dagblog - Comments for "Trump Tells Sessions to ‘Stop This Rigged Witch Hunt Right Now’"

Forget Collusion. Conspiracy

artappraiser — Thu, 02 Aug 2018 08:20:41 +0000

In reply to Trump Tells Sessions to ‘Stop This Rigged Witch Hunt Right Now’

Forget Collusion. Conspiracy’s the Watchword in Mueller’s Filings

By Greg Farrell @ Bloomberg.com, July 31, 2018, 3:25 PM EDT

[....] Giuliani told CNN this week. Trump echoed that in a tweet: “Collusion is not a crime.”

That is at once technically correct and, according to former federal prosecutor Mimi Rocah, beside the point.

“To say there’s no crime of collusion means nothing,” said Rocah. “That label isn’t in the criminal statutes. But that doesn’t matter because the conduct that underlies collusion can be, under certain circumstances, conspiracy to defraud the U.S.”

The statute -- Title 18 U.S. Code 371 -- makes it a crime for two or more people to “conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose." The maximum penalty is five years.

It’s among a list of similar charges that Mueller’s prosecutors have brought in their investigation, including conspiracy to launder money and conspiracy to obstruct justice, which can lead to longer sentences.

(Mueller’s mandate, it’s worth noting, doesn’t mention either collusion or conspiracy. Deputy U.S. Attorney General empowered him to investigate “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump,” and matters arising from that.)

Tool Kit

The statute has been a basic part of prosecutors’ tool kits for decades [....]

He wants to do an interview

artappraiser — Thu, 02 Aug 2018 06:47:05 +0000

In reply to Trump Tells Sessions to ‘Stop This Rigged Witch Hunt Right Now’

He wants to do an interview with Mueller, NYT: Trump Pushes for Interview With Mueller Against Lawyers’ Advice:

For roughly a week, Trump has raged about Cohen, Manafort, Mueller. And he is angry the SC probe, which Giuliani assured him he could bring to a close, is still going. https://t.co/SChc379oyM
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) August 2, 2018

Schmidt & Haberman aren't clear where they are getting this paragraph from but it certainly sounds like the correct explanation to me:

Mr. Trump believes that he needs a daily drumbeat of criticisms against the investigation in order to sway public opinion in his favor. His lawyers have told him he has no personal legal exposure and that the only threat to him would be impeachment proceedings if the Democrats win control of the House in November.

Plus there's the mano a mano thingie, what's a little Mueller compared to Kim or Rouhani, Trump must look like strong man to the fans, not mouse?

A reminder about this related

artappraiser — Thu, 02 Aug 2018 01:50:16 +0000

In reply to Trump Tells Sessions to ‘Stop This Rigged Witch Hunt Right Now’

A reminder about this related development reported in the NYT last week, I put a long excerpt here on Barefooted's The Really Big Shoe thread:

Mueller Examining Trump’s Tweets in Wide-Ranging Obstruction Inquiry

For perhaps the first time,

barefooted — Thu, 02 Aug 2018 01:45:08 +0000

In reply to Yeah, plus there's that if

For perhaps the first time, he's seeing that prosecution can come from crimes much like he himself has committed; serious ones, and in federal court. Not to mention that the Manafort trial (a real one, a serious one!) has him all over the edges of it even if his name is not evoked even once. And not just because of anything we know or don't know - because the very idea of being held accountable for financial (tax?) crimes scares him to death. He's always thought himself above that sort of nonsense.

No. 2 GOP senator: Sessions

artappraiser — Thu, 02 Aug 2018 01:22:41 +0000

In reply to Trump Tells Sessions to ‘Stop This Rigged Witch Hunt Right Now’

No. 2 GOP senator: Sessions lacks 'authority' to stop Mueller probe

@ TheHill.com, Aug. 1, video

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) on Wednesday pushed back on President Trump's tweet urging Attorney General Jeff Sessions to stop the federal Russia investigation, saying Sessions lacks the authority to end the special counsel probe.

“At this point, I don’t think the attorney general has any authority to do that,” Cornyn, the No. 2 Senate Republican, told reporters shortly after Trump fired off a series of tweets urging Sessions to “stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now.”

Cornyn noted that Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation last year [....]

Yeah, plus there's that if

artappraiser — Thu, 02 Aug 2018 01:01:09 +0000

In reply to There are many reports out

Yeah, plus there's that if you've spent any time reading his tweets these today just have such a different feel, a clear sense of panic. Following that instinct, I just checked for any tweets for the "Art of the Deal" ghostwriter Tony Schwartz. This is the comment he has decided to leave 4 hrs. ago, before making a "taking a vacation" announcement:

Trump knows he has been caught dead to right. I feel certain of that. He will now do literally anything he can get away with to undercut, smear and destroy anyone who threatens to help bring him to justice.
— Tony Schwartz (@tonyschwartz) August 1, 2018

There are many reports out

barefooted — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 23:17:18 +0000

In reply to And this may explain

There are many reports out there about why the Manafort trial has Trump so shaken up - my theory is that it's the first real honest-to-realness trial that has come from what he's been able to so far describe as a "witch hunt". And the very realness of it has shaken him. Russian indictments? Meh. Even the knowledge of upcoming trial(s) didn't make it's way through the head of a man who needs the production to result in a show ... and now it has. And now he knows it's real. With more to come.

The president has made this

artappraiser — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 23:13:24 +0000

In reply to Trump Tells Sessions to ‘Stop This Rigged Witch Hunt Right Now’

The president has made this kind of rhetoric seem normal. In fact, it’s norm-shattering. The head of our government is impugning a lawfully predicated investigation overseen by his own appointee, using language one might expect to hear from a mafia boss. https://t.co/0Xg7ydrDNy
— Ken Dilanian (@KenDilanianNBC) August 1, 2018

And this may explain

artappraiser — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 22:41:49 +0000

In reply to Trump Tells Sessions to ‘Stop This Rigged Witch Hunt Right Now’

And this may explain President Trump's epic Twitter rants against Mueller: The special counsel's office wants to ask him about obstruction of justice https://t.co/xE9FbSbYUK
— Tim O'Brien (@TimOBrien) August 1, 2018

dagblog - Comments for "Trump Tells Sessions to ‘Stop This Rigged Witch Hunt Right Now’"

Forget Collusion. Conspiracy

He wants to do an interview

A reminder about this related

For perhaps the first time,

No. 2 GOP senator: Sessions

More on Mueller offer @ WaPo

Yeah, plus there's that if

There are many reports out

The president has made this

And this may explain