There’s Plenty Of Crooked To Go Around
January 27, 2018 at 5:50 a.m.
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There is plenty of credible evidence that Trump campaign officials had contacts with Russian officials before the election – and after. Two of those have already pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
President Trump fired the FBI director after telling him to take it easy on Michael Flynn – one of the guys who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
Flynn resigned as Trump’s national security advisor after serving only a couple of weeks. That’s because Flynn lied about the nature and content of his communications with the Russian ambassador.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller – a Republican – is investigating all of this. His team has interviewed all manner of players.
At some point, Mueller will ask to interview the president.
My sense of this whole mess is that there will likely be no evidence of collusion. But that really doesn’t matter because I’m not even sure collusion is a crime. If Trump’s people met with Russians who provided dirt on Hillary Clinton, is that a crime?
I mean, isn’t that precisely what opposition research is all about? Isn’t that precisely what the Democrats did via Fusion GPS and the now-infamous Trump Dossier created by the former British agent?
But even if there is no collusion, smart money says that Mueller is going to charge somebody with something. That’s the way these things always go.
My guess is Mueller is targeting the president for obstruction of justice. It’s pretty much the only path he has to charge Trump with anything.
Mueller will say Trump already knew Flynn lied to the FBI when he asked Comey for leniency. Remember the “He’s a good guy” comment? Mueller will claim Trump obstructed justice by interfering in the FBI investigation of Flynn. This would make Trump a target of the investigation.
As a target of the investigation, Trump will be asked to testify. But Trump doesn’t know what Flynn – who is cooperating with the investigation – said to Mueller.
It’s a classic perjury trap.
If Trump declines to testify, Mueller could subpoena him and courts would likely side with Mueller because there are precedents – Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, for example.
At that point, Trump will either have to testify or plead the Fifth Amendment.
I could be 100 percent wrong about this, but I think Mueller will get Trump in hot water over obstruction of justice, and, depending on his testimony, maybe a little perjury, too.
Constitutional crisis, anyone?
At the same time, you have Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives alleging all manner of ill behavior by the FBI.
Democrats say this is just because the Republicans are trying to divert attention away from the Mueller investigation.
That may be true, but the weird thing is the role reversals going on with these political parties.
I mean, Democrats – liberals, libertarians – have long been opponents of the FBI, accusing the historically conservative bureau of intelligence overreach and partisanship.
As recently as the fall of 2016, Demos were apoplectic about FBI director Comey’s handling of the Hilary Clinton email probe. Comey, after all, is a Republican. Not more than a few Demos openly accused Comey of trying to throw the election to Trump.
But now Demos are rushing to the defense of the FBI?amid accusations that there is an extreme anti-Trump bias at play within the bureau.
Simultaneously, Republicans – the normally ardent “law and order” supporters of the FBI – claim there is a massive scandal at the FBI involving top officials.
They say text messages from a high-ranking FBI official to his mistress tell of a “secret society” of FBI officials that met off-site to plot Trump’s demise.
Then there are five months worth of text message that come up missing but are found within a couple of days of the Justice Department asking for them.
How does that happen?
Republicans also say the FBI used the aforementioned Clinton campaign-funded Trump Dossier to get a warrant to spy on Trump associates.
Republicans further allege somebody in the Obama administration turned over classified information about Trump to the Clinton campaign.
And they’re circulating a memo which has been described as “shocking” in its suggestions of serious wrongdoing by the FBI including improper surveillance of Trump campaign people.
Of course, they won’t let anybody see the memo. Not even the FBI.
Rushing to the defense of the FBI are the Democrats who saying things like, “The memo represents a level of irresponsible stupidity that I cannot fathom.”
Or, “The memo purposefully misconstrues facts and leaves out important details.”
And, of course, the Russians are on board.
That’s right.
On Wednesday, a couple of top Democrats sent a letter to the CEOs of Facebook and Twitter asking them to investigate potential Russian-linked accounts pushing for the memo to be made public.
According to reporting by The Hill, Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, and Dianne Feinstein, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, asked the social media platforms to “conduct an in-depth forensic examination.”
Schiff and Feinstein, claim a trending Twitter hashtag, #ReleaseTheMemo, got a strong boost from Kremlin-linked groups.
Is it just me, or is this insanity?
Is the normally conservative FBI out to get Republican President Trump as the memo suggests or is this all just an overbaked ploy by the Republicans?
And is Mueller’s Russian investigation a political witch hunt or an honest attempt to root out misdeeds in the Trump campaign?
In each case, allow me to quote Forest Gump: “I think maybe it's both. Maybe both is happening at the same time.”
