Is Mueller being ready to make a move the reason for the Trump Meltdown?…The prez has been so pissed off this past week, his staff doesn’t want to go near him. The news reports describe the situation like this: “Trump has retreated into a cocoon of bitterness and resentment.” It’s as though he knows something is coming soon, with that something likely coming from Mueller. Guilt is written all over Trump based on his surly mood. The Trump meltdown has manifested itself in crazy Twitter rants like it was Hillary & the Dems who colluded with the Russians, or that Mueller was an Obama operative. He’s been really hitting Mueller hard this week with an angry verbal barrage. Others say he’s retreated this week while he’s brooding, as if he’s hopelessly trapped & is just mailing it in.
This Trump meltdown could be the direct result of inside info he’s been given. His new acting AG Whitaker may have squealed to the prez what Mueller has reported to the AG about the evidence collected, which likely isn’t good for Trump. Or witnesses interviewed by Mueller may have warned Trump what special counsel knows based on his questions. The written questions from Mueller that Trump’s legal team (believe me, it was him) finally tried answering this week certainly helped tipped them off on the track special counsel has taken (PR lawyer Rudy even admits some of the questions they don’t want to answer). Losing the election must have also played a part in the Trump meltdown, knowing a Dem House starting in January can relentlessly pursue inquiries to uncover his crimes.
His Trump meltdown may reflect not only his own legal jeopardy, but also the very real threat sonny-boy Donnie Jr. may soon be indicted. Even the indictment just handed down to WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange could expose info implicating the prez &/or his son. Trump is acting like he knows the final Mueller report & whatever more indictments are handed down will look bad for him, probably being downright criminal. So his best legal strategy along with using Whitaker to hamper the probe, is to rant against Mueller to keep convincing his loyal base the investigation is a sham, hoping to survive since impeachment is so much of a political issue.
Even GOP leaders know Trump picked the wrong guy in Whitaker: matthew-whitaker-mueller-senate-republicans. Basically Trump just admitted in an interview with the Daily Caller that the appointment of Whitaker was because of the Russian case. That’s strong evidence of obstruction much like the Lester Holt interview last year when the prez stated he fired Comey because of “the Russier thing.” Folks, whether you’re a Trumpeter or not, these admissions are obstruction of justice & that’s a crime!: trump-admits-whitaker-stop-mueller-investigation. Out of desperation, there’s a real concern an even more unhinged Trump will demand of his new AG to attack Mueller & throw our nation into a true constitutional crisis!
And with all the lashing out of late over Mueller, that tends to be a prelude something big may be about to land from Mueller. So don’t stray far from the news headlines & TheVORACS, with our next scheduled post ready to land Tuesday afternoon. Trump’s rants about the Mueller probe the last couple days are about one thing, FEAR!: trump-tweets-against-mueller-he-s-running-scared?srnd=opinion. He has a sense of foreboding what’s soon coming. Trump is terrified he’ll be exposed for what he really is, not a winner but a crook.
