox News, a company mired in scandal since last summer with Ailes' ignominious firing and continuing with numerous lawsuits, including the upcoming sex-harrassment suit filed by Andrea Tantaros.

[WakaWaka]

You are an embarrassment to humanity, so there's that

[Sevo]

"...a company mired in scandal since last summer with Ailes' ignominious firing and continuing with numerous lawsuits, including the upcoming sex-harrassment suit filed by Andrea Tantaros."

CNN should give it a try. Maybe they'd get more than 3 viewers.

[DanO.]

If you keep nibbling that Cheeto there will be nothing left for Melania.

[Stormy Dragon]

Napolitano, as a dutiful member of the outer party, was parroting the current party line that we were being wiretapped by Eastasia. Unfortunately, that line got memory-holed after it embarrassed Trump, and so now Napolitano has to be un-personed.

[DanO.]

Trump & Spicer are learning, sorta. Instead of wholeheartedly gulping down the latest conspiracy theory (if you don't count Trump's knee-jerk tweets after watching Fox News), they referred the press to Fox (and Napolitano), which forced Fox to retract Napolitano's conspiracy just hours after it aired, resulting in "The Judge's" embarrassing suspension. General Cheeto & Co. threw Napolitano under the bus, but will they finally apologize to U.S. and British intel, the Congress whom they sent on a wild goose chase, the American citizenry itself? I wouldn't count on it. The General, as a malignant narcissist, cannot and will not admit his mistakes.

[DaveSs]

https://goo.gl/3aQYcw

Man jailed indefinitely for refusing to decrypt hard drives loses appeal

By the account in the article it seems they already have one actual image which ought to be sufficient to try him and get a conviction right?
But of course that's not enough. Got to get that precedent set that giving up passwords is not incriminating.

[Griffin3]

Hmm. But would it be legal to explain that you don't know the password, and state that it is written on a post-it note attached to the side of the refrigerator, because it was too long to remember? Maybe that should be one's go-to statement when dealing with requests for one's encryption keys.

[Zeb]

"I don't recall"

Or does that only work for high profile politicians?

[Rhywun]

Those pesky amendments just get in the way. Who needs them anyway.

[Queen of Planet Fuckwit (KK)]

So I've had a bit of shift in thinking about how libertarians can best affect government. I generally thought winning small local elections was the key, and resented all the money spent wasted at the national level.

Now I think that the best hope for libertarian ideas to be implemented is solely through the judiciary. Through civil litigation against the government. I get email updates from IJ, and they really kick serious ass in the courtroom. They have a high success rate. This is probably due to their arguments, like, you know, making sense & shit.

Anyhoo, it's easier to convince a handful of judges or an impaneled jury than a whole electorate. From now on, I'm only spending my time and money on supporting organizations like IJ. Not gonna give a politician the time of day.

[The Last American Hero]

And who appoints those judges?

[Bubba Jones]

It will never be a Libertarian President.

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

The Paddleboarders Who Took Over a Russian Ice Floe

This past weekend, despite subzero temperatures, a few dozen athletes came out to paddle their boards around Ussuri Bay. But as one participant, Vladimir, later explained to SUPRacer, a shish kebab snack break on one of the many ice floes soon inspired a new plan.

"So many paddlers arrived that we thought, 'Why not try and paddle the ice floe like it's a giant board?'" Vladimir said.

" It reminds me of the heady days of Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin when the world trembled at the sound of our rockets. Now they will tremble again - at the sound of our silence. The order is: engage the silent drive. the paddleboarders.

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

Lena Dunham Refuses To Be Your Before-And-After Weight Loss Model

"I feel I've made it pretty clear over the years that I don't give even the tiniest of shits what anyone else feels about my body," Dunham captioned a screenshot of a Refinery 29 article urging readers to stop talking about her weight. "I've gone on red carpets in couture as a size 14. I've done sex scenes days after surgery, mottled with scars. I've accepted that my body is an ever changing organism, not a fixed entity ? what goes up must come down and vice versa. I smile just as wide no matter my current size because I'm proud of what this body has seen and done and represented."

[Citizen X - #6]

"I feel I've made it pretty clear over the years that I don't give even the tiniest of shits what anyone else feels about my body,"

And yet she keeps putting it out there and demanding attention.

[John]

A woman who has made her entire career doing sex scenes and parading around naked in soft core porn now claims she doesn't want anyone to pay attention to her body.

[DanO.]

