Robert Mueller is now probing Jared Kushner’s contacts with foreign leaders.
We’ve said this over and over again. Mueller started with Manafort, next he’ll move to indict Michael Flynn and his son, then he’ll go after Carter Page, and in the final act, he’ll indict Jared Kushner.
The sequence there is strategic. Mueller is working from the outside of the Trump orbit and moving inward, the idea being that by the time the risk-reward asymmetry is skewed enough to force Trump’s hand (i.e. by the time the legal risk inherent in allowing the investigation to proceed apace outweighs the political risk associated with moving against Mueller), it will be too late.
Kushner has come under scrutiny again this month in connection to his apparent failure to disclose contacts with WikiLeaks and Julian Assange during closed-door congressional testimony in July. He also told Congress he did not know of anyone on the campaign who had contacted WikiLeaks.
We now know that was either a lie or that Kushner, like Jeff Sessions, has a hard time remembering things that happened less than a year ago. Because according to a letter sent to Kushner’s attorney by Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, other sources have provided documents showing “September 2016 email communications to Mr. Kushner concerning WikiLeaks, which Ðœr. Kushner then forwarded to another campaign official.” We documented that at length last week and you can read the Senators’ full letter here.
Kushner has of course also come under fire for omissions from a government form required to obtain a security clearance and that brings us to a Wall Street Journal article which hit on Tuesday evening.
“Robert Mueller’s investigators are asking questions about Jared Kushner’s interactions with foreign leaders during the presidential transition, including his involvement in a dispute at the United Nations in December, in a sign of the expansive nature of the special counsel’s probe of Russia’s meddling in the election,” the Journal writes, citing the ubiquitous “people familiar with the matter.”
Apparently, the questions relate to the December 23 UN resolution on Israel’s settlement construction – Trump advocated for the resolution to be blocked. Months later, Foreign Policy reported that “Michael Flynn and other members of the president’s transition team launched a vigorous diplomatic bid to head off a U.N. Security Council vote condemning Israeli settlements.”
The Journal notes that as of now, “the motivation for the Mueller team’s questions about the U.N. is unclear,” but sources also said “investigators have asked witnesses about Kushner’s role in arranging meetings or communication with foreign leaders during the transition.”
Mueller is also attempting to discern whether Kushner might have played a role in the dismissal of James Comey and if so, what his motivations were. And then there’s the Vnesheconombank issue.
Needless to say, the fact that Mueller is now questioning Kushner’s contacts with foreign leaders is yet another indication that the special counsel probe is nowhere close to “winding down” as the White House would have the public believe.
You would have to be a fool to think that Kushner does not know far more than he’s letting on and the fact that there is now a paper trail proving that he did in fact know about contact between the campaign and WikiLeaks despite denying such contact just six months ago just underscores the contention that he is being anything but forthcoming.
Again, you’d have to be a fool to think Kushner is being forthright. And Robert Mueller is no fool.
Should there comes a time when Trump fires Mueller don’t expect Mueller to pack up his bags and go home.
You can expect that papers have already been drawn up for filing in the US Disctrict Court in Washington DC, seeking:
A. an injunction restraining Trump from
(1) removing Mueller or obstructing his investigation and
(2) depriving Mueller and his team of resources to conduct the investigation, and
B. a declaratory judgment as to whether Trump can lawfully remove Mueller, obstruct his investigation or deprive Mueller and his team of resources to conduct the investigation.
Mueller is no Wallflower standing on the sidelines waiting for the day trump will fire him without a plan to prolong his investigation. Should the US Disctrict Court rule in Trump’s favor or Mueller’s favor, appeals will be taken by either side, and perhaps cross-appeals. If Mueller loses in the Disctrict Court, he will seek a stay and he will obtain it. All of this will take time, and if he gets a smart judge, time will be on his side.
In the meantime, the country can witness whether Republicans are full of crap about their support for Mueller, the rule of law, Law & Order, and statements such as this one, made by Lindsey Graham, that there ‘will be holy hell to pay’ if Trump fires Mueller. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/10/30/lindsey-graham-there-will-be-holy-hell-to-pay-if-trump-fires-mueller.html
We shall see, won’t we?
It seems to me that at least one of trump’s ridiculous lawyers would see how clear obstruction of justice would be if he tried a stunt like that! Now that it is clear to anyone that trump is being investigated – for him to try and fire the investigator would be political suicide. haha! It also seems like Mueller is moving faster now too.
It never ceases to amaze me that supposedly smart people think they can game people like Mueller and his staff at this level of a federal investigation of this magnitude. These lowlife assh*les are going to go down and it will be hard because the fed’s don’t like to be fu*ked with when it comes to their agencies, their legal expertise and their country. These prosecutors have dealt with way more obstruction than from this idiotic crime family and their allies.
It will be slow and deliberate and in the end many birds will sing as the dominoes fall. The rats will eventually scurry off this sinking ship as fast as they can and the donald will throw ANYONE off the boat without a life-jacket if he thinks it will help him. Friends, daughter, son-in-law, sons, wife it won’t matter they all go over the side, he won’t blink an eye and sure as hell won’t shed a tear.
Once the fear factor is gone we will see how many people hang with the donald.
America this will be ugly, bigly ugly.
Fire Mueller? Constitutional crisis? I don’t put anything past the GOP when it comes to their lust for power, only to then not govern at all. Want a bill. Fine. You write it and we’ll rubber stamp it. Marty, Murphy, H., I think this is going to end badly for American democracy and the American people. Hope I’m wrong.
Everyone needs to remember how America began. That is the backbone of this Country. If enough people get angry enough, they have the power to stop the flow and change the direction. I see and hear plenty to give me the confidence The People will win this fight. The primary tool The People have is The Vote.
Cut off the head of the snake and it will die. Even old me has enough strength and mindset to write to my state’s elected lowlife republicans, Cruz (!!) and Cronyn, at least twice a month. They don’t even “verify” my emails now because they are recognized as a regular writer. Yesterday, the first “real” response arrived from Cronyn – an email that used my name. I immediately responded that I am not ignorant and am more insulted NOW than before – for them to think I don’t recognize a stupid “form letter” that praised themselves for being at the helm in these trying times. HA, I said in my response! You and your kind are the problem. Stop kissing trump’s ass and counting your fucking money and do your job – anything less is a violation of trust. I will never vote for any Republican as long as I am still alive unless and until this disgusting and corrupt government changes drastically and evolves into the Government for the People by the People. You better update your resume pal, your days of freeloading and graft are soon ending. Hear me or else. I also remind them of the Democrats that were elected recently and promised that was only the beginning. I have called them both cowards for allowing trump to destroy everything in his path and hand the keys to Putin. I don’t mince words – they are chicken shits and scum and highly disrespected – are they feeling proud or do they hide?
So, find out who to send your letters to – easy to find on Google – those sites will have a contact link – use it every day or every week and get busy! I also signed and urge you to also sign the Impeach Petition from Tom Steyer; Please sign the petition today at needtoimpeach.com. You can see the impact his efforts have already achieved — you can view this, no facebook required, click on Not Now at the bottom of link when it opens — read about him on Google, Tom Steyer. He is 100% legit.
https://www.facebook.com/officialtomsteyer/videos/1501235956664527/
Let all your friends know you are fed up and will be fighting hard to turn this around. Tell them to do the same! Don’t sit and watch this happen — change it all and you will feel like the American you are! 🙂
Bravo!!