Washington Post is most on top of these stories
Since our blog limits the number of outbound links, you could copy & paste the bold title headings into a search engine. You may need to subscribe to WaPo to read their articles. But these are the latest news stories on the investigation & very informative, with the battles heating up between Trump & Mueller. Something really big could be announced at any given moment! Check out these articles:
Big News the WikiLeaks founder has been charged, which could point to collusion with others inside the Trump campaign: washingtonpost/julian-assange-has-been-charged-prosecutors-reveal-in-inadvertent-court-filing
GOP flirted with disaster which is ready to come full circle: washingtonpost/trump-teams-flirtation-with-promotion-julian-assange-whos-now-an-accused-criminal
Trump claims to have answered himself (yea, right): washingtonpost/trump-says-hes-finished-writing-answers-to-questions-from-special-counsel-robert-mueller
Save Mueller!: washingtonpost/trumps-battle-to-destroy-the-mueller-investigation-is-officially-doomed
And hands off: washingtonpost/now-more-than-ever-the-president-must-get-the-message-hands-off-the-special-counsel
The corrupted pick where Trump tries to compromise the Russia probe, creating his own slow-motion Saturday Night Massacre: washingtonpost/did-mark-whitaker-compromise-the-mueller-investigation
Trump meltdown has him raging for days: washingtonpost/five-days-of-fury-inside-trumps-paris-temper-election-woes-and-staff-upheaval
Just mailing it in?: washingtonpost/trumps-lackadaisical-post-election-schedule-charted
Proof of obstruction from multiple interviews & tweets: washingtonpost/trump-cant-stop-blurting-out-his-desire-to-obstruct-justice
Rubin’s suggestions for how Dems should proceed uncovering Trumpian corruption & crimes: washingtonpost/a-guide-to-congressional-oversight
This week he started ranting against Mueller again: washingtonpost/flurry-frustration-trump-again-turns-his-fire-robert-mueller
Trump meltdown against Mueller fueled by answering written questions & being emboldened with Whitaker installed as acting AG: washingtonpost/trump-blasts-mueller-probe-a-week-after-installing-new-acting-attorney-general
Signs of fraud from Whitaker, which could make him & Trump soulmates: washingtonpost/matthew-whitakers-denial-about-his-companys-alleged-fraud-just-suffered-major-blow
Here’s a fact-check:
washingtonpost/fact-checking-president-trumps-wild-daily-caller-interview
Click on this live link why the prez is so concerned trump-stung-by-midterms-and-nervous-about-mueller-retreats-from-traditional-presidential-duties with excerpts here:
But his mood apparently has changed as he has taken measure of the electoral backlash that voters delivered Nov. 6. With the certainty that the incoming Democratic House majority will go after his tax returns and investigate his actions, and the likelihood of additional indictments by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, Trump has retreated into a cocoon of bitterness and resentment, according to multiple administration sources. Behind the scenes, they say, the president has lashed out at several aides, from junior press assistants to senior officials. “He’s furious,” said one administration official. “Most staffers are trying to avoid him.” The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, painted a picture of a brooding president “trying to decide who to blame” for Republicans’ election losses, even as he publicly and implausibly continues to claim victory.
White House chief of staff John F. Kelly and Kirstjen Nielsen, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, who are close allies, “seem to be on their way out,” the official said, noting recent leaks on the subject. The official cautioned, however, that personnel decisions are never final until Trump himself tweets out the news — often just after the former reality TV star who’s famous for saying “You’re fired!” has directed Kelly to so inform the individual. And, according to a source outside the White House who has spoken recently with the president, last week’s Wall Street Journal report confirming Trump’s central role during the 2016 campaign in quietly arranging payoffs for two women alleging affairs with him seemed to put him in an even worse mood.
Whitaker a Bad Apple
He certainly has no business running the Justice Dept. Here are good reviews of Whitaker’s background & the circumstances around his ascendance to acting AG, seen in trump-attorney-general-matthew-whitaker-career-timeline & also in these long excerpts patched together from matt-whitaker-mueller-trump-sessions. It looks as though Deputy Barney Fife would have been more qualified as our nation’s top law enforcement officer, & certainly much less compromised:
Just one week into his new job as acting attorney general, Matt Whitaker is under siege. He’s deeply distrusted at the Justice Department. There are widespread fears that he might try to squelch investigations into President Trump. There are questions about his background— and even about whether his appointment is illegal. Before joining the Justice Department in the fall of 2017, Whitaker was a harsh public critic of special counsel Robert Mueller. Not only did he publicly opine that the Trump campaign hadn’t colluded with Russia and that there was no obstruction of justice case against the president, but he mused about how a replacement for Jeff Sessions could rein Mueller in. Now Whitaker is that replacement, until a permanent successor for Sessions is confirmed. And shortly after Whitaker got the gig, word leaked out from his allies that he had no intention of recusing himself regarding Mueller — positioning him to learn what the special counsel has found, and to potentially curb the probe or even end it entirely.
