From Jeffrey Toobin's New Yorker article on Trump, cited here:
"Trump returned to Moscow in each of the following decades ... His regular visits have led some to speculate that Trump had a kind of obsession with the country ..."
Trump's return to Moscow in "each of the following decades" amounts to "regular visits" and shows "a kind of obsession with the country?"
Usually people who are obsessed with a place come there more often than once every decade. I suppose, though, that there are other ways to show that one is obsessed...
1
Bob Kantor asks the right question:
"The NY Times, CNN, MSNBC, the Washington Post and most of the legacy media have been pursuing the Trump/Russia collusion story obsessively. What will all of you do if Mueller and his team of lawyers ... come up with nothing?"
Sad to say, I know the answer to that question: Mueller will simply keep looking. In other words, his "investigation" will never actually end. His "team of lawyers" might return to their regular jobs, and his "investigation" might end in reality, but he will never state formally that "collusion" did not occur.
Nor, frankly, should he. If Mueller finds no evidence of collusion, that won't mean collusion didn't occur. It will mean only that Mueller didn't find any evidence of that. Nevertheless, Mueller should wind up his investigation at some point. He need not say that his failure to find anything proves Trump's innocence -- and it won't -- but he does need to acknowledge, at some point, that he hasn't found anything and he's decided to stop looking.
That appears to reflect wishful thinking, however. It appears that Mueller has not intention -- ever -- of winding this up, and that his "team of lawyers" are looking at their appointments as guaranteed lifetime jobs.
4
"It's gotta be all there in those unreleased tax returns. Just have to find a way to get at them."
Good news! While Trump has not released his tax returns, he did file multiple financial reports under federal election laws, some running over 100 pages. Have you seen them? Were you even aware they're out there? I'll bet the answer is "no" to both questions.
I've filed many tax returns over the years, and I can't imagine that any of them would enable someone to figure out that I was a lap dog of Putin or some Russian oligarch (which I'm not). I've never filed a financial report under federal election laws, though, since I've never had to. If I had, though, I'll bet those reports would show my opponents all sorts of useful financial information.
Bottom line: If I were you, and hadn't already read Trump's 100+ page financial disclosures filed when he ran for President, I'd read them now. Have you? I'll wager you haven't.
1
Both sides are overreaching here. The New Yorker's Jeffrey Toobin writes:
"The indictment does not explicitly assert that Trump or his campaign knowingly participated in the Russian conspiracy. ... In fact, Mueller’s charges suggest the opposite [i.e. that they did]."
Mueller's indictment did not name Trump or any Trump campaign officials, but Mueller didn't say explicitly that they were not part of the Russian conspiracy. So the first part of the quotation is correct, but sometimes is OVERSTATED by Trump supporters.
On the other hand, Mueller's charges do NOT "suggest the opposite." He mentions that Trump campaign reps probably were "unwitting" collaborators, but nowhere does Mueller say, or even suggest, that Trump reps had a clue that the Russians were not Americans. Arguably they should have figured that out -- and certain newspapers have since suggested just that -- but Mueller's people showed self-restraint and did not allege that.
Bottom line: Mueller's indictments of Russians didn't settle the issue. It's possible he'll later indict Trump campaign reps as co-conspirators. It's true that one would expect Mueller to have done so in these indictments, and he didn't, but that does NOT establish that he won't. He still might, and so Trump and his supporters are incorrect to insist that his failure to do so establishes the absence of collusion. On the other hand, Toobin is incorrect to say that Mueller's indictments "suggest the opposite."
Mueller just didn't say.
Yes we're now starting to watch the "rats" leaving a sinking ship. With each new indictment of one of Trumps associates, another step toward the downfall of a very crooked and corrupt administration. If Hillary and the FBI are so crooked and committed crimes, then why isn't Mr. Sessions investigating and charging them? I think Mr. Trump is only projecting his own malfeasance and incompetence on others. I also think that once we are at the bottom of the Russian influence in our electoral process, we will find out that 45 has committed treason, all because of his financial and personal ties to Russia. 45's deafening silence regarding Russian influence only fortifies his "collusion" with a foreign government trying to sow discord in America.