Y'all seem to be obsessed with her, as if she has offended you personally. I think you snowflakes need a safe space, away from the mean girls who are forcing you to watch their shows and read their commentary.

[Zeb]

She doesn't care what anyone thinks or feels about her body. But she does care that everyone think or feel something about her body.

[Queen of Planet Fuckwit (KK)]

That's the first thing she's ever said that doesn't make me want to deck her with extreme prejudice. HOWEVER, if she doesn't give two shits about what people think of her appearance, why does she keep responding to people who talk about her appearance?

[Citizen X - #6]

Who's got time for self-awareness anymore? Not the modern, sophisticated, sloppy celeb on the go!

[Anomalous]

I hear she's going to have her own line of underwear. It's called Heinous Her Way.

[Free Society]

"I feel I've made it pretty clear over the years that I don't give even the tiniest of shits what anyone else feels about my body,"

By repeatedly screaming at people about "body shaming" and blathering about how she doesn't care about her looks....while posing in front of cameras in sexually suggestive poses.

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

Dear Prudence:

Q. Tattoo for a dying marriage: My husband and I have been married for eight years. We've never been really happy, and we've been in and out of counseling a few times. I want to get a divorce, and I am working to get everything in order financially so I can leave. We don't have kids, so that isn't an issue. The problem is that I'm not financially ready yet to leave, and our anniversary is coming up. My husband thinks we should get matching tattoos to prove our commitment to each other. Obviously, I don't want to do this. But how can I say no without telling him that I'm actually planning to leave him in about six months?

[Rhywun]

"Honey, we're adults and we're not in the Navy. No."

[Free Society]

"Dear Prudence, I want to rob my husband of the maximum amount of money possible while deceiving him into thinking I'm trying to make the marriage work. How can I lie to him more betterer?"

[John]

It is funny how judgemental our society is about adultery but not divorce. Someone who is unhappy in a marriage and cheats as a way to make it more bearable and stays together is the worst person ever. That is all well and good. Adultery is generally a bad thing. The problem is that there is no stigma to divorce anymore. So someone who strays but stays in the marriage is horrible but someone who walks away from a marriage for even the most shallow or nasty reasons is somehow laudable for being honest.

[Free Society]

When you subsidize something you get more of it. Government laws force ex-husbands to subsidize ex-wives, so it should be no surprise that women initiate divorce proceedings in about 70% of the cases of divorce. Whereas non-marital relationships, where courts can't rob Peter to pay Paula, men and women are equally likely to initiate a break-up.

Divorce is less costly for women, in fact it could even be described as a windfall for them. Family courts have become a mechanism for theft.

[John]

To me, some of the most outrageous cases are the ones involving bastard children of rich men. I think that men should support their bastards. But, the courts measure 'support" by percent of the income of the father rather than by some objective measure. So getting pregnant by a rich man becomes a winning lottery ticket for any woman who manages to do it. Just because my mom is a groupie who managed to get herself knocked up by LaBron James should not entitle her or me to some arbitrary percent of his millions.

[Free Society]

Same goes for women that marry a rich guy. The woman might have only been with him for a few years, and he might even have made his whole fortune before he met her, but still he must give her half or some ridiculous proportion. I know men who've lost their family's ancestral lands to women they were with for a couple of years and then divorced. And people act like these outcomes are normal, equitable and fair.

[Hail Rataxes]

Sounds like you should have gotten a prenup, buddy.

[Free Society]

Sounds like you should read better. I've never been divorced and the practicality of a prenup to supersede otherwise unfair divorce settlements is indicative of the problem I'm talking about.

[Hail Rataxes]

Well you seem pretty butthurt considering it hasn't happened to you.

I don't know if you know this, but not everyone thinks "ancestral lands" are actually a thing. Some of us think it's a bit creepy that you're that...into...your family.

[Zeb]

"Ancestral lands", in the sense of land that your family has owned for multiple generations is most definitely a thing. It doesn't mean you have any particular right to it if someone else has a legitimate claim on it. But it is a thing. If I had some land that my family had lived on for 300 years or something, I'd be pretty strongly interested in keeping it.

[Free Society]

So injustice is irrelevant if it didn't happen to you personally? Are you a sociopath?

Ancestral lands are a thing, regardless of what your subjective preferences tell you, and once again just because you don't place a value on family and heritage doesn't mean that everyone on Earth is as shallow and self-important as you are. I don't care what you or other degenerate trolls think is creepy.