Whitaker’s appointment was deeply unusual. Trump departed from the Justice Department’s usual line of succession to put him in the post, using an obscure law called the Vacancies Reform Act that lets the president temporarily fill vacant positions. Critics soon put forward several different arguments that the appointment was illegal. And the matter has already made it to the federal courts — the attorney general of Maryland filed papers Tuesday trying to get Whitaker’s appointment struck down, and arguing that “[Deputy Attorney General] Rod Rosenstein is the acting attorney general.” Whitaker’s appointment has been criticized on other grounds too — for instance, he recently served on the advisory board of a scam company that the government shut down. The backlash was severe enough that by Friday, Trump was falsely claiming that he “didn’t know Matt Whitaker.” But so far, he’s still in the job.
Whitaker became better-known among national conservatives once he landed a plum gig at a conservative nonprofit group, the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT). At first, the group, funded by anonymous conservative donors, was all about getting Whitaker into the press so that he, a former US attorney, could accuse Hillary Clinton of committing crimes. (“I would indict Hillary Clinton,” he wrote in a 2016 USA Today op-ed.) When Trump won, Whitaker pivoted — his new job seemed to be arguing that Trump and his associates didn’t commit crimes, particularly in relation to Mueller’s investigation. This hackishness landed Whitaker a CNN contributor gig, since the network wanted some reliable Trump defenders. Whitaker reportedly said privately that his goal with these on-air remarks was to impress the cable TV-obsessed president and get nominated as a judge. It partly worked — the New York Times reports that Trump did enjoy Whitaker’s TV appearances. But the president had other plans for him.
In August 2017, the job of Sessions’s chief of staff was open. Whitaker was already on Trump’s radar — per the New York Times, he’d been interviewed about joining the White House “as a legal attack dog” against Mueller. But the White House instead urged Sessions to hire Whitaker as his chief of staff, and the AG agreed. Whitaker seems to have been put in place to keep an eye on Sessions and the Justice Department. He often spoke on the phone with Trump and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly. He went over to meet Trump more than a dozen times (usually with Sessions). He gained a reputation in the DOJ as “a partisan and a White House spy,” the New York Times reported. And when Trump would rant about the Mueller probe, Whitaker often “smiled knowingly and nodded in assent,” the Washington Post reported.
Trump didn’t end up taking any action before the midterms — but the very next day after they were over, he had Kelly call Sessions. The message was that Trump wanted Sessions out, and would name Whitaker to replace him. Thus, Whitaker completed his 13-month ascent from TV pundit to the top law enforcement official in the United States. But immediately, controversy swirled around his appointment — over whether he’d politically interfere with investigations, over shady aspects of his business history, and over the appointment’s very legality. The entire reason Trump so badly wanted Sessions gone was because he had recused himself from oversight of the Russia investigation. Now Trump has replaced him with someone who has not only criticized the probe but has even publicly mused about how it could be squelched. Indeed, between May and September 2017 — before he got the job as Sessions’s chief of staff — Whitaker said or tweeted:
*That Trump “made the right decision” by firing FBI Director James Comey
*That Mueller’s appointment as special counsel was “ridiculous” and “a little fishy”
*That Mueller investigating Trump’s finances would be “going too far”
*That there is “no criminal obstruction of justice charge to be had” against Trump
*That “the truth is there was no collusion with the Russians and the Trump campaign”
*That Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer was fine because any candidate would have taken the meeting
*That an article headlined: “Note to Trump’s lawyer: Do not cooperate with Mueller lynch mob” was “worth a read”
*That Trump could push out Sessions and replace him with an acting appointee who would reduce Mueller’s budget “so low that his investigation grinds to almost a halt”
It sure looks like Trump may have put in Whitaker as a hatchet man, to end the probe or at least to better “protect” Trump from it. Whitaker now has the power to do many things. He could refuse to sign off on certain new investigative moves (like a subpoena of the president) or further expansion of the probe. He could try to ensure that, should Mueller write a report on Russian interference, it wouldn’t be given to Congress. He could demand a detailed briefing on the state of the investigation and then leak information he learns to Trump. He could even try to fire Mueller outright. Then there’s the potential for Whitaker to launch politicized investigations into Trump’s enemies. Murray Waas reported for Vox that he has already been involved in such discussions this year — that as Sessions’s chief of staff, he tried to pressure the Justice Department to comply with Trump’s demands to launch investigations into Hillary Clinton and others.
