Tag Archives: Robert Mueller

national news

Special counsel’s plate getting quite full

Robert Mueller keeps getting more information than he can digest at a single sitting.

Yep, the special counsel assigned to examine Russian government meddling into our electoral process and allegations that the Donald J. Trump campaign colluded with the Russians is getting a good bit more, um, complicated.

The Washington Post is reporting, for instance, that the president told Donald John Trump Jr. how he should describe a meeting Don Jr. had with a Russian lawyer who invited him to meet so he could receive some alleged dirt on Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The president’s lawyer denies the story outright. Other Trump defenders accuse the Post of conveying “fake news.”

But, oh, this is the stuff of serious political intrigue.

Don Jr. supposedly reported the meeting was to be about “Russian adoption policy.” That wasn’t the case, according to the Post, which reports that young Don got instructions from Dad the President on what to say.

I believe that might constitute a serious obstruction of justice matter … if it’s true. The Post, of course, stands by its story, while the White House denies all of it.

Don Jr. isn’t talking. Imagine that.

Recall that another special counsel, Kenneth Starr, started looking into a real estate deal involving President and Mrs. Clinton. Then more tidbits began flying over his transom. Eventually, Starr got wind of a relationship Bill Clinton was having with a young White House intern. Starr poked around a little more and, well, the rest is history.

Mueller has the same latitude as Starr as he pursues the Russia matter. Stories such as the one published by the Post give him even more grist to pore through as he continues his pursuit of the truth behind the Russia story.

legal news, national news

POTUS doth protest too much?

Donald J. Trump has declared war on Robert Mueller.

Why? To what end? The president is seeking to discredit the special counsel’s credibility as he continues an investigation into whether Trump’s presidential campaign had any inappropriate dealings with Russian government officials.

The president himself called it “the Russia thing.” He fired FBI Director James Comey because of the FBI’s probe into Russian hacking of the 2016 presidential election.

Then came the Justice Department’s hiring of Mueller — also a former FBI director — as special counsel.

Trump is having none of it.

Here’s my fundamental question: If the president has nothing to hide, then why doesn’t he just step aside and let the special counsel look far and wide … only to come up empty?

But, no-o-o-o-o. Donald Trump is turning the hounds loose to look for conflicts of interest. He’s seeking to discredit Mueller — who’s reputation as a proverbial Boy Scout is impeccable.

The way I am viewing this, the more Trump objects to Mueller continuing his probe the more he acts like something who wants to keep something out of the special counsel’s hands.

What do you suppose that might be?

Keep Mueller on the job.

business news, International news, national news, political news

Tax returns might reveal the whole truth

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Here they come again.

Those still-missing Donald J. Trump tax returns have returned to front row of discussion topics relating to the Russian probe into the president’s 2016 campaign.

Trump hasn’t released them. He has broken a 40-year streak of disclosures from presidential candidates. He keeps saying he’s “under audit” by the Internal Revenue Service.

But wait! Special counsel Robert Mueller is now thought to be examining the Trump business empire’s dealings that might have something to do with the Russian government, which has been linked to allegations that it sought to influence the 2016 presidential election outcome.

Won’t those tax returns tell the public whether Trump’s businesses had any skin in the game? Won’t they reveal the truth? Couldn’t they possibly clear the air? Might they tell us that Trump has been truthful, that he has no business dealings with Russia?

Or, might they tell us something else?

I know I’m repeating myself. That’s too bad. Those tax returns need to go before the public.

legal news

Dear Mr. POTUS: Let Mueller do his job

Donald J. Trump requires a lesson in government. Yep, the president of the United States does not understand how many things work.

Take the special counsel hired by the U.S. Department of Justice to examine the president’s potential ties to the Russian government and whether there might be some collusion between that government and the president’s winning campaign in 2016.

He is rattling some sabers, threatening to fire special counsel Robert Mueller if he looks into the Trump family’s financial dealings.

Here’s where the lesson might kick in.

The special counsel has wide latitude to take the examination wherever it leads. Does the president recall what occurred when an earlier special prosecutor, Kenneth Starr, began examining a real estate matter involving President and Mrs. Clinton? He sniffed around and then learned about a young White House intern. Starr then learned about a relationship she was having with the president. He decided to ask the president some questions about it. He summoned him to a federal grand jury; the president violated the oath he took to tell the truth; he then was impeached.

