Is it really possible that Bruce Ohr, whose wife Nellie was paid by Simpson and GPS Fusion for work done on the Fake Dossier, and who was used as a Pawn in this whole SCAM (WITCH HUNT), is still working for the Department of Justice?????
That gem is from Donald Trump’s hours-long Tuesday Twitter rant during which the President tilted at all manner of windmills on the way to threatening to arrest scores of Guatemalans, insulting the intelligence of Elizabeth Warren’s fan base and calling a porn star a “Horseface.”
Multiple commentators suggested that something might have been behind Trump’s readily apparent bad mood. The President hasn’t mentioned the “WITCH HUNT” since September 17, making this one of the longer gaps between “WITCH HUNT” tweets in recent memory.
(Trump’s “WITCH HUNT” Twitter history)Â
Jeff Sessions found his way back into Trump’s crosshairs on Tuesday as well, with the President again accusing his Attorney General of being missing in action, where that simply means Sessions refusing to weaponize the Department of Justice in the service of Trump’s political battles.
Fast forward to Wednesday morning and we might have some clues as to what prompted Trump’s Tuesday outburst. According to Bloomberg, Robert Mueller may be set to unveil key conclusions from his investigation into possible collusion and obstruction just after the midterms in November.
“Specifically, Mueller is close to rendering judgment on two of the most explosive aspects of his inquiry: whether there were clear incidents of collusion between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, and whether the president took any actions that constitute obstruction of justice,” Bloomberg’s Chris Strohm, Greg Farrell and Shannon Pettypiece write.
The sources for Bloomberg’s story say Rosenstein is encouraging Mueller to produce findings in relatively short order. That’s interesting coming as it does just weeks after Rosenstein indicated to John Kelly that he’s prepared to resign in light of the bombshell New York Times article that suggested the Deputy AG once floated the idea of recording the President and even tried to marshal support for invoking the 25th Amendment on the way to throwing Trump out of office.
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Rod Rosenstein Said To Resign As Deputy AG: Constitutional Crisis, Here We Come
That whole episode was bizarre in the extreme and it still seems just as likely as not that someone (or several someones) inside the administration planted the Times story in order to either i) distract from what, at the time, was an extremely dicey situation with Brett Kavanaugh, ii) give Trump a pretext for firing Rosenstein and putting someone else in charge of the Mueller probe, or iii) both.
Ultimately, Trump decided against dispatching Rod for the time being, but rumor has it that Sessions is out after the midterms and it wouldn’t be at all surprising if Rosenstein was ousted as well. At that point, Trump could theoretically commandeer the Mueller probe, by either kicking it to the Solicitor General or else just appointing a new AG that’s friendly to the White House.
It could very well be that Rosenstein is pushing Mueller to produce key findings from the probe ahead of that eventuality in order to head off a scenario where those findings are effectively never delivered to anyone who will care.
“That doesn’t necessarily mean Mueller’s findings would be made public if he doesn’t secure unsealed indictments”, Bloomberg continues, adding that “the regulations governing Mueller’s probe stipulate that he can present his findings only to his boss, who is currently Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein [who has] some discretion in deciding what is relayed to Congress and what is publicly released.”
If Rosenstein is ousted, that “discretion” would be passed to someone else, presumably someone loyal to Donald Trump.
Nothing will be revealed prior to November and the President will likely try and move swiftly to reshape the Justice Department following the midterms, so that leaves a pretty narrow window for Mueller to deliver something to Rosenstein.
Bloomberg goes on to say that according to former federal prosecutors with experience in these matters, “there’s no indication that Mueller is ready to close up shop, even if he does make some findings [and] because Mueller’s investigation has been proceeding quietly, out of the public eye, it’s possible there have been other major developments behind the scenes.”
Yes, it’s “possible there have been some major developments” over the past couple of days or weeks, which could help to explain the President’s decidedly erratic behavior on Tuesday.
So far, Robert Mueller has charged the following people and entities with crimes:
- George Papadopoulos (lying to the FBI)
- Paul Manafort (tax fraud, bank fraud, filing false statements, acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign principal, obstruction)
- Rick Gates (lying to the FBI, financial fraud)
- Michael Flynn (lying to the FBI)
- Sam Patten (failing to register as an agent of a foreign power)
- Lawyer Alex van der Zwaan (lying about Rick Gates)
- Richard Pinedo (identity fraud)
- 13 Russian nationals (all kinds of conspiracy against the U.S.)
- Konstantin Kilimnik (obstruction)
- A dozen Russian intelligence operatives (all kinds of conspiracy against the U.S., money laundering)
Quite the “witch hunt”.
“Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive…” Walter Scott – Marmion
First Trump ‘flirted’ with the Putin and the Russians and debased the democratic electoral process; now he’s collaborating with the Saudi King and Crown Prince MBS to debase America’s reputation as a bastion of Human Rights. Follow the money.