Entirely separate from all matters relating to Mueller, Clinton, and other political issues, questions arose about a rather shady-looking part of Whitaker’s recent business history: his service on the advisory board of a company called World Patent Marketing. The Miami-based company claimed it would help inventors get patents and then would help promote their inventions. But customers said World Patent Marketing was just a scam. The company “simply took cash without ever meeting or reviewing any pitches,” and as it raked in more than $26 million, “virtually none of the firm’s clients ever made money,” the Miami New Times reported. The firm’s CEO had donated to Whitaker’s Senate campaign in 2014, and that year, Whitaker agreed to serve on World Patent Marketing’s advisory board. “As a former US Attorney, I would only align myself with a first class organization,” he was quoted saying in a 2014 press release.
World Patent Marketing was also infamous for threatening customers who went public about their disgruntlement — and Whitaker participated. He emailed a customer that he was a former US attorney and that “smearing” World Patent Marketing online could lead to “serious civil and criminal consequences,” per the New Times. The Federal Trade Commission eventually forced the company to shut down in 2017, and an FBI criminal investigation into the firm is ongoing, according to the Wall Street Journal. In October 2017, the FTC even subpoenaed Whitaker for records related to this company. But, per the Washington Post’s sources, Whitaker then “failed to provide any information, telling investigators that he was busy at that time moving from Iowa to Washington for a new job.” Then, separately from that, the AP’s Ryan Foley and David Pitt reported on how a company of Whitaker’s “walked away from a taxpayer-subsidized apartment-rehabilitation project in Iowa after years of cost overruns, delays and other problems.” (A DOJ spokesperson blamed the debacle on “a bad general contractor.”)
Finally, beyond any of Whitaker’s personal traits, there’s yet another set of controversies around the legality of his appointment. Trump appears to have named Whitaker acting AG by using a law called the Vacancies Reform Act. Passed in 1998, the VRA gives the president some leeway to go outside the ordinary line of succession to temporarily fill Cabinet jobs that become vacant, putting in acting appointees of his choice who either have been confirmed by the Senate for another post or have worked in a top job in the relevant department. This law had been somewhat obscure until President Trump started using it for high-profile, controversial appointments of loyalists — for instance, he put in Mick Mulvaney as the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Robert Wilkie as acting veterans affairs secretary, and now Whitaker as acting attorney general. But several legal questions have been raised about Whitaker’s appointment, and we can think about them in two buckets:
Statutory questions: Some have asked whether the VRA conflicts with a separate law about DOJ’s succession. Others have pointed out that the VRA is about replacing officials who resigned, and questioned whether Sessions’s Trump-ordered exit counts as a firing instead (though Sessions did use the word “resignation”).
Constitutional questions: In an op-ed last week, lawyers Neal Katyal and George Conway argued that there that there is a constitutional problem with using the VRA to appoint Whitaker — because he wasn’t confirmed by the Senate for this stint in government. The Appointments Clause of the Constitution, they say, requires a “principal officer” of the executive branch to be confirmed by the Senate. Former Bush Justice Department official John Yoo agreed, saying “the statute is unconstitutional when applied in this way.”