That’s what happens, Mr. President. Special counsels are within their legal authority to look where they can find to determine the truth. Indeed, an examination of family business dealings well might help the public learn the whole truth about the relationship between the Trump empire and the Russian government. If it finds nothing there, then Mueller’s office can clear the president.

Technically, the president cannot summarily fire the special counsel. He has to ask the Justice Department to do it. Indeed, a leading congressional Republican, Rep. Mike McCaul of Texas, has warned the president about getting rid of Mueller. If he does it, the president faces a bipartisan backlash on Capitol Hill.

Let the process continue, Mr. President. You don’t seem to know the trouble you would purchase if you act foolishly.

national news, political news

Time for you to quit, Mr. Attorney General

If I read Donald Trump’s comments about Attorney General Jeff Sessions correctly, it appears the president is pretty damn angry at the man he picked to lead the Department of Justice.

It also looks as though Trump’s confidence in his AG has vanished, which suggests to me that it’s time for the attorney general to hit the road.

The president has broken sharply with one of his earliest U.S. Senate supporters, saying he never would have picked Sessions if the attorney general would recuse himself from a deepening investigation into Trump’s connections with Russian government officials. Actually, Sessions’s recusal was one of the more noble aspects of his time as AG, given that he couldn’t possibly be trusted to be impartial and unbiased as he was a key player in Trump’s transition team after the 2016 election.

Trump is showing signs of extreme anxiety as the special counsel’s investigation picks up momentum. Indeed, the president also said in an interview with the New York Times that the counsel, Robert Mueller, must stay away from the Trump family financial issues as he pursues the facts behind the so-called “Russia thing.”

As for Sessions, he can’t do his job as the nation’s top legal eagle. The man who appointed now appears to have lost faith in him because he decided to do the right thing by recusing himself. Beyond all of that, his own testimony before Senate committee members has been rife with holes and has produced seemingly more questions than answers about his own role in the Russia matter.

And so … the mystery deepens and the crisis continues.

International news, legal news, national news

What do we fear from a deep probe into Russian meddling?

Timothy Snyder is a brilliant young historian who has consented to an interview on a podcast to which I’ve been listening.

He is an admitted anti-Trumpkin. He thinks badly of the president of the United States, as does the interviewer, Sam Harris.

Snyder has written a book, “The Road to Tyranny,” which is the subject of the podcast interview.

His interview is quite lengthy. If you have a good bit of time, I encourage you to listen to it here. I doubt those of you who support the president would want to hear what this fellow has to say. Still, take a listen anyway.

He offers up a lot of theories about current trends and how they relate to where we’ve gone as a nation and what has happened in other places around the world. And, yes, there are plenty of Hitler references.

For this blog post, I want to focus on a tiny snippet of what Snyder said about the investigation into “the Russia thing” by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is examining whether the Trump presidential campaign “colluded” with Russian government spooks seeking to undermine the 2016 election.

Professor Snyder doesn’t quite get why the pro-Trump crowd opposes the probe Mueller is leading. Indeed, why do they? As Snyder points out, if Mueller’s investigation reveals nothing illegal occurred, if it produces a clean bill of political health for Donald Trump, then all that’s left is that “we have an intelligence problem.” The Russians hacked into our democratic process and our intelligence community was unable to detect it and prevent it.

The flip side, of course, is that Mueller’s legal team might uncover something else.

Wherever it goes, the special counsel’s investigation should proceed. We are bound to learn something from it.

International news, national news

It’s getting smokier in Washington, D.C.

The toughest job in Washington has been handed off from Sean Spicer to Sarah Huckabee Sanders, given that Spicer appears to have been taken off the White House press room briefing detail.

Sanders today sought to tell the media that there is nothing at all wrong with Donald J. Trump Jr. meeting with a Russian lawyer who reportedly told the young man that she had some dirt to pass on about Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Meanwhile, the New York Times is reporting that Donald Jr. received an e-mail informing him that the “Russian government” had information about Clinton that would be helpful to the Trump campaign. Thus, the meeting between Donald Jr. and the lawyer occurred. Interesting, yes? I damn sure think so.

Here’s the NY Times story.

