This is why no lawyer worth having is interested in having Donald J. Trump as a client.
Former FBI Director James Comey may have reassured Trump on several occasions that he was not then the subject of a personal investigation. However, since Comey’s last statement, Trump’s actions—not the least of which was firing Comey—have touched off an investigation into whether Trump’s actions constitute obstruction. The Washington Post first revealed the existence of this new investigation on Wednesday …
The special counsel overseeing the investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 election is interviewing senior intelligence officials as part of a widening probe that now includes an examination of whether President Trump attempted to obstruct justice, officials said.
That initial story was enough to set Trump off again on his eternal quest for leakers. And it was backed up by a New York Times piece on Wednesday evening before Trump himself admitted to the fact in his morning tweets. And then, the unpresidented Trump announced what he thought of the FBI and Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Nice to see that Donald Trump is abiding by all those calls to tone down the rhetoric.
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The greatest witch hunt in political history? Granted the name ‘Donald Trump’ doesn’t appear in the Whitewater hearings, so he might have missed that, but surely Roy Cohn raised Trump on tales of the McCarthy hearings.
In any case, Trump’s tweet goes beyond fresh declarations of his own martyrdom. It also impugns the intelligence community, the Justice Department, and the special counsel as ‘very bad’ and ‘conflicted.’ These statements are sure to throw speculation that Trump will dismiss Mueller into overdrive.
That possibility is only heightened by a series of talking points put out by the RNC for Republicans to push back against stories of the investigation. Those talking points mirror Trump’s first post of the morning:
If this leaked account is true, it means the special counsel has struck out on collusion, and is shifting to obstruction to save face.
- After months of investigation, there is no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
- According to Senator Risch, the Senate Committee has gone through thousands of documents and found no evidence of collusion.
- Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle involved in the investigation have said there is zero evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
All of these statements are distortions, but they all go to the same purpose, to denigrate the investigation, the FBI, and the special counsel. Republicans are being promoted to build the case that the investigation has already gone on too long, that it’s found nothing, and that it’s time to close it down. The talking points also set Mueller up as Trump’s opponent, out to “save face” by landing a charge on Trump.
Those still maintaining that dismissing Mueller would be political suicide have missed the blinding fact that’s been obvious almost since the moment Trump glided down the escalator into the race two years ago: There is no such thing as political suicide.
The whole course of the election was a series of now he’s gone too far moments. There is no too far. Trump’s Fifth Avenue statement wasn’t a joke, it was a boast. He can fire Mueller. If that kicks off a fight in court, Trump will interfere with the court. If it leads to a decision against him, he’ll ignore it. Why not? Andrew Jackson did it.
So long as Republicans in Congress support him, he’ll do as he pleases. And Republicans will support him.
The Whitewater investigation carried on for more than four years before Bill Clinton was impeached on charges that had nothing to do with the original purpose of the investigation. Robert Mueller was appointed less than a month ago.
Don’t expect him to get four years to make his case.