Warnings Found in Slate Magazine
The similarities we’re seeing to Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre can help give us a roadmap as to how to deal with the comparative presidential indiscretions we’re seeing today. In articles from Slate, click on matthew-whitaker-nixon-appointment-patrick-gray-fbi-director for a history lesson from Watergate. And inside jeff-sessions-firing-saturday-night-massacre-matthew-whitaker we’ve posted the beginning & ending here, pointing out if such lawless actions are permitted without consequence, a dangerous precedent would be set mocking the rule of law & undermining our democracy:
With the firing of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, America is in uncharted territory. The last time a president made a personnel change to undermine an investigation of his associates, Congress forced him to resign. That was when President Richard Nixon pushed out his attorney general and deputy attorney general so he could fire the special prosecutor. The fallout from this Saturday Night Massacre, as it is known, has stood as a warning to subsequent presidents. Yet President Trump has launched a piecemeal Saturday Night Massacre of his own. He first fired FBI Director James Comey last year for his handling of the Russia probe, then he fired the attorney general for failing to protect him from the Russia probe. His intent to undermine an investigation of his campaign has been clear throughout—he barely tried to hide it—but the difference this time is that he has acted with impunity. What comes next could be anything. The thing about traveling in uncharted territory is that you don’t know where you’ll end up.
In 2018, we again find ourselves charting new territory. The argument that Comey’s firing might not be a catastrophe for democracy was that we now had Robert Mueller in the role of special counsel. The argument that Sessions’ firing might not be a catastrophe for democracy is that Mueller’s investigation may yet overcome any obstacles and reach its natural conclusion. Maybe, maybe not. But whatever the outcome of Mueller’s investigation, America is establishing new precedents. One precedent is that President Trump fired the FBI director—and Congress did nothing. Another is that Trump admitted the FBI’s investigation of his campaign motivated the firing—and Congress did nothing. A third precedent is that Trump fired the attorney general after having railed against him publicly for refusing to intervene in the investigation—and Congress has done nothing. A fourth precedent is that Trump circumvented the Justice Department’s order of succession so he could replace the attorney general with an individual who has directed partisan attacks at the special counsel, has described publicly how a new attorney general could undermine the investigation, has had a personal and political relationship with an individual involved in the investigation, and has been associated with a company that is the focus of a separate FBI investigation.
We’ll see what a new Congress does about that when it is sworn in this January, but options may be limited unless the Senate’s leadership has a change of heart. Even if the appointment of Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker—the current replacement for Sessions—were to be invalidated, Trump would still be guilty of having fired the nation’s top two law enforcement officials in an effort to obstruct the investigation of his campaign. If members of Congress or the American people fail to act, these precedents will become the guideposts for future presidents who follow the path President Trump is blazing. A new tenet of American democracy will become that a president is permitted to evade investigation by firing the heads of agencies that investigate the president’s close associates, even when the investigation is the reason for the firings. This cannot stand. Putting a president above the rule of law is a threat to democracy.
Save Democracy!
Rubin does offer hope that not only might democracy be salvaged, but with greater acknowledgment & participation towards protecting it, our democracy could even rebound & flourish. See these excerpts from three-very-positive-signs-for-democracy:
Plenty of evidence suggests that democratic norms are eroding and faith in democracy itself is decline. However, let’s not overlook some very healthy signs — not the least of which is a record turnout in the midterm elections. First, votes are being counted in Florida, regardless of President Trump’s hugely inappropriate tweets trying to undermine that process. Both sides have access from the courts. There will be a final vote. Likewise, a final election result was determined in Arizona, and both sides — despite irresponsible comments from the National Republican Senatorial Committee — accepted the legitimacy of the vote count. We’re about to see a peaceful transfer of power in the House of Representatives. Even as some races are still being counted, both parties have accepted the results, even in very close races.
Second, we are seeing pushback from the right against the president’s lawless conduct. Fox News signed on to CNN’s lawsuit against the president over the revocation of Jim Acosta’s press pass. “Fox News supports CNN in its legal effort to regain its White House reporter’s press credential,” Fox News President Jay Wallace said. “We intend to file an amicus brief with the U.S. District Court.” Wallace continued, “While we don’t condone the growing antagonistic tone by both the president and the press at recent media avails, we do support a free press, access and open exchanges for the American people.” (The Post also joined about a dozen outlets in support of the suit and in vowing to submit amicus briefs.) Likewise, in the legal arena, a new conservative legal group is picking up the slack in light of the Federalist Society’s near-total subservience to the White House, apparently in exchange for an outsized role in picking judges. The New York Times reports that a group of conservative lawyers led by George T. Conway III have organized themselves to — gasp! — defend conservative legal principles that the president routinely shreds.
