It has been a long wait for many of us, who, upon reading of the cascade of scandals breaking around the Drumpf and his minions, became impatient with Special Prosecutor Mueller’s investigation. We wanted results, and we wanted them NOW!
But complicated criminal activity has many facets, many elements to investigate — and conviction depends heavily on the Prosecutor having all the evidence solid, cinched down, with paper trail backup and personal testimony. He must convince a jury that the crimes were committed, the what, how, when, who and whys all answered and provable to regular citizens sitting on a jury.
And this investigation IS complicated: It centers on a massive criminal enterprise within — and without — the Drumpf’s administration.
It involves bank fraud, income tax fraud, money-laundering on a massive scale through myriad off-shore shell companies, agreements with an enemy nation to favor them in legislation and international action in return for help in winning an unwinnable election, election fraud and meddling, possible bribery of foreign politicians, and obstruction of justice charges stemming from an entire administration (the White House) trying to stop or impede the investigation into all of it.
And those are just the main points. Smaller side issues could go on for years. People could be tried and sentenced to jail over this scandal for a decade.
When Rick Gates plead guilty to even more charges on Friday, and more and more indictments are announced even on Russian citizens and companies, it means the investigation is swinging into high gear. Ex-Campaign Trump Election Manager Manafort, who considers himself the most brilliant thinker on earth, is cornered by his own greed and is being forced to flip on The Drumpf and his staff. The main battle lines have been drawn, and anyone in the scandals can expect to be outed, pilloried, publicly shamed, forced from their jobs and even sentenced to real, down-home jail time.
We may not be the end of the investigation, but we are at the beginning of the end of the investigation.