Mueller Investigation

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/18/politics/trump-russia-investigation/index.html

trump is becoming increasingly unhinged from reality and his staff are desperately trying to manage him because they fear he will lash out and do something rash like try to fire the special council who is investigating him. Even White House insiders admit that would be the end of Trump and it would be impeachment time if Trump foolishly did that.

I gotta know:

does rain fall up in the parallel universe you guys apparently live in (where any day now - for something like the past 350 days - the entire Trump administration will come crashing down)?

I have yet to see anyone (much less multiple people around here) say the Trump regime was going to fall any day now. We are indeed following about the same time frame as Watergate though which means we still have about a year to go before the big teary speech after which you and the other Trumpanzees declare you secretly knew all alone but don't care because you always secretly loved Pence more.

Either that or you go completely into denial and get lost in silly claims of conspiracies where you hang out with Pizzagate truthers and flat earthers.

No, there is no such letter. It is just another Trump delusion. when it doesn't happen I wonder if they will be able to control the loony? His own people are quoted as saying that thought worries them.

Maybe we can help him on the conviction part.

https://www.emptywheel.net/2017/12/18/why-republicans-launched-the-gsa-email-attack-now/

I am not sure how reliable this is but it is looking fairly knowledgeable at this point. If so then up to 13 more Trumpers are potentially in legal jeopardy because Mueller has them by the short in curlies for lying to the FBI. There is a whole lot of interactions there too which could expose a lot of people including Trump himself.

No wonder the Trumpanzees panicked.

Do you remember the emails sent by Trumpers from Mar-a-logo about how "Russia just threw the election for Trump" or how Jerad got caught trying to get secret encrypted communications equipment from Russia because he didn't want anyone in the US to know what was discussed?

http://thehill.com/homenews/adminis...l-in-email-russia-has-just-thrown-the-usa?amp

At this point you are either a clueless chump or a deliberate liar but neither one is a good thing to be, buddy.

point of order: almost no one says much about "any day now" and almost everyone on the left (Keith Olberman notwithstanding) thinks that even if Mueller already has him by the nutsack, there's still many months to go

By contrast, Trump rushes to the mailbox literally every day including Sunday anxious for the official letter from Bob telling him he is officially in the clear.

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/19/trump-russia-mueller-pardons-investigation-304125

The Trump campaign seems to have given up on the idea of firing Mueller as that would surely lead to impeachment. Instead they are running a smear campaign designed to sew doubt among the gullible hoping to lay the ground work for the eventual criminal trials as well as to give Trump cover to issue pardons to his cronies who get rightly charged for their criminal acts.

An alien reading WF threads as sole source of information on topic would've be certain that Trump would've already been gone 10 months ago. And nine months ago. And six months ago. Etc.

[Personally don't mind, I like the taste of wackjob liberal's tears almost as much as I like a much smaller regulatory footprint and a booming economy.]

At least we've solved one mystery. @Tuttle is definitely an alien - the kind whose young eat their mother:

Unless, of course, he can provide evidence of his allegations.

Everyone did. Watergate taking two years was a point frequently brought up. as usual Tuttle is talking out of his ass and saying what he wishes to be true rather than what is actually true. That is why he can't come up with a single quote from any poster to support his babbling nonsense.

Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, will be giving a speech soon on the future of the Mueller investigation.

http://heavy.com/news/2017/12/mark-warner-mueller-investigation-speech-live-video/

Any prediction on the content?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...option-group-is-said-to-draw-mueller-scrutiny

The Russian government has front groups in the US set up as charities and Trump cronies just loved meeting with them. I wonder why? Mueller now reportedly has them in his sites.

Sights.
Otherwise he's hosting them...

I still maintain that regardless of whether or not it's deserved, no President of the United States of America will ever see the inside of a jail cell. Never. Ever. That said, I'm beginning to think that Trump may not resign after 18-24 months as I had originally predicted.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. But, my understanding is that this investigation can not charge the President or Vice President directly. Any charges would have to go to the House of Representatives for consideration of Articles of Impeachment. Am I correct on that assumption? If that's the case, I don't think the House has the votes (or guts) to impeach even if the evidence was overwhelming. Unless the Democrats take the House in 2018, which I doubt they will, nothing will happen aside from several Trump aides taking the fall.

No, you're pretty much right. And I don't think that party affiliation has anything to do with it. Technically, there isn't any reason why Mueller couldn't slap charges against Trump or Pence, but that has more to do with the lack of court rulings than anything written into law. Mueller could come up with ironclad proof that Trump and Pence committed illegal acts, and people would object if Mueller filed criminal charges against them. Nor do I think that things would be much different if the political parties were switched. Most Dems would be happy to sell out their principles to protect one of their own, under similar circumstances.

Thankfully, we haven't had to deal with this very often in the nation's history. But, I wonder if I'm remembering something correctly. Back during President Clinton's impeachment, I vaguely remember it being said that charges could be filed against President Clinton by an appropriate court with jurisdiction, but that the case couldn't be heard, tried, or even any motions filed until President Clinton had left office. I wonder if that was speculation by a now retired talking head or if that's what was actually being considered.

Heads of state generally have complete immunity during their tenure, and usually after they leave office. There are some instances where a head of state would not be entitled to immunity after leaving office for serious crimes outside the scope of their official actions (e.g. bribes, theft, murder, torture, genocide). But it really depends and hasn't typically been pursued except in rare circumstances.

Trump could see jail time if the stars aligned right (e.g. full impeachment followed by criminal prosecution). But the chances are slim.

Again, this is one of those "fun" things that we won't know until a court rules on it.

In reality that is what happened to Clinton.

On his last day of office in 2001 Clinton agreed to a five year suspension of his law license for the state of Arkansas in order to avoid any criminal charges for perjury over the affair.

Well, he's signed the tax bill, so he can smirk and brag about that for the rest of his life. Time for more golf...

A while back we heard that Mueller had gotten financial information from Deutche Bank and today the NYT's broke a story that it was Kurshner's financial info that he was looking into.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/12/23/swamp-diary-breitbart-bannon-kushner-216166

Steve Bannon has thrown Ivanka and Jared under the bus blaming them for "this Russia stuff". Please let Mueller get Bannon under oath. Lord, make it so.

A very interesting quote from that link:

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Bannon said Trump only has a 30 percent chance of serving out his term, whether he’s impeached or removed by the Cabinet invoking the 25th amendment. That prospect seemed to become more likely in early December when special counsel Robert Mueller secured a plea deal from former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Bannon has also remarked on the toll the office has taken on Trump, telling advisers his former boss has “lost a step.” “He’s like an 11-year-old child,” Bannon joked to a friend in November.
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Even Bannon thinks there is a 70% chance Trump doesn't finish his first term. It seems Bannon knows Trump colluded and then tried to cover it up and obstruct justice. He also tells people Trump is mentally an 11 year old, ouch. Harsh but true stuff.

^I think Bannon's being kind. "An eleven-year-old child"? That was at best Donnie's starting position.