And finally, a bipartisan group has put out a meaningful list of proposals to reform and bolster democracy. The National Task Force on Rule of Law & Democracy, led by such figures as former U.S. attorney Preet Bharara, former Republican New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman and former Delaware senator Mike Castle (also a Republican), has put out a batch of ideas ranging from disclosure of presidents’ and vice presidents’ tax returns to legislative enforcement of the emoluments clause to reform of the Office of Government Ethics (giving it power to investigate and punish ethics violations). The task force also recommends extending certain ethics requirements to the president and vice president, empowering inspectors general, protecting special counsels and declaring self-pardons to be illegitimate. Democracy is being stressed tested but has not buckled, at least not yet. We should welcome apolitical vote-counting, new interest by the right in enforcement of constitutional norms, and bipartisan efforts to shore up our democracy. Let’s hope others see the merit in and positive attention of such efforts.
Rubin also paints a horrifying portrait of the prez, which as her excerpts below from a-frightful-portrait-of-a-president-out-of-control present, saving our democracy will be far better accomplished by removing Trump from the White House as soon as constitutionally possible:
In other words, as bad a Trump’s public outbursts may be, he is even less composed, rational and stable behind closed doors. Once more — as we saw with Bob Woodward’s book, the anonymous op-ed in the New York Times, Michael Wolff’s book, Omarosa Manigault Newman’s tell-all, and countless news reports — the people who work most closely with Trump know best how emotionally, intellectually and temperamentally unfit he is for the job. And yet, they continue to mislead the public, and remain silent after leaving, as to the president’s ability to carry out his duties. Trump apologists, as they habitually do, will deny and disbelieve reporting. But foreign leaders, outside friends, members of Congress and others who observe him on a daily basis now spill their guts to the media, perhaps to distance themselves from the White House’s downward spiral.
There are several takeaways from all of this. First, Trump will get worse under pressure. Second, self-described saviors of the country, such as the anonymous op-ed writer, are deluding themselves if they believe they are preventing the president from harming the country. Third, all of this points to the gross irresponsibility of Republicans who, for two years, refused to exercise any oversight and continue to spin on his behalf. All of this reminds us that Democratic control of the House is only a halfway measure. Unless and until Trump is out of office, the country, our democracy and our security remain at risk.
Petition to Save Mueller by lots of Legal Minds
What we’ve posted here comes from over-1600-lawyers-sign-letter-saying-mueller-probe-must-be-protected:
The American Constitution Society Wednesday released a letter signed by over 1,600 attorneys nationwide calling for lawmakers and Justice Department officials to protect the special counsel’s Russia probe in light of Matthew Whitaker’s appointment as acting attorney general. “President Trump’s removal of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions is clearly a maneuver to obstruct or to end Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of possible illegal activities by the President’s campaign. The Mueller investigation has already uncovered serious crimes committed by the President’s closest associates,” the signatories said in the letter. “The Special Counsel’s investigations into Russian interference in our nation’s democratic processes must be allowed to continue. They must continue, even if they implicate persons or institutions connected to the President, to his campaign, or to his businesses.”
The lawyers also warned about the consequences of eroding of the independence of prosecutors. “To allow the independence of the prosecutorial function in this nation to be sacrificed, to protect the President, endangers the very rule of law, on which our nation and our Constitution are based,” the letter also said. The attorneys then demanded that Whitaker either recuse himself or be removed from overseeing the special counsel’s investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, while calling on Congress to pass legislation protecting Mueller and his probe.
Meanwhile, the attorney generals for Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Delaware, D.C., Hawaii, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, California, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont and Rhode Island signed on to a letter echoing the calls made by the lawyers. “As prosecutors and law enforcement officials committed to the rule of law, we believe that the independent Special Counsel must have the full authority to investigate and, if warranted, prosecute any violations of federal law,” the attorneys general wrote.
