Man! What a week to be paying attention to, or in my case writing about the Trump-Russia investigation, huh? Robert Mueller is now up to 19 people either indicted or whom have pled guilty in the Trump-Russia probe. Not bad for a baseless witch hunt, huh? Boy, those Democrats are better storytellers than Tom Clancy! But while the headlines are thrilling and exhilarating for anybody whose name isn't Manafort, Gates, or Trump, there are moving parts that aren't getting as much attention, but are at least equally important. I thought I'd just recap a few of those for anybody who hasn't had the chance to get much past the headlines of the last week.
The Manafort and Gates indictments are thrilling, but -
it really isn't about that for Mueller. All of the crimes alleged against Manafort and Gates are well within the boundaries of the Mueller investigation, his mandate gives him wide latitude in pursuing new leads that arise from the base investigation. But this whole legal kibuki with Manafort and Gates is not about money laundering, bank fraud, and tax evasion, and here's why. Robert Mueller doesn't need to roll either Manafort or Gates to make these cases stick, they're already being fitted for orange jumpsuits. These cases are paper trail cases, Mueller doesn't need witnesses in the traditional sense, he just needs agents on the stand that can clearly connect the dots contained in the documents. Mueller could convict them tomorrow on only what he already has. Mueller rolled Gates, and is working Manafort for three reasons, Trump, Trump Jr, and Jared Kushner. Manafort was in the June 9th Trump tower meeting, and Gates was a high level adviser all the way through the transition and into the administration. If Manafort dropped the "arms for Ukraine" plank of the GOP platform in return for Oleg Deripaska dropping his $8 million lawsuit against Manafort, that's a crime. If Trump, Don Jr, and/or Jared Kushner knew of and approved the move, they are co conspirators. Mueller's express mandate is to investigate and prosecute illegal collusion between team Trump and the Russians, and these financial crimes are his tool to open that can of worms.
Can Mueller indict Trump? If he even asks to, we should know either way.
With the probable GOP led congressional intransigence to any attempt to actually impeach Trumpy Cat, the raging question is whether or not Robert Mueller could sidestep congress entirely and move to indict Trump in federal court for his crimes, if any. The question of whether or not he could constitutionally indict a sitting President is wide open to debate, but how would we find out if he even wanted to try, but was told no? Actually, we should learn of that quickly and automatically.
Mueller's mandate requires him to consult with Rod Rosenstein for a variety of reasons. Mueller needs Rosenstein's blessing to explore new issues arising from his investigation not specifically stated in his mandate, to impanel a grand jury or seek to indict and so on. If Mueller wanted to try to indict Trump, he would need Rosenstein's blessing. But what if Rosenstein said "fuggedaboudit." We'd know.
When he drew up the papers naming Robert Mueller as Special Counsel, Rod Rosenstein obviously wanted to protect himself from any possible allegations down the road of "obstructing Mueller's investigation" for political purposes. So he put in a transparency clause. If Mueller asks Rosenstein to do something and Rosenstein says "Sure, dude," that's it, Mueller is good to go. But if Mueller asks to try to indict Trump in the grand jury, and Rosenstein says "Let's not and say that we did," it doesn't end there. Rosenstein's agreement with Mueller would require him to notify the requisite committees of both chambers of congress of the request, his refusal, and his reasons for refusing. Since this would not be classified information, I can't believe the information would not be made public. Oddly enough, the stronger Mueller's case gets, the less likely it may be that Rosenstein would refuse to allow Mueller to at least try to indict Trump and force the courts to decide if he could be tried, he wouldn't want to appear as if he were giving Trump cover from legitimate criminal charges. But what we do know is that so far at least, Mueller has made no requests that Rosenstein has refused, or we would have heard about it. Interesting, no?
He may be invisible to us, but Jared Kushner is in Robert Mueller's spotlight.
Lately Jared Kushner has had the public and media footprint of a newborn. A newborn flea that is. But it was reported on Thursday that Rod Rosenstein had made a courtesy call to the White House to inform them that the FBI had uncovered information that would significantly delay the processing of Jared Kushner's request for security clearance. This is dead wrong, but it is also revealing.
Rod Rosenstein runs the Justice Department's Mueller investigation, not the FBI. With as much distance as Rosenstein is trying to place between the DOJ and the White House, there is no reason for him to be micro managing the FBI's security clearance process for White House personnel. If the FBI uncovered information in their background check on Kushner that would take time to investigate, it should have been Chris Wray, the FBI Director that made that courtesy call, not Rod Rosenstein. The fact that Rosenstein made the call strongly indicates that the information came from Mueller and not the FBI's background check, which puts Kushner squarely in the crosshairs of Mueller.
Jared Kushner is a nightmare candidate for a high level security clearance. He is also quite possibly a federal felon. His company is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, mostly over his mistake in over leveraging his 666 5th Avenue property. He is alleged to be a prime mover and shaker in the firing of James Comey to derail the Russia investigation. He has had a meeting with the head of a sanctioned Russian bank during the transition, asked then Ambassador Sergei Kislyak to use Russian communications equipment to speak directly with Moscow, and he had his family dangle the bauble of resident visas to wealthy Chinese businessmen in return for investments in Kushner's company. And don't forget that saving grace loan he got from Deutsche bank right around election time. Or the fact that he had to update his SF-86 form three different times. Oh, and he also ran the daily digital operation for the Trump campaign. You know, Cambridge Analytica, and Wikileaks and stuff?
Personally, I think this is the real reason Mueller is steamrolling Manafort and Gates. Manafort was in the Trump tower meeting with Kushner and the Russians. Manafort also has both connections with and operational knowledge of shady financial connections in eastern Europe and Russia that may have opened avenues for Kushner. And Gates was involved in the day to day operation of the campaign on the ground level, where Kushner held his greatest sway. If Mueller is going to get to Kushner, he'll ride the Manafort-Gates 5:42 express to get there.
Trumpenstein said yesterday that he is not going to be making a decision on Kushner or Ivanka's security clearances, he'll leave that up to his chief of staff, John Kelly. It was reported last night that Kelly has told intimates that he is "uncomfortable" with the level of security access Jared and Ivanka have, and wouldn't mind at all if they chose to say "goombye" to the West Wing and go back to terrorizing sales clerks at Tiffany’s instead of his staff. As a retired marine, Kelly takes security very seriously, and it is widely reported that he is no cheering fan of Javanka. My guess is that if he's left to his own devices, Kelly will rescind their security clearances, in an effort to nudge them out the door, and force Trump to override him and issue their clearances himself if he wants them to stick around. But Kushner is sorely mistaken if he thinks that vacating the west wing is going to make him invisible to Mueller.
So, there ya go. Just a few things that, while they may not have been a part of the major headlines themselves, can possibly end up in the long run eclipsing the headlines of the last week in their own right down the road. As Rachel Maddow lies to say, "Stick a pin in these."
It’s here! The moment you’ve been dreading looking forward to. My new e-book President Evil. A common man looks at Trump and the 2016 primaries. You can get it now on Amazon. And please feel free to leave a review at either Amazon or goodreads, every review helps, positive or negative.
Cross posted on The Trump Impeachment.