Trump Latest on Various Scandals….
Part 1 always provides commentaries & numerous links to articles on the Trump latest Russian political updates, along with various travails coming out of the White House for this headline-grabbing president. And again this week we saw lots of headlines! The WaPo article mueller-told-trumps-attorneys-
Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III informed President Trump’s attorneys last month that he is continuing to investigate the president but does not consider him a criminal target at this point, according to three people familiar with the discussions. In private negotiations in early March about a possible presidential interview, Mueller described Trump as a subject of his investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. Prosecutors view someone as a subject when that person has engaged in conduct that is under investigation but there is not sufficient evidence to bring charges.
The special counsel also told Trump’s lawyers that he is preparing a report about the president’s actions while in office and potential obstruction of justice, according to two people with knowledge of the conversations. Mueller reiterated the need to interview Trump — both to understand whether he had any corrupt intent to thwart the Russia investigation and to complete this portion of his probe, the people said. Mueller’s description of the president’s status has sparked friction within Trump’s inner circle as his advisers have debated his legal standing. The president and some of his allies seized on the special counsel’s words as an assurance that Trump’s risk of criminal jeopardy is low. Other advisers, however, noted that subjects of investigations can easily become indicted targets — and expressed concern that the special prosecutor was baiting Trump into an interview that could put the president in legal peril.
So what that tells us is as of a month ago, the prez was not officially designated as a target at that point, meaning they don’t (didn’t) yet have the evidence to charge him with a crime. That he’s still designated as a subject may be just a matter of semantics & Mueller putting on his poker face. Mueller is more aware than anyone of Trump’s attempts to disrupt the probe (even wanting to fire Mueller last summer), so he may have softened the language to Trump’s lawyers as a ploy to get the prez to agree to testify. Mueller may push him to testify soon, having the power to subpoena if need be. Another factor is it’s an open constitutional question whether a sitting president can even be indicted, so the bar for a president to be a target in a criminal investigation may be raised higher than for anybody else.
As for the biggest significance from that article, it’s probably from the special counsel preparing a report on possible obstruction of justice by the prez based on his behavior in office. That report may be ready in the next couple months & we can presume will feature the numerous times Trump tried to obstruct the probe we’re already well aware of. The strength of that obstruction charge will be directly related to determining what Trump’s true intent was. Mueller’s team is working on multiple tracks which the obstruction report would be part 1. The other tracks seemingly focused on potential charges like collusion (conspiracy) & money laundering, those reports would come later, perhaps even after the midterms so the probe tries not to interject itself into the politics (although it’s unavoidable this general Russian narrative will have a huge impact on the midterms). But it’s a fluid situation subject to change depending on the evidence investigators uncover.
There are several articles in the first group of links below offering perspective on this, including these: mueller-told-trump-hes-
Lordy, there may be reports. This week has brought several new clues that Bob Mueller views his charge as special counsel quite expansively. Carol D. Leonnig and Robert Costa scooped last night that Muellerinformed Donald Trump’s attorneys in early March that he is continuing to investigate the president but does not consider him a criminal target at this point. (A “subject” can always become a “target” later on.) Here’s an especially interesting passage from their piece that may foreshadow how the next few months might play out:
“The special counsel also told Trump’s lawyers that he is preparing a report about the president’s actions while in office and potential obstruction of justice … Mueller reiterated the need to interview Trump — both to understand whether he had any corrupt intent to thwart the Russia investigation and to complete this portion of his probe…
“Mueller’s investigators have indicated to the president’s legal team that they are considering writing reports on their findings in stages — with the first report focused on the obstruction issue,” per Carol and Bob. “Under special counsel regulations, Mueller is required to report his conclusions confidentially to Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who has the authority to decide whether to release the information publicly. ‘They’ve said they want to write a report on this — to answer the public’s questions — and they need the president’s interview as the last step,’ one person familiar with the discussions said of Mueller’s team.
Shifting further down the links in the Related Articles, the reports from mueller-leaks-trump-russi
Roger Stone appeared on the InfoWars radio show the same day he sent an email claiming he dined with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange — and he predicted “devastating” upcoming disclosures about the Clinton Foundation. Stone’s comments in his August 4, 2016, appearance are the earliest known time he claimed to know of forthcoming WikiLeaks documents. A CNN KFile timeline shows that on August 10, 2016, Stone claimed to have “actually communicated with Julian Assange.” The comments also raise more questions about what Stone knew about WikiLeaks and about the veracity of his claims to have been in contact with Assange, which he now denies.
On the August 4, 2016, InfoWars show, Stone described the soon-to-appear WikiLeaks disclosures. He also mentioned that he spoke with then-Republican nominee Donald Trump on August 3 — the day before the interview. InfoWars is a fringe media outlet run by Alex Jones, who is known for spreading conspiracy theories. Stone wrote to former Trump adviser Sam Nunberg on August 4, 2016, that he had dinner with Assange the night before, according to a source familiar with the email exchange. The email was first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Monday. The Journal also reported that special counsel Robert Mueller is examining the exchange. Stone has said the email about the dinner was sent in jest and that he has never met or spoken with Assange.
From there we see groups of links on Manafort & other key players in the Russian case, which Manafort’s legal maneuvering just went up in flames, so maybe he’ll flip on Trump or else still hope for a pardon. Mueller is still following the business ties & money trail that Manafort left behind: mueller-reveals-search-manafor
There are also articles on Cambridge Analytica & the hot water Facebook is in over that, where many millions more than previously reported had their user data stolen, making them targets for manipulation by fake ads: facebook-says-87-million-
Moving on down the links to articles on the Trump latest news, under international dangers we find this one: trump-is-as-bad-if-not-worse-t
From there we have links to Stormy Daniels stories, where the prez denied knowing about the $130K hush-money payment: trump-denies-knowing-hush-mone
More on the Trump latest, another group of links explore Trump’s shaky cabinet where Scott Pruitt could be the next one to go: scott-pruitt-was-always-an
Trump will get little if anything from Congress on the issues he tweets about from here on in. But I am not sure that was his real point. Complaining about things simultaneously reveals Trump’s powerlessness but also fires up his base to try to get him an even more pliant Congress. (It also lets him off the hook for anything bad that happens.) Democrats enjoy an enthusiasm gap. But if Trump can keep his voters in a sustained frenzy until November, maybe he can close that gap. Will this strategy work? Probably not. Eight months of Twitter frenzy might bore even his loyal base. But the advantage to Trump is that as strategies go this one is pretty costless (for him, not the country). The president was not going to get bipartisan cooperation on anything. Trump is really good at roiling the political waters through the bully pulpit. Between being silently frustrated by political stalemate and loudly frustrated by it, Trump will opt for the latter every time. Is Trump unhinged? Yes, absolutely. Is that on brand for him? With no political option left to him, yes, absolutely.
Based on special elections we’ve recently seen in various places, the Dems are winning based on the intensity of their voters: the-republicans-panic-about-th
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says that November’s midterms will be “challenging” for Republicans, but he can’t yet predict the strength of the headwinds. “This is going to be a challenging election year,” McConnell said in a Tuesdayinterview with Kentucky Today. “We know the wind is going to be in our face. We don’t know whether it’s going to be a category 3, 4 or 5.” McConnell said he’s optimistic his party can hold onto a majority in the Senate but the fight for the House, where every seat is up for election this year, will be more daunting.
Recent Comments