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Mueller Knows the Game — Raise the Stakes
It seems that as soon as there were rumors Trump was thinking of dumping Mueller, Mueller came up with the strategy laid out by Comey: Once you get a special prosecutor launched, that perch can be used to control the whole process. But, the collusion with Russia business didn’t seem to be taking off, did it? Mueller needed to act fast if he wanted to keep his position.
So, now Mueller decides — out of the blue — that he should look into obstruction of justice just like Comey was hinting at. This all seems planned with Rod Rosenstein, doesn’t it? Perhpas it’s ad hoc, but either way the important thing was to get the special prosecutor established firmly and on the hunt. And by hunting the president’s scalp directly, it would be much more difficult for Trump to fire him. Pretty clever, isn’t it? This all seems too contrived — it doesn’t even pass the Hollywood thriller smell test. It’s too far-fetched.
Mr. President: you and your hapless AG need to fire a bunch of the top people over there at Justice, starting with Rosenstein. The people still there are the ones who didn’t quit under Obama, remember. They are the true believers in ruining your presidency. Do it now — it will only get worse.
Update:
I heard Louie Gohmert on Hugh Hewitt’s show this morning — he agrees with me that this was done to make it harder for Trump to fire Mueller. Also, he said that Mueller did more damage to the FBI than Comey and that Mueller is very vindictive in his dealings with his political enemies.
Published in Politics
The best way forward for the administration is to ignore Meuller as much as possible and get on with the business of government.
The impeachment of Clinton is another example of Republicans “doing the right thing”, yet being incredibly stupid politically.
“Mr. President: you and your hapless AG need to fire a bunch of the top people over there at Justice, starting with Rosenstein.”
I agree with this 100%. However, Mueller is not going anywhere. Neither are the 13, mostly democratic, attorneys that he hired to help him in his “investigation.”
In my opinion, impeaching President Trump is not the goal here. Even they must realize that is out of their reach at this point. The goal is to influence the next presidential election by finding that the President acted recklessly but not criminally as Comey did with HRC. President Trump would have to spend time campaigning on the defense which would not be a good look for him. Another way to influence the next election would be to just drag out the investigation into the next presidential campaign. The President would have to campaign while “under investigation.” Similar to the way HRC had to campaign in the last election. BTW, I am not discounting the potential that all of this could be used against Republicans in next year’s elections.
The Arkansas bar suspended his license to practice law for five years and fined him for perjury in the Paula Jones case. Subsequently, the Supreme Court of the US also ruled that he couldn’t practice before the court. It all stemmed from a civil lawsuit brought by Paula Jones while he was in office. I thought then, and still believe, a president should be immune from a civil suit while in office as civil suits are too easy to bring.
He was impeached by the House of Representatives for perjury and obstruction of justice. The US Senate failed to get the necessary 2/3 vote to impeach.
The Dems would be doing something like this no matter what GOP won. It is the Trump’s style that make this attack possible and the NeverTrump applying pressure to the frekless GOP leadership that makes Trumps impeachment a reality. Now all that needs to happen is for their lapdog Mueller to find enough circumstantial evidence to make it look real enough for public consumption and the deal is done.
Afternoon Larry,
I think if Trump fires any number of staff the result will be slight in terms of swamp draining. I would like to have a variation of Michael Henry’s approach. In “The Intimidation Game”, Strassel records a couple of FBI adventures which offer opportunities for a review of the entire body. Catherine Engelbrecht formed the King Street Patriots, a tea party group the the IRS stoned walled, strangely enough, the FBI contacted Catherine 6 times, twice in person. Also, Strassel records that the IRS sent illegally 1.1 million pages of non-profit tax-return data to the FBI, which the FBI did not report. These two passed events give Trump a chance to highlight these past violations and use them as a pretext to appoint an IG to investigate FBI for illegal political behavior, and also Trump should have the FBI audited. I think should Trump choose this approach and raise the stakes on the entire FBI bureaucracy and the FBI would see that its reputation would be under an intense spotlight covering the entire institution and not just some weaselly leaders. The PR of this tact would raise the stakes on the FBI as a whole and could focus on the nature of bureaucratic corruption and would cost Trump politically less than your suggestion. It is true that the current investigations have been designed to cripple Trump for the long game, that is 2020, or for a coup, but if Trump can tough out the cloud he has a chance to see some of his programs improve the economy. If the economy improves then Trump will become stronger and spineless Republicans will more likely want to work with Trump, and he will be more successful at a more extensive swamp draining.
It will not be possible. The Mueller investigation is going to leak like week old rotting fish. The smell of it will be everywhere as anonymous sources close to the investigation leak drivel. It is going to make the last 6 months seem calm by comparison.
The U.S Senate put on quite a shameful display in this matter. Spineless twits, every last one of them.
Those too young to have witnessed or too old to remember clearly should refer to: SELLOT, The Inside Story of President Clinton’s Impeachment by David P. Schippers
With that, I cannot resist another one (with slight modernization) from my new favorite book, The Iron Heel by Jack London:
If the GOP allow Trump to be impeached when they control the House and the Senate, they will never hold office again. I hope they know that, and we will find out who they fear more: Us or the Democrats that have photos of them with a hooker or a boy. We will send them all home and start over.
I agree with this.
This is all about appearances, headlines and politics. It doesn’t really have much to do with the law. Having said that, if Mueller is able to nail Trump’s son-in-law for some questionable business deal in Costa Rica, he might do it.
The Democrats are hoping that by the fall of 2020, the public will be saying, “Jeez. Trump’s been in office for four years, nothing has gotten done. It’s this constant putting out of fires caused by Trump’s missteps.”
It’s not the truth. But this is the game plan for the Democrats.
Trump needs to adopt one of two strategies:
[1] Fire Mueller.