6
It's gotta be all there in those unreleased tax returns. Just have to find a way to get at them.
3
For almost a year now, we've been hearing: "Mueller Is Gaining Steam." "Mueller Is Closing In." "Trump Facing Indictment for (Collusion, Obstruction of Justice, Money Laundering, Tax Evasion —take your pick). The NY Times, CNN, MSNBC, the Washington Post and most of the legacy media have been pursuing the Trump/Russia collusion story obsessively. What will all of you do if Mueller and his team of lawyers (none of whom are Republicans) come up with nothing? How will Adam Schiff come off his Trump high? Will he have withdrawal symptoms when he finds out that the TV networks are no longer interested in him?
5
Nonsense. Mr. Mueller's team includes many Republicans. People on Mr. Trump's campaign team have been indicted for any number of things. Some have already pleaded guilty. A number are helping Mueller. The publicly known information alone could be enough to indict Trump or his team.
13
Mr. Mueller himself is a Republican.
6
Obviously, some members of the Trump campaign and administration need to worry a great deal. Whether Mr. Trump needs to worry is another matter. Mr. Mueller may already know how this story will end, but we must wait until he is ready to tell us. Shall we do that in a civil manner?
2
There is good reason for Trump's legal advisors to fear Trump chatting (effectively under oath) with the Mueller team. First, Trump is a liar and will perjure himself. Second, he's almost certainly guilty of at least one of several likely illegal acts (aside from perjury). It is for very good reason that they sweat and try to undermine the Special Counsel's investigation.
An interesting side issue are who, and how many, are willing to fall on the Trumpian sword. Nunes?
3
Everybody knows this – intuitively, I gather – but there are a few nitpickers among us who think we should actually see some evidence of it:
"Putin has owned and controlled Donald Trump for years."
3
He seemed to own Obama, giving his hot mic moment “I’ll have more room to move after the election..”
1
Mueller will bring down Trump over his money laundering with the Russian mob for many years. He doesn't need to prove collusion, anything resulting from the Russia investigation that's illegal is fair game and that's the law. Trump surely knows, even in his almost insane mind, that his days are numbered.
9
It’s the dems that should worry. If all this Herman Munster lookalike can conjure up after 2 years is phonetic lies to fbi charges (which were lies about nothing) the dems should be scared and ashamed. What a disc grace.
2
Sam ...
Lying to the FBI, even if about "nothing," is a crime. Committing that crime gives a prosecutor (any prosecutor) leverage to gather additional evidence. Mueller is doing a masterful job of building the foundation to show (or not, depending on the evidence) the existence of a conspiracy against the United States by Trump and/or the Trump campaign. What none of us knows is what evidence and information Mueller already has that has not yet been used. I would suggest that none of us would want to play poker with Mueller ... that man has no tells.
9
Should Trump Worry? I´d say so.
I think he is right that there was no collusion. This is defined as "secret or illegal cooperation or conspiracy in order to deceive others." I don´t think Trump is strategic or smart enough to do this. But due to his actions pre-president (see the Steele-dossier and zillions reports about money laundering and russians and kazakhs investing in his projects), he has laid the ground for political pressure from the Russians. He´s woken up in bed and discovered someone still in bed with him after last night´s fun - and this someone does not leave with a fistful of dollars. In fact - he´s got a solid grip and a fistful of something else.
What he is guilty of is being an absolute fool. The Russians have a long history of thinking of westerners as idiots. In fact - they have an expression for it:
"A useful idiot (also useful fool, Russian: полезный идиот) is "a dupe of the Communists", usually a citizen of a non-communist country sympathetic to the Soviet Union who is susceptible to propaganda and is cynically misused.The phrase was used by Soviet communists and the KGB to refer to persons in the West their country had successfully manipulated."
I think Bannon is right: It´s all about money laundering. I also think Mr. Steele was right. But what I think does not matter. What matters is what Mr. Mueller thinks - and does. And I don´t think Trump has something to look foward to.