More Good Articles from the Past Couple Days
These are news sources that don’t require a subscription, so you could do a search for any of these to read them:
Trump admits why he hired Whitaker:
investigaterussia/potus-confirms-why-whitaker-hired
Trump meltdown in full gear:
https://investigaterussia.org/media/2018-11-15/trump-attacks-russia-probe-again
Yes, & I beat LeBron James in basketball: investigaterussia/i-write-answers
Another article where he admits the real reason he hired Whitaker. Can we spell O-B-S-T-R-U-C-T-I-O-N?: esquire/trump-attorney-general-russia-probe-matthew-whitaker
More on the Trump meltdown over Mueller: esquire/president-trump-robert-mueller-russia-probe-twitter-frenzy
Expecting the worst, & Trump knows as well as anyone what he’s done wrong: politico/mueller-probe-trump-trump-jr-roger-stone
There is a real sense the walls are closing in: dailykos/Anxiety-setting-in-at-White-House-The-walls-are-closing-in
Ready to pounce: salon/trump-officials-and-allies-reportedly-fear-the-worst-as-the-presidents-mood-darkens
Promise?: salon/trump-promises-he-is-not-having-a-meltdown
More indictments coming as Trump flails away: businessinsider/trump-mueller-tweetstorm-indictments
The tweets can say a lot: theatlantic/trumps-tweets-criticizing-muellers-investigation
The probe must not be allowed to die: slate/robert-mueller-trump-white-house-russia-investigation-congress
Flake takes a stand: slate/jeff-flake-stand-against-trump-matters
Trump meltdown in tweets are full of outlandish lies when claiming the Dems colluded with Russia: vox/trump-tweet-democrats-collusion-russia-lie
Whitaker says he won’t, but the whole reason he’s there is to interfere!: usatoday/whitaker-mueller-oversight-breaks-public-trust-federal-law
Mr. Tough Guy (also a scam artist): nymag/report-acting-attorney-general-matt-whitaker-is-a-tough-guy
It’s panic time!: nymag/frank-rich-trump-is-starting-to-panic
Stone & Credico
It looks like Roger Stone & Randy Credico are both in a heap of trouble, as they obviously knew in advanced of the WikiLeaks email dump. Among other things, it looks like witness intimidation coming from that shyster Stone, while Credico may have committed perjury. Yes, their prior boasts show they knew in advance about the WikiLeaks release of emails damaging the Hillary campaign in October 2016, conveniently timed to distract from the Access Hollywood tape on the bus with Billy Bush which had just been made public at that time. The crux of the matter is did Stone & his stooges, along with the GOP presidential candidate, help coordinate the release & timing of those hacked emails? That’s what Mueller has been looking at.
Click on tale-texts & also mueller-looking-into-possible-witness-intimidation-by-roger-stone. And inside rick-gates-robert-mueller-donald-trump-russia-investigation-special-counsel-election-interference, Rick Gates as a witness is still playing a major role. More details on the Stone-Credico-Assange connection are in excerpts from texts-show-roger-stone-randy-credico-discussing-wikileaks-plans-nbc:
Radio host Randy Credico was providing former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone with “regular updates” about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s plans to release hacked emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign, text messages obtained by NBC News show. On Aug. 27, 2016, Credico reportedly texted Stone, “Julian Assange has kryptonite on Hillary.” On Oct. 3, Credico texted, “I think it’s on for tomorrow.” On the same day, Stone tweeted he had “total confidence that Wikileaks… will educate the American people soon #LockHerUp.” On Oct. 4, Assange announced he would publish emails related to the 2016 campaign. Special counsel Robert Mueller is reportedly probing Stone to determine whether he had advance knowledge of WikiLeaks releasing Clinton’s campaign chairman’s hacked emails before the 2016 election. Mueller is also reportedly investigating whether Stone tried to “intimidate and discredit” Credico. Stone told NBC News the content of the text messages vindicated him and proved Credico was his backchannel to WikiLeaks. “If Randy said anything different to the grand jury, he perjured himself under oath,” he said.
