Tag Archives: Mueller probe

national news

Former AG faces intriguing political fight

Take away the upcoming presidential contest between Donald Trump and Joseph Biden and you are left with a boatload of intriguing down-ballot contests all across the nation.

The most interesting, intriguing, maddening and bizarre? It’s likely occurring in Alabama.

Two Republicans are running in a July 14 primary runoff to see who faces Democratic U.S. Sen. Doug Jones in the fall. One of the GOP candidates is former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville; the other is a former U.S. senator and attorney general, Jeff Sessions.

Donald Trump has endorsed Tuberville. He detests Sessions, the guy he picked for AG, who he then fired because — as Sessions has noted — the AG “followed the law.”

Sessions finally has begun firing back at Trump’s idiocy, declaring that Alabamans will determine who should represent them, not a president’s “personal feelings” about one of the candidates.

This is weird, man.

Sessions wants his former Senate seat back. He is running as a supporter of Trump’s agenda. Trump’s campaign has declared it doesn’t want Sessions to stand with Trump. POTUS stands with Tuberville, declaring that Sessions “let our country down.” Oh, how did he do that?

By recusing himself from the FBI investigation into whether the Trump campaign collude with Russian operatives who attacked our electoral system in 2016. How could Sessions have led a Justice Department probe into a campaign in which he was an active participant? He couldn’t! Which is why he recused himself and allowed the appointment of Robert Mueller III as the special counsel.

That recusal and Mueller’s appointment enraged Trump. As did the investigation that Mueller conducted. He ended it by saying he didn’t have enough evidence to prosecute Trump, but stated pointedly that his findings did not “exonerate” Trump from wrongdoing.

All of this seems to put Sessions in a tough spot as he campaigns in a state full of voters who still seems to adore the carnival barker/con man/liar/philanderer in chief.

Go figure.

Donald Trump, national news

Worst-case result from Russia probe? Let’s wait for it!

I actually think about things such as this, so I’ll share it with you.

What is the worst-case scenario that could erupt upon the submission of special counsel Robert Mueller III’s report to Attorney General William Barr? In my mind, it’s not what you might think.

The worst case well could involve a finding by Mueller’s legal team that Donald Trump did not commit any crimes associated with the alleged “collusion” with Russian government officials. He might determine that there are no grounds for potential impeachment. His findings well could clear the president of doing anything wrong.

I have declared my willingness to accept whatever result Mueller produces. He’s a pro. Mueller’s integrity is beyond reproach, despite what Trump says to the contrary.

The worst case involves more directly what I expect to be the president’s reaction to those findings.

We all know that Donald Trump has an incurable Twitter fetish. He tweets day and night. He watches TV and tweets about what he sees. The president listens to the love heaped on him from Fox News and other right-wing media outlets and expresses his undying love for them. He tears into the “fake news” media and anyone who says a single critical thing about him.

I am trying to fathom how Americans are going to withstand the Twitter torrent, the tirade and tumult that well could erupt if Mueller produces a report that says, “Sorry, I got nothin’.”

Is this president wired to accept those findings like a gentleman? Will he simply shrug and thank Mueller for his service to the country and then put the issue to bed? Oh, no! I don’t believe that would happen.

Of course, I also shudder to think what he would do if Mueller comes up with a different conclusion, or if the federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York hand out some more indictments involving, oh, let’s see . . . Ivanka and Jared, Don Jr., or perhaps even the Big Man himself.

There are political remedies for that occurrence and I suspect that congressional Democrats and even their Republican colleagues might come to a meeting of the minds on how to react to that development.

It’s the exoneration that gives me pause. Not by itself, mind you. But it’s how POTUS will respond.

I’m so anxious for this chapter to close.