9
Trump owed Deutsche Bank $320 mil in 2008 for a loan he took in 2005 for a Chicago project. There was an immediate need for payment of $40 mil in 2008. He couldn't pay and dragged the matter for 3 years with both sides wrangling. No banks would loan him. In 2010, both sides settled amicably. He cleared the debt miraculously by taking a loan from the private wealth division of Deutsche Bank to pay the real estate division of Deutsche bank. How often does that happen! Someone paid off the loan for him. He also got a $25-$50 million credit line from Deutsche at the same time (In Jan 2017, Deutsche was fined $620 mil for $10 bn of money laundering from Russia)
In 2008, Trump also sold a property in Florida for $95 mil to Rybolovlev, a Russian billionaire when the market price was $65 mil. The Russian never visited to see the property or stayed there. After buying the property, Rybolovlev razed it to the ground and sold it for $71 mil.
This is what available in the public domain. Imagine what Mueller knows since he has the tax returns. Trump is going down. Money laundering, tax evasion, defrauding the US, obstruction of justice and possibly, treason.
16
Yes, quite correct. It's the money laundering that will bring him down. He has money laundered with the corrupt Russian mob, with Ties to Putin, for many years. He's going down. Tick Tock, Tick Tock.......
9
There seems to be a difference of opinion on the "collusion" question:
"There’s no way his presidency will survive Mueller’s probe."
This suggests Mueller has come up with strong evidence of collusion. I'm not aware of any evidence at all, or even an allegation, but you must be. Can you share it with the rest of us?
We had a crooked candidate and his name is Donald Trump. This man works bait and switch like no one else. It's clear that his businesses are making money because he is president, in defiance of the law. He thinks he's above the law. I think Mueller will find something that will stick to Teflon Don as more former aides file guilty pleas in exchange for sharing information with Mueller. If this were not so, Trump would have no reason to keep saying he's done nothing wrong. He could just ignore the investigation. But he doesn't.
8
It is arguable that nobody in elected public office has ever been more relentlessly investigated by legal and legislative authorities than Hillary Clinton. Notwithstanding the ceaseless and, ironically, successful efforts to bring her down, no charge was ever levied against her. Yet our president, even sixteen months after his electoral victory, persists in his rabid hectoring.
No innocent person would behave that way. There would be no point. But with President Trump, there is a point, twisted though it be. He, himself, is guilty in too many ways to count. This has been transparently evident since before he was elected. It remains to be seen whether he was clever enough to erase the scent from the trail our dogged, prosecuting bloodhound is tracking down.
My money's on the bloodhound.
12
I think that the Trump campaign through Cambridge Analytica, gave target voters to the Russians . This was almost certainly through Kushner, but mighty close to Trump. I believe that it was for that reason that Mueller recently employed a computer lawyer.
I expect there is plenty of money laundering as well. I am not American, but an admirer of America, and I sympathise with those good honest republican voters who must be in despair.
4
The people you should sympathize with are the majority of the voters, who DIDN'T vote for him but got stuck with him anyway.
9
I can only guess what Robert Mueller's plan is. but from the outside looking in, I see that he has thrown a very large net over the largest possible group of law-breakers. As the evidence grows, one by one, slowly but surely, they are being roped in and in more cases than less, pleading guilty. Yes, Trump should be afraid, but he is too clueless and self-involved to understand all this. All the people, from day one, that he hired were either greedy, star-struck or ambitious to the point that the White House no longer functions as it should, not even mentioning all his cabinet picks who were destined to ruin every department that they were in charge of, to this day.
An old saying for the Trumpster..."Don't let the hands that you stepped on going up scratch your eyes out on the way down.
7
" I see that he has thrown a very large net over the largest possible group of law-breakers."
Reminds me of an old story about an NFL defensive star known for sacking quarterbacks. When asked how he did it, his response was that he grabbed everyone in the backfield and eliminated any player not the quarterback.
1
I wait with baited breath for the unmasking of the "unwitting" persons affiliated with the Trump campaign referred to in the indictment of the 13 Russians. "Unwitting" does not mean legally innocent. There are prison cells across the U,S. and beyond occupied by people who unwittingly transported drugs or other contraband, joined terrorist groups, drove getaway cars, etc. It boggles the mind to wonder how high up in Team Trump, who arrived to "drain the swamp", we will find the "unwitting". Will that include the individual who, one week after receiving the nomination for president from the party of Lincoln, said, "Russia if you're listening . . ."?