[DanO.]

Just shut up, troll.

[Bubba Jones]

They don't have kids. How can she not be financially ready to leave him?

fcking gold digger.

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

Cops doing cop stuff. (It starts with ho hum corruption and soars as we go back in time.)

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

The sheriff declined comment for this story, but she previously has said the ruling doesn't apply to her.

Duh.

[Marty Feldman's Eyes]

A 2009 consent order in the lawsuit has banned sheriffs in Morgan County from using the food funds for any purpose other than providing meals to inmates. [b]Sheriffs of other Alabama counties do not have to adhere to the ruling.[b]

*smh*

Yeah, requiring that *food funds* be used for *food* is just too much to expect the average bear to adhere to.

[OBJ FRANKELSON]

Posted Yesterday: Moonbeam's choo-choo derailed. Hopefully permanently.

[Rhywun]

Jesus... they were planning to fund it with cap 'n' trade hooey?! Just wow.

[John]

It really is astounding how California Democrats have become.

[OBJ FRANKELSON]

It really does seem like a contest to see how many horrible ideas they can chain together.

[Griffin3]

> These activists want greater home-school monitoring
Among other nonsense, the lady featured in the article (Sarah Hunt, who was homeschooled) bemoans the fact that 84 homeschooled children have died of neglect or abuse since ... forever. (the 60s?). The readers were tearing her up in the comments, I was happy to see. How many kids in public schools have suffered similar fates? How many kids in a single Detroit public school district die -- every year?

Apparently Ms. Hunt didn't get any lessons in statistics or logic or rational thinking in her homeschooling. Kind of like public school kids.

[Rhywun]

WaPo;DR

[John]

How many kids are sexually abused by public school teachers? A whole lot more than are abused by their home schooling parents.

[lap83]

Or we could compare the rate of abuse in homeschooling to the abuse in foster care. (Some multiple of the rate in the general population) No wait, then we would have to admit that kids might be better off with their parents

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

Stephen Hawking: I fear I may not be welcome in Donald Trump's US

Prof Hawking is a recipient of the prestigious US Franklin medal for science and received the presidential medal of freedom from Barack Obama in 2009. Now he has spoken out about his fears for the country's "definite swing to a rightwing, more authoritarian approach".

"I would like to visit again and to talk to other scientists, but I fear that I may not be welcome," he said in an interview with Good Morning Britain on Monday.

The 75-year-old Cambridge scientist said he was particularly concerned about Trump's environment policy.

"He should replace Scott Pruitt at the Environment Protection Agency," he said. "Climate change is one of the great dangers we face, and it's one we can prevent. It affects America badly, so tackling it should win votes for his second term. God forbid."

I hope Trump starts a Twitter flame war with this guy.

[Free Society]

Is Stephen Hawking a Muslim? Or is he getting bent out of shape about Trump's threat to round up all the cripples and send them to summer camp?

[John]

If I were Steven Hawking, I would be more afraid to go some place like the Netherlands where they have a bad habit of letting doctors murder cripples than I would the US.

[Free Society]

He'd need to have members of his family sign papers and jump through hoops and then have his voice modulator disabled to prevent his protests from overriding the whole process.

[John]

That doesn't sound very hard to do. And certainly not hard enough to make me feel very safe if I were Hawking.

[Memory Hole]

That sounds a lot harder than suffocating him with a pillow.

[Free Society]

You make it sound a little too easy. I have two Dutch doctor friends, one who loves euthanasia (she) and the other that opposes it (he). Both of them bitch about the tremendous amount of red tape they must go through to make it happen. The doctor friend who opposes it is actually forced by law to do it when asked and when all the red tape is cleared. If I recall correctly, doctors there are also forced to perform abortions before they can get their residency or some such nonsense. Not a good place to be a doctor.

[Rhywun]

Let me guess... they're one of the countries that is "more free" than the US.

[Free Society]

I think these "freedom index" type surveys are awarding points for "positive liberty" instead of deducting points as they should. No one has a "right" to the labor of others beyond that which is spelled out by a freely entered contract.

[FreeRadical]

Stephen Hawking is a phenomenon. His voice modulator is now controlled only by eye movements. Everything else on his body has stopped. Once his eyes stop moving, he will be "locked in" and completely unable to interact with the outside world. The concept of being "locked in" freaks me out.

Also, he has lived much, much longer than normal for people with ALS. It's all amazing.