I pretty much think they’re all crooked.
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There is plenty of credible evidence that Trump campaign officials had contacts with Russian officials before the election – and after. Two of those have already pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
President Trump fired the FBI director after telling him to take it easy on Michael Flynn – one of the guys who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
Flynn resigned as Trump’s national security advisor after serving only a couple of weeks. That’s because Flynn lied about the nature and content of his communications with the Russian ambassador.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller – a Republican – is investigating all of this. His team has interviewed all manner of players.
At some point, Mueller will ask to interview the president.
My sense of this whole mess is that there will likely be no evidence of collusion. But that really doesn’t matter because I’m not even sure collusion is a crime. If Trump’s people met with Russians who provided dirt on Hillary Clinton, is that a crime?
I mean, isn’t that precisely what opposition research is all about? Isn’t that precisely what the Democrats did via Fusion GPS and the now-infamous Trump Dossier created by the former British agent?
But even if there is no collusion, smart money says that Mueller is going to charge somebody with something. That’s the way these things always go.
My guess is Mueller is targeting the president for obstruction of justice. It’s pretty much the only path he has to charge Trump with anything.
Mueller will say Trump already knew Flynn lied to the FBI when he asked Comey for leniency. Remember the “He’s a good guy” comment? Mueller will claim Trump obstructed justice by interfering in the FBI investigation of Flynn. This would make Trump a target of the investigation.
As a target of the investigation, Trump will be asked to testify. But Trump doesn’t know what Flynn – who is cooperating with the investigation – said to Mueller.
It’s a classic perjury trap.
If Trump declines to testify, Mueller could subpoena him and courts would likely side with Mueller because there are precedents – Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, for example.
At that point, Trump will either have to testify or plead the Fifth Amendment.
I could be 100 percent wrong about this, but I think Mueller will get Trump in hot water over obstruction of justice, and, depending on his testimony, maybe a little perjury, too.
Constitutional crisis, anyone?
At the same time, you have Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives alleging all manner of ill behavior by the FBI.
Democrats say this is just because the Republicans are trying to divert attention away from the Mueller investigation.
That may be true, but the weird thing is the role reversals going on with these political parties.
I mean, Democrats – liberals, libertarians – have long been opponents of the FBI, accusing the historically conservative bureau of intelligence overreach and partisanship.
As recently as the fall of 2016, Demos were apoplectic about FBI director Comey’s handling of the Hilary Clinton email probe. Comey, after all, is a Republican. Not more than a few Demos openly accused Comey of trying to throw the election to Trump.
But now Demos are rushing to the defense of the FBI?amid accusations that there is an extreme anti-Trump bias at play within the bureau.
Simultaneously, Republicans – the normally ardent “law and order” supporters of the FBI – claim there is a massive scandal at the FBI involving top officials.
They say text messages from a high-ranking FBI official to his mistress tell of a “secret society” of FBI officials that met off-site to plot Trump’s demise.
Then there are five months worth of text message that come up missing but are found within a couple of days of the Justice Department asking for them.
How does that happen?
Republicans also say the FBI used the aforementioned Clinton campaign-funded Trump Dossier to get a warrant to spy on Trump associates.
Republicans further allege somebody in the Obama administration turned over classified information about Trump to the Clinton campaign.
And they’re circulating a memo which has been described as “shocking” in its suggestions of serious wrongdoing by the FBI including improper surveillance of Trump campaign people.
Of course, they won’t let anybody see the memo. Not even the FBI.
Rushing to the defense of the FBI are the Democrats who saying things like, “The memo represents a level of irresponsible stupidity that I cannot fathom.”
Or, “The memo purposefully misconstrues facts and leaves out important details.”
And, of course, the Russians are on board.
That’s right.
On Wednesday, a couple of top Democrats sent a letter to the CEOs of Facebook and Twitter asking them to investigate potential Russian-linked accounts pushing for the memo to be made public.
According to reporting by The Hill, Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, and Dianne Feinstein, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, asked the social media platforms to “conduct an in-depth forensic examination.”
Schiff and Feinstein, claim a trending Twitter hashtag, #ReleaseTheMemo, got a strong boost from Kremlin-linked groups.
Is it just me, or is this insanity?
Is the normally conservative FBI out to get Republican President Trump as the memo suggests or is this all just an overbaked ploy by the Republicans?
And is Mueller’s Russian investigation a political witch hunt or an honest attempt to root out misdeeds in the Trump campaign?
In each case, allow me to quote Forest Gump: “I think maybe it's both. Maybe both is happening at the same time.”
I pretty much think they’re all crooked.
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