Foreign Dangers
As expected, Trump got bamboozled in that ballyhooed June Singapore summit: north-koreas-kim-oversees-new-weapons-test. Russia & other cyberattack players can too easily exploit our social media platforms. Facebook’s core business model is ripe to be abused, & inside corporate headquarters they’ve handled this whole threat poorly: facebook-data-russia-election-racism. And U.S. military technology is starting to fall behind other major adversaries, seen in this entire article posted from hypersonic-attacks-by-russia-china-threaten-u-s-official-says:
The United States isn’t prepared to counter hypersonic attacks as China and Russia step up their capabilities for the ultra-fast weapons, a top Pentagon official said. Michael Griffin, the under secretary of defense for research and engineering, said Tuesday that the U.S. hasn’t significantly invested in such transformative technology since Ronald Reagan’s presidency. “If the United States is going to remain ahead, we have to reinvest,” he said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “A generation or two has gone by since that era. Other people are not stupid. Other people don’t stand still. It’s time for us to get back to work.”
Hypersonic weapons can travel five times the speed of sound, or Mach 5. The highly maneuverable and hard-to-detect weapons are among the frontiers where U.S. adversaries are accelerating their capabilities. If such risks aren’t managed properly, Griffin said, advances by China and Russia could pose “existential” threats to the U.S. American forces need to be “closer to the action,” because hypersonic weapons have rapid launch-to-attack intervals that are in the tens of minutes, he said. In July, the Pentagon informed Congress of its plans for the nation’s first hypersonic offensive weapons. The Defense Department said it would shift $20 million in existing funds so the Air Force could accelerate development and deployment of a prototype for a “Hypersonic Conventional Strike” air-launched glide munition, with a first test flight in late fiscal 2020. An additional $65 million was sought to accelerate demonstration of a land-launched version.
Creating a Leadership Void
That void is dangerous for the entire world. Fascist dictators are more than happy to fill that void. We’re losing our influence as we lose our mojo, as can be seen in excerpts from this conclusion to the-world-is-adapting-to-the-reality-of-donald-trump-as-president
As Trump’s United States retreats from global diplomatic engagements, other opportunistic countries are stepping forward. The most obvious example is Russia. President Vladimir Putin may hold a weak hand, but he’s in the game. Russia talks with everyone: Israel and Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, the Taliban and the Afghan government. Putin may be a bully boy, but he’s wearing a diplomat’s pinstriped pants — sponsoring negotiations on Syria, Afghanistan and other issues. Once upon a time, America owned this role of global broker, but not anymore. The greatest beneficiary of Trump’s retreat is China, which openly proclaims its desire to challenge U.S. global primacy. A senior Australian official told me this week that everywhere Australia looks in Asia, it sees China seeking to find potential bases for its increasingly powerful military. Australia is one of the countries that has relied upon U.S. power, and officials still hope that’s a good bet. But looking at Trump, they have to wonder. Commentators have noted that 1918 marked a global inflection point. After the horror of World War I, empires collapsed, aristocracies faded, aggrieved citizens challenged and eventually toppled the old order. Another transitional year was 1945, which began a half-century of overwhelming American global dominance. The United States suffered a political hiccup in 2016, electing a man who was manifestly unprepared to be president. Most of the world hopes we’ll find our balance again, but in the meantime, they must consider making other arrangements.
More Signs of Trump’s Corrosive Buffoonery
Always looking out for only himself: trump-campaign-paid-millions-to-trump-businesses-during-midterms. And he caves to dictators, whether it’s in Russia, North Korea, Turkey or Saudi Arabia. The prez cannot be allowed to favor corrupt autocrats over American residents. Here we see what would be a totally improper whitewash & a sellout: trump-fethullah-gulen-turkey-khashoggi-experts-stunned & also khashoggi-turkey-trump-gulen-erdogan-saudi-arabia. Just what is going on?: heres-what-congress-must-find-out.
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