Tag Archives: Robert Mueller

2016 election, national news

If there was nothing wrong …

It’s fair now to ask a key question.

It goes like this: If there was nothing wrong with Donald Trump Jr. meeting with Russians who had “dirt” on Hillary Rodham Clinton, why did Don Jr. and his father, the president of the United States, lie about it?

We now at this moment that Don Jr.’s meeting with the Russians in 2016 was meant to deliver the goods on Hillary Rodham Clinton. Junior said at the time that there was nothing to it. He also said the meeting was called to discuss “Russian adoption.” Daddy Trump said the same thing. Oh, he also reportedly dictated the statement that Don Jr. released to the public declaring the phony Russian adoption dodge.

Special counsel Robert Mueller is looking carefully at all of this. He will tell us eventually where all this will lead.

I just need to say that the view from the cheap seats tells me there’s something quite fishy going on and that Mueller may be getting ready to hook “the big one.”

Conspiracy to collude, anyone?

Anyone?

business news

Does the special counsel have those Trump tax returns?

I keep getting this throbbing in my trick knee that suggests that special counsel Robert Mueller might be able to answer the question that has been bugging millions of Americans like me.

What is in Donald John Trump’s tax returns, the returns he refuses to release for public inspection?

That ol’ trick knee of mine suggests that Mueller has obtained those returns as part of his investigation into “The Russia Thing.” Trump won’t release them, making some sort of phony claim about being under audit by the Internal Revenue Service.

Of course, Mueller has substantial authority to get a lot of information that doesn’t come out through regular channels.

I’m waiting with some anxiousness for Mueller to finish this probe while telling us what many of us want to know: Are there business dealings in Russia that Trump wants to keep hidden from the public?

national news

WH provides phony cover for Trump

White House senior aides are swilling the Kool-Aid that makes them lie for the president of the United States.

They keep saying that Donald J. Trump is just dying to talk to special counsel Robert Mueller’s team that is examining whether the Trump presidential campaign colluded with Russians who attacked our democratic system in 2016.

Does anyone really believe Trump wants to talk to Mueller? Does anyone believe that he can skate through an interview with a meticulous lawyer who has been working for more than a year in search of the truth behind this matter?

I do not believe it for a minute. Indeed, Trump has been getting plenty of armchair legal advice from Republicans to stay as far away from Mueller as possible.

That is far closer to the truth than the fiction being tossed out there by the White House staff and by Trump’s legal team.

Mueller appears to be closing in … on something or someone! I have no clue where he is going with this probe.

If the president were to ask me for my advice, I likely should say: Don’t do it, Mr. President. Then again, given that I detest the president, maybe I would succumb to the mischievous angels on my shoulder and tell him: Sure thing, go for it!

However, I am nowhere near the center of this tumult. I do believe that the Trump/White House legal team is lying about the president’s so-called “desire” to talk to Mueller.

national news, political news

An ‘order’ or an ‘opinion’?

Let’s take another brief look at that tweet from Donald John Trump that’s gotten everyone’s attention.

He wrote: This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!

I want to dissect a section of the Twitter message. Did the president issue an order to the attorney general or was he merely stating an opinion?

I keep reading it and I keep coming up with the former. It looks like an order to my eyes. It would sound like an order were he to say it to me directly.

The Hill reported: (Former Watergate special prosecutor Jill) Wine-Banks argued that Trump’s tweet on Wednesday calling for Sessions to immediately end the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election was sent with the intention that Sessions obey it and that Trump has “undermined” the probe from the beginning.

The so-called explanation offered by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders just doesn’t add up. She said Trump merely was offering his “opinion” about the nature of Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in our electoral system.

Thus, the president might have committed a bald-faced act of conspiring to commit obstruction of justice with that message to the AG. Did he issue an order to Sessions to end an investigation into what he — the president — might have done?

This is unprecedented. It’s also, dare I say it — to borrow a malapropism once offered by Trump himself — very “unpresidented.”

national news

Who’s more believable: The Marine or the liar in chief?

As I watch and listen to Donald J. Trump’s incessant harangue against special counsel Robert Mueller, I keep circling back to the histories of both men.

Trump was born to wealth and parlayed his birthright into a business career staked by a large stash of money from his father. The Vietnam War was raging when he became old enough to serve his country. Young Donald chose to pursue student deferments and received a medical deferment based on some sort of “bone spur” ailment that kept him out of harm’s way.

Trump then went into business and spent his entire professional life in pursuit of self-enrichment, self-aggrandizement and self-adulation.

Mueller also was born into wealth. He went to college, then to law school. But before he entered the legal profession, he decided to enlist in the Marine Corps. He served in Vietnam. He earned a chest full of medals, including the Bronze Star and at least two Purple Hearts. He fought with valor in defense of the country that sent him into harm’s way.

He got out of the Corps, entered the legal profession, served as a prosecutor and then eventually became director of the FBI, again in service to his country.

Trump has spent the past year and a half disparaging Robert Mueller. He calls him corrupt, says Mueller is engaging in a “witch hunt” while he conducts an investigation into whether the president’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russians who had attacked our electoral system.

Who in the name of dedicated public service should we trust to do the right thing?

I will go with the Marine.

national news

How to interpret the word ‘should’

I don’t know about you, but when I hear the word “should” attached to a sentence that deals with whether to do something, then I take that word as a directive and not a mere suggestion.

Donald J. Trump has escalated his rhetorical war against special counsel Robert Mueller with a tweet that drags the U.S. attorney general squarely into the fray.