[2] Don’t fire Mueller, but cease discussing the matter in any way.
A few others, too. But the best opportunity to do that was right at the beginning. You know, the way Obama did.
Regarding impeachment.
Only a simple majority of the US House is required to impeach the president.
But to convict and remove the President from office the US Senate must achieve a two-thirds vote in favor.
This has never been done in the history of the United States of America.
So, if Trump can just play this semi-competently he can avoid being the 1st president removed by a two-thirds vote of the Senate.
Heck, even Andrew Johnson, in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War avoided being removed from office by a single vote in the Senate.
Leaks, leaks, fun to sell papers and gossip about on podcasts, but if no actual charges come down then it doesn’t matter. Trump may still weather all of this so long as it can play its course. It is the very fact of killing the investigation that allows people to speculate about what may have been than confront what actually was. The investigation needs to end but it can not be ended prematurely.
Stupid? They’re craven. We handed them all the power, and they’re like the dog that caught the car.
I think they’re hoping Trump goes down, Pence goes down (that won’t take much; he’s had to hire defense counsel now and he’ll soon be bankrupt) and Ryan catches the crown. Whew! Now, there’s somebody who knows how things are supposed to go. The GOP porposes legislation but never gets anywhere and how can it cuz it doesn’t have the power so it’s not their fault just keep on voting but not TOO much….
F’rinstance: I read that over the past 6 years, they had sent seven bills repealing Obamacare to Omega’s desk (and certain veto). Yet come January 20, they had nothing ready and were starting from scratch? Is that a joke? What was in those seven pieces of proposed legislation? 100 or so blank pages with a signature page at the end for the veto?
They will not do,our bidding and it’s clear they never expected to be called upon to do it. Trump is our only hope. God preserve him.
Why doesn’t Trump go indirectly at Mueller?
Refocus on Fast and Furious.
Mueller was involved as was the last administration.
Sessions can oversee this special council. He’s not recused from this.
Ante up. You investigate your non-scandal, and we will investigate the trafficking of guns by the last administration to Mexican gangs.
I am nostalgic for my younger days when I was naive to the workings of my own government. I viewed them as altruistic and wise. The corruption, hypocrisy, and duplicity of many of our leaders (mostly on the left) are boundless. Disheartening. I totally understand Mr. Trump’s fury.
What is the case against Trump, or at least his advisors, not owning the Mueller appointment? Rosenstein was picked by the Administration, correct?
Many people on thread asking who appointed Rosenstein. It’s not a secret. He was appointed by Trump. Formerly worked in DOJ in Bush Admin and continued as US Atty under Obama. Bush tried to appoint him to 4th Cir. but was blocked by Dems. He worked for Ken Starr in the 90s investigating Clinton.
So he’s similar in background to Comey and Mueller.
How about this:
If none of that works, what difference does it make any way? We can’t pass anything without the House, and we don’t need the House to confirm nominees.
Impeachment is not about legal / law. Impeachment is about politics. All Mueller has to do is come up with enough smoke, enough out of context actions to give enough for public consumption that the political types can hide behind. That is his purpose and his job. He will find it. Then the fun can begin.
Guess again. Pelosi.
it’s not about the actual impeachment. That’s gravy. It’s about making it impossible to do anything till the midterms and picking up the House and the Senate for the Democrats. Then the real onslaught begins.
In politics the appearance of impropriety is just as damning as actual wrongdoing. You don’t hire somebody to clear your name and then fire him because of an unsourced leak to the Washington Post.
If you are the President you want Mueller to appear independent, which is the importance of this little interlude, and still exonerate you, an outcome which I think is likely. However, in the unlikely case that Mueller comes back with an unfavorable verdict you need a plan B already in place, which is why the Trump team is seeding the ground with the “Mueller is part of the swamp” narrative. But you are jumping the gun if you want President Trump to do plan B before what I think is a very effective plan A.
Some questions I don’t know answer to.
What if Trump fires Mueller and Mueller takes the position, based upon current DOJ guidance memos, that the President does not authority to do so, and challenges the action in the courts?
Which federal court would hear the case?
How many Democrats v Republicans are on that court? (I ask because apparently the legal analysis no longer makes a difference now that Trump is president).
Which court hears the appeal?
How long would process take?
What are political ramifications?
Plan B: Rosenstein shoots down charges recommended by Mueller. If the law means anything, it’s within the AG’s (or DAG’s, if AG is recused) discretion to do so. Read the law.
A couple more points about obstruction.
This is what Andy McCarthy would call “pressure” as opposed to obstruction.
One could make the argument that such tweets are unhelpful, but one could also argue that tweets like this lend support to the argument that the investigation into Trump is truly independent, rather than being directed from above. Many believe, as do I, that either Obama secretly protected Hillary from prosecution or such direction was unnecessary because Obama, Lynch and Hillary were always on the same page. That is obviously not the case in Trump’s case. If he were pulling the strings on this he would be doing it in secret, not on Twitter. Any normal person accused of committing a treasonous act that they didn’t commit would express outrage at the unfairness of it all. That is what Trump is doing. I ask you, should Trump make it convenient and easy for Mueller’s team to investigate him on trumped up charges? If you were in his position and had the power to fight back, wouldn’t you? I would.
I don’t think your Plan B happens. The political atmosphere is such that I don’t think Rosenstein will intervene. Further, he must be thinking that if he does he becomes a potential target for an obstruction of justice investigation by Mueller.
First, the plain language of the law empowers Rosenstein to intervene. You may be right about his will to do so in this environment, but it’s also possible that the mood in the country changes: terrorism, war, famine, or just plain fatigue with endless investigation without evidence. It’s also possible that a booming economy will make Trump more popular. Let’s not assume the present political climate will endure forever.
Hillary and Bill had appearance of impropriety non-stop.