Sanders said that campaign officials always meet with individuals or organizations in the heat of a contest. What’s the big deal? Actually, the big deal centers on questions about whether the Trump campaign cooperated with Russians seeking to damage Clinton’s campaign and aid Trump’s winning effort.

The younger Trump says he will cooperate with congressional committees. He has hired a lawyer to help him sort through this mess. He says he has nothing to hide.

You know what? It’s getting a bit smokier and murkier as special counsel Robert Mueller continues his hunt for the truth. Senate and House committees also are firing up their own investigative machinery.

Sarah Sanders’s effort at justifying this meeting that Donald Jr. had with the Russian lawyer, though, has to rank as one of the lamer efforts heard in some time. It does illustrate the difficult task she must perform while speaking on behalf of this dysfunctional administration.

As for the Kremlin and what officials in Moscow are saying about this, they are denying that Donald Jr. even met with the lawyer. Of course the Russians would deny it. I don’t believe Robert Mueller is going to accept the Russians’ version of what happened … or didn’t happen.

Keep looking, Mr. Mueller.

national news

Donald Jr. steps in it … bigly?

Did the eldest son of Donald J. Trump just say something terribly incriminating?

Don Jr. has told the New York Times that he met with a Russian lawyer on the promise that the Russian had some dirt that the Trump campaign could use against Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Collusion anyone?

Isn’t that precisely what special counsel Robert Mueller is examining, whether the Trump presidential campaign worked hand in glove with Russian operatives seeking to damage Clinton’s presidential campaign?

The president denies any collusion. Indeed, there’s been no proof of any collusion. So far it’s all been speculation and allegation.

Now, though, Don Jr., has poured some fuel on the smoldering embers that keep producing all that smoke.

The Washington Post reported the Times story and took particular note of something that Trump the Younger said. According to the Post: “‘It became clear to me that this was the true agenda all along and that the claims of potentially helpful information were a pretext for the meeting,’ Mr. Trump said.

“Read that last part again: ‘the claims of potentially helpful information were a pretext for the meeting.’”

So, if the young man is telling the truth, he went into the meeting expecting to receive dirt on Clinton. Did he pass it on to Dad? Did Dad do anything with it?

This story is getting murkier by the hour.

International news, national news, political news

New House chairman says ‘no’ to Russia probe

U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy isn’t going to join the hunt for the truth into the “Russia thing.”

You might not believe this, but this news doesn’t upset me.

Why, you ask? Well, Gowdy — the new chairman of the panel — says he is going to let special counsel Robert Mueller lead the probe. What’s more, Gowdy’s committee is only one of several congressional panels charged with looking at this matter. The others are the Senate Intelligence and House Intelligence committees, and Senate and House Judiciary committees. They appear to be on the hunt.

So, it’s fair to suggest: Who needs the House Oversight and Government Reform panel to do the same job?

The “Russia thing” deals with the Trump presidential campaign’s alleged relationship with the Russian government. Russian goons hacked into the 2016 presidential election and they have generated considerable congressional interest.

Gowdy will have a role to play anyway. He serves on the House Intelligence and Judiciary panels. He won’t remain silent.

Still, his decision to forgo any hearings is at odds with what his predecessor as chairman, former Rep. Jason Chaffetz, wanted to do. Chaffetz wanted the panel to be more active in the probe.

I am not discouraged that we’re going to root out the issues related to this matter.

You go, special counsel Robert Mueller!

national news

Mueller hires pro-Democrats? What’s the big deal?

Donald J. Trump is busy trying to impugn the integrity of special counsel Robert Mueller.

The president told “Fox and Friends” that Mueller has hired lawyers who are friendly to Democrats, who have given money to Democratic candidates. Why, they’ve even supported Hillary Rodham Clinton, he said. He calls Mueller “an honorable man,” and then wonders if he can conduct a truly independent investigation into the Russian government’s involvement in the 2016 presidential election.

Wait! Hold on!

So has Donald Trump! The president himself has acknowledged giving money to Democrats. He used to be friends with Bill and Hillary Clinton. Aren’t there pictures out there showing Trump and the Clintons chumming around at parties? I believe I’ve seen ’em.

So, what is the point about Mueller’s legal team? The president has forgotten — willfully or otherwise — about his own past.