At this point, it’s probably safe to say that Donald Trump has lost track of all the legal battles he’s embroiled in.
Literally everything to do with Trump – his businesses, his defunct charity, his inaugural committee, his campaign and his administration – is being investigated by somebody, somewhere.
The Mueller report looms larger than ever due to the proximity of its submission to the Justice Department, but there’s a solid argument to be made that the special counsel investigation is actually the least of the president’s legal worries.
The sheer scope of the myriad probes being conducted by state and federal prosecutors as well as multiple congressional committees is almost unfathomable. It is now virtually impossible to argue that Trump won’t be formally charged with a crime, if not while he’s president, then certainly once he’s no longer shielded by the office he holds.
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During his testimony on Capitol Hill last week, Michael Cohen suggested there are additional ongoing investigations into Trump that nobody is fully apprised of and his testimony itself lit a fire under already motivated House Democrats.
On Monday, the House Judiciary Committee sent document requests to 81 individuals and entities, marking the beginnings of what certainly looks like a long-shot impeachment bid.
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A visibly disgusted Trump addressed Jerry Nadler’s sweeping broadside on Tuesday while speaking at an event for suicidal veterans (and no, you really can’t make this stuff up anymore). Here he is:
Meanwhile, the White House has rebuked a request from House Oversight and Reform Chairman Elijah Cummings to obtain documents related to Trump’s alleged role in “ordering” John Kelly to grant Jared Kushner a security clearance. The request is “without legal support, clearly premature, and suggests a breach of the constitutionally required accommodation process”, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone said.
Cummings shot back in a statement of his own as follows:
There is a key difference between a president who exercises his authority under the Constitution and a president who overrules career experts and his top advisers to benefit his family members and then conceals his actions from the American people. The White House’s argument defies the constitutional separation of powers, decades of precedent before this committee, and just plain common-sense. The White House security clearance system is broken, and it needs both congressional oversight and legislative reform.
So, subpoena here we come.
Speaking of subpoenas, New York State regulators have now subpoenaed Aon, the Trump Organization’s insurance broker. That’s clearly related to Michael Cohen’s assertion that the Trump Organization routinely inflated the value of assets.
“The subpoena is the latest sign that the Trump Organization is facing scrutiny from multiple fronts — federal prosecutors, congressional Democrats, and now, insurance regulators”, The New York Times writes, adding that while “the Department of Financial Services does not conduct criminal investigations, nor does it have authority over Mr. Trump or the Trump Organization, it can refer any possible illegal activity to prosecutors.”
The Times should have added “…and it will” – “it can refer any possible illegal activity to prosecutors” and in this case “it will”, because you know as well as anyone else that once state regulators start digging around, there will be evidence to support Cohen’s contentions and God only knows what else.
Amid the flurry of new scrutiny, Trump took to Twitter to shriek into the digital void as he’s wont to do. Amusingly, he accused Democrats of obstruction. “The Dems are obstructing justice and will not get anything done”, he said Tuesday, calling the spiraling probes “a big, fat, fishing expedition desperately in search of a crime, when in fact the real crime is what the Dems are doing, and have done!”
A few minutes earlier, he called Jerry Nadler and Adam Schiff “stone cold CRAZY.”
Trump also accused anyone who isn’t a Republican of being a “hater” and just before 9:15, tweeted the following, seemingly out the clear blue sky.
PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 5, 2019
But remember, it’s definitely Democrats who are “stone cold CRAZY”.
Democrats and also federal prosecutors.
And state prosecutors.
And insurance regulators.
Nicely done. I’d probably add to your last stanzas, “…And career Republican prosecutors who have been as… err, unimpeachably honorable in unwavering administration of justice to some of the worst miscreants of the past few decades; and Republican prosecutors who were literally war heroes, who got shot saving lives – and went back to finish a patriotic voluntary tour of duty (while glee-club ilk cosseted punks hid under Fred’s boxer shorts…
I’m hopeful, but not really expecting, that House Dems will get a clue and also “refer any possible illegal activity to prosecutors” RATHER than attempt to prosecute in the court of public opinion. Sure, have committees take testimony under oath, and then refer suspects w/ solid cases of fraud to the appropriate Fed or State Prosecuters. Be quick about it.
Reasonable, intelligent Americans who find everything about TRUMP to be despicable, are unfortunately also easily swayed by the Repub & Fox News dog-whistling every Dem as a Red under the Bed.
Nothing sells LESS in America than socialism, and I think criminal lying sack-of-shit Trump will beat any Dem portrayed as Socialist easily.
Just an opinion, and a warning to all House Dems who read these comments 🙂
“Reasonable, intelligent Americans who find everything about TRUMP to be despicable, are unfortunately also easily swayed by the Repub & Fox News dog-whistling every Dem as a Red under the Bed.”
If they are barking to dog whistles then that puts them into the realm of the “uns-“, not very reasonable or intelligent at all. Anything out of congress is toothless. It is my belief, as H basically laid out in paragraph 1 (BTW, the only paragraph I can read for free.), Trump”s real problems are at the state level. BIG. BEAUTIFUL. UNPARDONABLE. CRIMES.
BTW, socialism is on the rise among young Americans. If it wasn’t, the billionaires, FOX, et al, wouldn’t be turning up the volume. Once America’s “reasonable and intelligent” realize that Medicare, SS, and don’t forget the corporate side, are all socialism incarnate, game over. It will be a reality some day. Everything in the here and now hinges on whether the unhinged pick up those damn AR-15s and how our government responds. The chance for violence is real and has been overtly dog-whistled by Trump throughout his campaign and since.
I’m waiting for him to fold like a Walmart tent on Denali. You do have to credit him for stamina, holding on to those cheap Chineasium poles in a gale. I hope for a sockdolager so it can end definitely, like, endo. Lingering on is only bad.