[Rhywun]

And none of that would have been possible if the world was thrown into the Dark Ages like he and his ilk want.

[Zeb]

Most of what he says is prepared in advance, but it is pretty remarkable that he can communicate at all (or be alive for that matter), let alone continue to be a public figure.

[Rhywun]

M-----------g squirrels. I had a nice long snarky post ready and *poof*.

[$park? don't care bout yo mom]

I have found a way to avoid this. Before hitting submit, hit preview. If you don't see anything in the preview, the squirrels will eat your post. You can copy your text and reload the page and it should work.

Coincidentally, I had to do it with this message.

[Rhywun]

Oh, I've known that trick for years. In fact, I've been using it all morning. There is always that one time you forget, of course.

[$park? don't care bout yo mom]

I hear you. First reaction: Aaaarrrggghh, nooooo!!!! Second reaction: Fuck it!

[TrickyVic (old school)]

""," he said. "Climate change is one of the great dangers we face, and it's one we can prevent""

Cool, I would like to hear more about how we could have prevented the ice age.

[John]

What federal law would the Trump campaign have by talking to Russia? They were private citizens. Is it illegal for an American to have contact with Russia? Not as far as I know. If you can't say what law was broken, and no one seems to be able to do so, then why is the FBI investigating?

[Free Society]

There's some arcane laws about private citizens not engaging in diplomacy on behalf of the US. But once they've won the election, I don't think it should necessarily apply that the incoming administration should be prevented from discussing relevant future plans with relevant interested parties.

[John]

Those laws apply to cases where someone claims to represent the US government but actually doesn't. A Presidential campaign saying "if we win, this is what we plan to do" is not representing itself as an agent of the US government.

[Free Society]

I would be shocked if it turned out that every single incoming administration didn't engage in talks with foreign ambassadors. The whole controversy had me scratching my head. I mean shit, Obama did probably 1/3rd of his campaigning for president in Europe giving speeches to foreign audiences and taking photos with foreign leaders. Are they gonna tell me that Obama didn't engage in any diplomacy then? That was before he was even elected.

[John]

He gave a speech at the Tiergarten in Berlin. You mean he didn't meet with German government officials when he was there? The whole thing is a steaming pile of bullshit.

[Memory Hole]

What federal law would the Trump campaign have by talking to Russia?

That's not why they're being investigated. They are being investigated for coordinating with the Russian govt. I guess you missed the testimony yesterday or more likely you refuse to accept the truth because your ego wouldn't let you.

[Free Society]

What? The testimony from Comey just confirmed that there is an investigation, they didn't present a smoking gun or evidence of any kind that I can recall.

[DanO.]

they didn't present a smoking gun or evidence of any kind that I can recall

I'm no lawyer, but I'd assume that the evidence would come out during the trials, if there are any, not a House hearing.

[Free Society]

Indeed, you're not a lawyer. Testimony is a form of evidence. All the testimony revealed is that there is an investigation. And until you have actual evidence of something more than the existence of an investigation looking for evidence, shut the fuck up.

[DanO.]

No, but keep flailing, dick.

[John]

What law was broken by "coordinating with the Russian government"? You don't even know what that means let alone what law it broke.

Why don't you try thinking and learning something rather than just mindlessly repeating talking points and buzzwords you see in the media? Thinking and learning are fun. You might like it.

[TrickyVic (old school)]

Comey couldn't find broken laws when someone used an unsecure, unauthorized device holding classified information in the bathroom of someone's home.

[x'); DROP USER Tony;]

That's not why they're being investigated. They are being investigated for coordinating with the Russian govt.

Yes, they are investiagting a delusional conspiracy theory without a shred of evidence supporting it, and clear evidence rebutting it, to continue pushing the narrative to create an environment where we can become beligerently (and - fingers crossed! - militarily) hostile to another sovereign nation.

We agree, it's borderline treason.

[x'); DROP USER Tony;]

Edit function, I be needing.

[Sevo]

"...They are being investigated for coordinating with the Russian govt."

I would take MH or some other lefty to come up with *that* baffle-gab
Coordinating WHAT? The price of tea in China?

[The Last American Hero]

But being investigated without any surveillance being conducted, right?

[TrickyVic (old school)]

I find it funny that in January my facebook feed was filled with stories of the British Agent (maybe ex, or ex(ish) that compiled a dossier on Trump as proof of the Russian conspiracy. Now the very same people are saying it's bullshit. How easily people forget. The news reports from then are easy to find on the Internet.