Listen, America has a President who calls himself “Mr. Dennison” when he’s paying off porn stars who spanked him with rolled up copies of Forbes magazine that feature his face on the cover, ok?
And the thing about Dennison is that he obstructed some justice by the pussy last year when he fired the man in charge of a probe into whether his campaign colluded with Russia to subvert America’s democratic processes. And then Dennison obstructed some more justice by heaping pressure on an Attorney General he privately calls “Mr. Magoo” after Magoo recused himself from that same Russia probe. And then Dennison tried to fire Mueller, only to have Don McGahn threaten to quit if he went through with it. And then Dennison continued to obstruct justice in real-time on Twitter for the remainder of 2017 while America looked on incredulous as the leader of the free world effectively indicted himself by tweeting out the real-time argument going on inside his head to 50 million followers.
So really, Robert Mueller probably didn’t even need to interview anyone or gather evidence to bring obstruction charges against this moron, but you know, being the good prosecutor he his, he went through the motions.
Now, according to Bloomberg, that obstruction investigation is wrapping up, but there’s a catch: Mueller is going to wait, because if he files charges or, alternatively, if he publicly clears Trump of obstruction, it could very well imperil the rest of the investigation.
The obstruction probe centers on three things: the firing of James Comey, the drafting of a statement about the Trump Tower meeting with the Russians, and the attempt to fire Mueller.
As Bloomberg reminds you, “Mueller’s team of FBI agents and prosecutors has already interviewed people who could provide firsthand knowledge of possible obstruction of justice, including Comey, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers,” but once he wraps this up, “Mueller may make a strategic calculation to keep his findings on obstruction secret.” That’s according to the current and former U.S. officials, who discussed the strategy with Bloomberg on the condition of anonymity.
Over the past two months, Trump’s lawyers have been working on a “strategy” for a potential interview between the President and the special counsel even as pretty much everyone acknowledges that allowing that to proceed would put Trump at enormous risk.
The point of Bloomberg’s story (out early this morning), is this:
Mueller may calculate that if he tries to bring charges in the obstruction case — the part that may hit closest to Trump personally — witnesses may become less cooperative in other parts of the probe, or the president may move to shut it down altogether.
So again, there are two ways to look at this. One thing you might argue is that Mueller has decided Trump isn’t guilty of obstruction and he’s going to wait to put that out there because if he clears him publicly, Trump and Republicans will start to insist that the investigation be wound down.
Of course the other conclusion you could come to is that Mueller has enough evidence to bring charges against multiple people and he wants to put that off because once he starts charging people, his hand will be tipped and everyone will stop cooperating on the other aspects of the probe or worse, Trump will fly off the handle and move to fire him with a mind toward shutting the entire thing down prematurely by what amounts to dictatorial decree.
We’ll leave it to you to decide which of those two things is more likely here.
Also note once you start charging people you lose the power of the grand jury for that part of the investigation, so if a later lead points to other evidence you can’t use the grand jury to compel its release.
If Mueller is going to indict any of one, some or all of these people – Trump, Jr., Trump, Sr., Ivanka, Kushner, Hope Hicks (or anyone else that fits in the family circle profile – it will be simultaneously and after all others have been indicted, pled guilty, and if possible, to the extent his team has completed whatever trials (e.g., Manafort) they can reasonably try within their investigative and prosecution strategy.
Mueller will not split up an obstruction charge he may have against Trump, Sr., from other charges he has against him. He might file separate indictments. For example, an indictment for money laundering, willful tax evasion, bank fraud and wire fraud may be filed in NY, while an indictment for obstruction and other multiple felonies may be filed in D.C.
His toughest decision may be this: The timing of the filing of indictments. What if he’s finally ready to file against the Trumps and Kushner in September or October 2018? Should he wait to file until after November 6 and avoid the appearance of impacting this year’s elections or should he do what needs to get done without regard to public, congressional or Trump’s reaction?
Hard choice there, Marty. If he files before Nov 6, I would say the sooner the better — once he gets into October, that’s when the decision is critical. It seems like one of those decisions that no matter which way he goes, there will be harsh criticism. Having read all about Mueller I doubt either decision he makes will be with an ulterior motive.
I left a message for you in a post on another column. Have you read Heisenberg’s https://heisenbergreport.com/2018/03/11/trump-shatters-own-record-for-sheer-amount-of-batshit-in-one-24-hour-period/comment-page-1/#comment-20262
The list of things President Dennison said in his Pennsylvania rally are astounding.
Wait my ass this has already been done for this a**hole, his crime family and assorted crooks back before the 2016 election with Mitch and Atlas Shrugs screaming foul. So fu*kem I don’t care if it is Nov 5 charge them if they are guilty and let the electorate (that is our system good and bad) decide.
Part of what lawyers do in performing their work is to exercise strategic judgment and make plans based upon assessing the probabilties of certain conditions, events or actions taking place or not in the future. The more complex the facts, the more complex the conditions, events or actions that must be assessed in relationship to the other, the more difficult the work is. So, a multitude of “if this, then this,” and, “if not this, than this,” and “if not that, then not that,” etc., must be thought through. The permutations can be exhausting, especially when so much is at stake and there are so many target defendants moving around the board.
Also, the indictment timing (before or after November 6) is half of it. Mueller knows that Trump is a “present moment hedonist,” and that he is the most impulsive man on earth. Once Mueller indicts the Trump crime family, the probablity of a Mueller firing (Trump acts [axe?] without engaging his frontal lobe) goes up drastically because of the impulsivity factor. So, Mueller must finish all of his essential work first, as in “wait,” for the strategically appropriate time.
Here’s an example. Let’s say Mueller indicts Hicks today for lying to the FBI. Trump reacts by pardoning her tomorrow morning. Manafort reads of the Hicks pardon and his decision not to cooperate remains fervent believing that once Mueller acts against the Trump inner circle, all hell will break loose and Trump is more likely to pardon everyone that can hurt him. Manafort will hold out, get his lawyer to get a continuance of the July trial date, etc.
not to mention the longer trump has to endure the threat and let his imagination and fear stress his incompetent judgment, the more likely he is to go off the deep end — kinda like a crowd yelling JUMP to the man on the ledge
Note to all you genius “arm-chair” lawyers: Mueller is not going to “indict” a sitting President. He may well be sitting on charges against one of the kids or Jared. And it’s idiotic to say he is going to wait until after the Manafort (or any other) trial to obtain any said indictment. Manafort’s trial is a minimum 2-3 years away.
Thank you for the compliment Anonymous @ March 12, 2018 at 5:07 pm.