Trump said that AG Jeff Sessions “should” end Mueller’s probe into Russian hacking in our election system and whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russians who attacked our democratic process during the 2016 election.

“Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further,” Trump tweeted.

Pro-Trump forces say the president’s use of the word “should” is not a command, that he’s merely suggesting that the AG do it; plus, they say that the president has a First Amendment right to speak his mind.

Yeah. Sure thing. Except that he’s the president of the United States of America.

I worked for a number of editors and publishers during my career in journalism. Whenever any of them wanted me to write something or to report on something or someone, they almost invariably would say that I “should write an editorial” about this or that, or that I “should” turn in a story that reports an event occurring in our community.

I was a loyal soldier during my years in the reporting/editorializing business, so I did what I was told … most of the time. There was one instance when a publisher to whom I reported wanted me to write an editorial that at the time I thought was a ridiculous subject on which to comment. He likely said I “should” do so. I disagreed with him in the moment — and then ignored his directive. He never pressed the issue, but he well might have held my refusal to do his bidding against me. Whatever.

A presidential directive that comes in the form of a Twitter message that says the AG “should” terminate an investigation involving the president of the United States comes mighty close to obstructing justice.

national news

Trump’s corrupt intent is being laid bare

How many more examples of Donald J. Trump’s corrupt intent do we need to witness?

Here’s the latest: The president has asked U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to end special counsel Robert Mueller’s legally constituted investigation into the “Russia thing,” even though Sessions recused himself from anything having to do with Russia probe.

Now, what is Trump missing here? He wants Sessions to ignore his necessary recusal, which is mandated by Justice Department rules. Sessions was a key member of Trump’s presidential campaign, thus it was impossible for him to conduct an investigation into that campaign’s alleged ties to Russian attacks on our electoral system in 2016.

That is why the AG recused himself. He acted correctly on that recusal.

The president wants Sessions to undo the recusal and get back into the “Russia thing” game. He now wants Sessions to end the Mueller investigation, saying he “should” bring it to a conclusion. He said on Twitter: “Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further.”

If such a message had been directed at me, that I “should” do something, I believe I would construe that as a direct order, given that it is coming from the president of the United States.

Therein lies Donald Trump’s corrupt intent.

national news, political news

Earth to POTUS: Russians did the damage, not Mueller

Donald J. Trump is in dire need of a reality check.

Yep, he fired off another Twitter message. It reads: ..This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!

Hey, “Robert” Mueller isn’t “Bob,” especially to the president of the United States. But … I digress.

Jeff Sessions has recused himself from the “Russia thing,” which pi*** off the president to no end.

It’s not a “Rigged Witch Hunt.” It has produced numerous indictments. Oh, yes, and the president’s former 2016 campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, is now standing trial for money laundering.

The “17 Angry Democrats”? Who are they? I keep hearing that Mueller is a Republican. The guy who selected him as special counsel, Rod Rosenstein, is also a Republican. Oh, and Rosenstein was picked to be deputy AG by — drum roll! — Donald J. Trump.

Conflict of interest? Many millions of us are waiting for some evidence of it.

And the “disgrace” and the “stain” on our country are the direct result of the Russian attack on our electoral system. Robert Mueller is trying to clean up the mess.

Outrageous.

national news

Collusion not a crime … but how about conspiracy?

Donald Trump’s defense is morphing into something rather strange.

The president who keeps insisting he didn’t “collude” with Russian hackers who attacked our electoral system now says “collusion” isn’t a crime.

Weird, yes? I think so.

The president and his lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, say there are no statutes on the books that cover collusion. Special counsel Robert Mueller is examining whether there was collusion associated with the attack on our system by Russians who reportedly presented some “dirt” on Hillary Clinton to the Trump campaign in 2016.

Rather than notify the FBI and rat out the hostile power with this information, the Trump team allegedly went forward with receiving the “dirt.” Did they then conspire with the Russians in their effort to interfere in our electoral system?

This investigation is slogging through difficult territory. There might be land mines aplenty through which Mueller’s team must navigate. Indeed, the Trump team appears to be planting them in some form of tactical retreat as Mueller proceeds methodically with his probe of the president and his campaign.

We now are left to ponder how, if collusion is not a crime, the president appears to be in so much trouble. We also now must consider why the president is working so hard to discredit the special counsel and his team of lawyers who have been given the task of finding the truth.

national news

‘Not a crime,’ but yes, it does matter, Mr. POTUS

Donald J. Trump’s got a million of ’em, idiotic tweets and assorted proclamations, that is.

He said this via Twitter early today, for example: Collusion is not a crime, but that doesn’t matter because there was No Collusion (except by Crooked Hillary and the Democrats)!

Whoa! Mr. President, it damn sure does matter.

Robert Mueller’s team of legal eagles is examining whether the president’s campaign “colluded” with the Russians who hacked into our electoral system and launched an attack on our democratic process. I get that there isn’t a statute that covers such activity; absent a statute, there can be no crime.

Is it right? Is it normal? Does this kind of activity keep faith with the notion that our system should be immune from this kind of interference?

Collusion not a crime

And what about the very idea that a hostile foreign power would seek to influence a presidential outcome?

The notion that a major-party political campaign could have accepted, if not solicited, this kind of foreign intervention in a presidential election should send chills up the spines of those of us who want our electoral system protected from such activity.

Does it matter, then, that the Russians attacked us? Absolutely.

Does it also matter that there might be evidence that the Trump campaign cooperated with the attackers? Without question … yes!