For weeks now, Donald Trump has been precariously balanced at critical pressure. Even as Republicans in Congress work to wrap up their own admittedly pointless Russia investigation so they can get on with the business of more efficiently interfering with Robert Mueller, Trump has been swinging between singing Zip-a-dee-doo-dah and the persecution blues. Meanwhile, not-so-deep underground, the magma is rising.
If the Trump administration were a movie, we’d have arrived at a point in the film where the soundtrack rises to an ominous crescendo. The question is not so much whether Trump will erupt in rage but when, and where he will direct it.
And the trigger for the coming explosion could well be meetings that are scheduled this week between Donald Trump’s legal team, and the legal team of Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
White House lawyers are expected to meet with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s office late this week seeking good news: that his sprawling investigation’s focus on President Trump will soon end and their client will be cleared.
That’s what Ty Cobb and others on Trump’s teams have have been telling the Twitter-in-chief. Trump is even expecting to get some kind of written “letter of exoneration” which seems intensely unlikely.
People familiar with the probe say that such assurances are unlikely and that the meeting could trigger a new, more contentious phase between the special counsel and a frustrated president, according to administration officials and advisers close to Trump.
Mueller is not done. Not close to done. And certainly not about to hand Donald Trump some kind of written “all clear.” Instead, Trump’s likely to be told that the investigation will proceed into 2018, and that both Trump and his advisers should expect to spend more time being interviewed by Mueller’s team.
Outside Trump’s hovering flock of animated bluebirds, most Republicans seem to understand that Mueller is not only far from done, but moving ever closer to laying serious charges at Trump’s feet. After all, Mueller did not give Michael Flynn a deal on a whole butcher’s bill of crimes just because he was trying to put a bow on the investigation. Flynn’s deal was made as part of strategy to roll up the Trump campaign — with up being the operative word. So far, Mueller hasn’t even revealed the information gathered from the deal with George Papadopoulos, much less Flynn.
Mueller’s interest in Trump’s conversations surrounding James Comey and the construction of Donald Trump Jr.’s “it was all about adoption” excuse, show that the special counsel is not just looking into the direct connections between the Trump campaign and Russia, but also putting together a case on obstruction. The charges against Manafort and Gates show that Mueller’s team is digging into money laundering and financial issues that could easily go back through a decade of Trump’s serving as a one-stop-shop for oligarchs looking to ditch some cash.
All of this is why Republicans have been working so hard to demean Mueller’s team and diminish the importance of what they’re finding.
Over the last several months, in an effort to delegitimize Mueller’s investigation, Republicans have floated a succession of pseudo-outrages or conspiracy theories purporting to reveal Mueller and the FBI to be fatally biased. The pace at which these theories have appeared is accelerating.
Over the weekend, Trump declared that he didn’t intend to fire Mueller, even as he also announced that it was “sad” that the special counsel’s office had collected thousands of emails from Trump’s transition team. But things are about to get even sadder.
White House lawyers have told the president he could be exonerated as early as the beginning of the year, after previously reassuring him that he would be cleared by Thanksgiving and Christmas, as The Washington Post previously reported. They have stated publicly that all White House interviews are over and that Mueller’s team is no longer seeking White House documents. …
Legal experts said Mueller would have little incentive to clear the president or other White House aides while he is seeking more information from witnesses.
Don’t expect to hear much in the way of public statements from Mueller’s team. Do expect to read about it on Twitter.