It's not just Trump they're propping up. Their own roles in this demand investigation.
Complicity, via wikipedia,
Complicity is the participation in a completed criminal act of an accomplice, a partner in the crime who aids or encourages (abets) other perpetrators of that crime, and who shared with them an intent to act to complete the crime.[1]:725-804 A person is an accomplice of another person in the commission of a crime if they purpose the completion of a crime, and toward that end, if that person solicits or encourages the other person, or aids or attempts to aid in planning or committing the crime, or has legal duty to prevent that crime but fails to properly make an effort to prevent it.[2]
I believe there’s something in the oath of office that Congressmen, among others, swear to:
- I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.
There’s a question, or questions, over what is emerging from the unraveling Trump presidency. What specific crimes have been committed? What legal statutes apply? Expect the right wing freak show to spread as much Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt as they can to avoid answering those questions. What is clear is that whatever else is going on, a number of people have violated and continue to violate their oath of office. They have put party and personal interest above their pledge to defend the Constitution.
...it wasn’t just Donald Trump who benefited from Russian hacking. The GOP-dominated House majority was a major beneficiary as well.
Remember, the congressional leadership knew in 2015 that it was happening. Reuters has reported that the so-called Gang of Eight (Republican leaders in Congress) was told that Russian hackers were attacking the Democratic Party but that the information was so top secret they could not share it. As we know, hackers attacked the Democratic National Committee and the personal email of Clinton campaign chair John Podesta. But they also hacked the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and information gleaned from that hack was put to use in some 2016 campaigns for Congress.
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Also recall that one month before Donald Trump Jr. took that meeting with the Russian lawyer, House Majority Leader Kevin “loose lips” McCarthy was talking about Trump’s connections to Vladimir Putin in a room full of Republicans:
A month before Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination, one of his closest allies in Congress — House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy — made a politically explosive assertion in a private conversation on Capitol Hill with his fellow GOP leaders: that Trump could be the beneficiary of payments from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) said, according to a recording of the June 15, 2016 exchange, which was listened to and verified by The Washington Post. […]
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) immediately interjected, stopping the conversation from further exploring McCarthy’s assertion, and swore the Republicans present to secrecy.
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This was the day after news had broken that the Russians had hacked the DNC and Ryan and McCarthy had just come from a meeting with the Ukrainian prime minister, who “had described a Kremlin tactic of financing populist politicians to undercut Eastern European democratic institutions.”
There’s more at the link: Read The Whole Thing.
The highest levels of the Republican Party are implicated as complicit at the very least with Russia’s successful efforts to swing our election to Trump, and may, as Digby concludes, have been beneficiaries themselves. The story goes even deeper, with the possibility that Jared Kushner was acting like a forward artillery spotter for Russia’s attacks. It’s not just the legitimacy of Trump that may be in question.
This comes down to three questions the leadership of the Republican Party MUST answer:
1) What did they know?
2) When did they know it?
3) What did they do about it?
I think of those questions, only the first two have any ambiguity. Their actions to date are showing what they did and will continue to do. They have no honor. None. No loyalty to anything except their own self interest. America Last.
BONUS LEGAL MATTER TO CONSIDER: Robert Bateman, a former military officer and a current fellow at New America, explains the legal constraints on military intervention in our politics, and one really big question.
...The officer corps' ethos of remaining politically neutral may have frayed, but it is still extant and more importantly, backed by an actual law. For this reason, if for no other, one should not look towards the armed forces for any sort of independent action with regard to the current administration. But, of course, there is the flip side of the coin that should be examined. What might happen if the current occupant of the Oval Office were to start issuing orders designed to keep himself in power?
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I really don't know - just watching the Trump rolling train wreck is bad enough.
I think Meuller should add them to his investigations.
I think it doesn't matter what anyone thinks at this point. We're hosed.
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