6
Simple question
IF this president has done nothing wrong and IF he is not worried, why is he so afraid of being interviewed by the Special Counsel??
10
Forget Trump “collusion” and forget “obstruction of justice”...the talent on Team Mueller and the indictments thus far have two major objectives,,..1) Can it conclusively be shown that Russia conspired to subvert American democracy and the answer is a resounding YES. 2) Can it be proven that Trump’s bizarre romance with Putin is fueled by fear of exposure of money laundering for criminal Russian entities......STAY TUNED! The first will validate the FBI that Mueller is justifiably proud to have served and the second could very well save the country that we all love.
13
Just hoping that Mueller is alloting two investigators of Trump's money laundering for every one investigator of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Its the money laundering that will eventually destroy Trump and his "real estate empire." Even direct, videotaped evidence of Trump colluding with Putin to throw the election to him would be rejected by the GOP House as cause for impeachment. Only a criminal prosecution of Trump and friends for money laundering will reveal the truth: Putin has owned and controlled Donald Trump for years.
13
Nothing will happen to Trump , unfortunately . We are witnessing the almost total abandonment of morals and ethics . The change really got going with Reagan . Trump’s election might signify the crossing of a line that there is no coming back from . My solace is the fact that I never risked my life in any wars that were about the opposite of what we were told and that I do not have grand children .
2
Bill Clinton's special prosecutor started looking at possible corrupt real estate deals and ended up finding sexual misconduct. The Trump dossier started with sexual misconduct and may end up unearthing corrupt real estate deals. Isn't Karma fun to watch.
8
You two had better get together and agree on your baseless speculations:
Commenter 1: "Best guess is the full report comes out right after the midterm election..."
Commenter 2: "Mueller won't release charges and evidence against Trump until he has undeniable and overwhelming evidence ..."
The obvious question (or the "most obvious" question, since several questions are obvious): What will Mueller do if he comes up with undeniable and overwhelming evidence long before the midterm election -- in March, say? Will Mueller just stick it all in his desk drawer until after the election, as Commenter 1 insists, or will he release it when he's got it?
Whichever Commenter is right, both assume that Mueller will in fact come up with some evidence of collusion. Nothing so far, of course, but it's still possible.
More likely, though, is that Mueller will just drag this one indefinitely. No finding of collusion, no finding of non-collusion, just more "investigating." Maybe an indictment or two of someone on entirely unrelated charges (as with Manafort/Gates), or maybe some more indictments of dastardly Russians, but nothing one way of another on the subject that Mueller was hired to look into: collusion.
2
“I don’t think the president is worried about the investigation himself,” he added, “but it clearly bothers him that people are being prosecuted simply because they worked for his campaign.” AND they broke the law.
5
If the heat becomes too intense, Trump will fire Mueller and grant pardons to Manafort, Gates, Flynn, et al.
Does anyone seriously believe that the Republicans, who control Congress, would step in and stop such a governmental crisis!
That is the outcome we need to be prepared to address. Our future hangs on it.
5
So many on here a certain President Trump is guilty of...something despite there being no evidence. Mueller's indictments, so far, have been for activities unrelated to the President and the election, but they serve as confirmation bias for those convinced of his guilt.
2
When your campaign chairman is conspiring with the Russians that is the same thing as saying The Trump Campaign conspired with the Russians. Even if Trump is only guilty of hiring the most corrupt people in America and didn't lead the conspiracy himself, that is still a huge problem for him and for us.
8
Mueller's indictment of Russian meddling is worrisome for other reasons than just breaking our laws. Social media has no means or incentive to monitor or remove fake ads and posts. Were the recipients of social media posts influenced by those posts? Did such meddling tip the balance for a Trump win? Only 77,000 votes in 3 states (out of 100 million) tip the electoral college votes for a Trump win. Trump reacts angrily whenever his election win is questioned. Trump is worried, but we, the electorate, should also be worried, too. Our "checks and balances" government fails when Trump and his enablers control the 3 federal branches of government.
6
While not implicating The Donald, those fired and/or indicted reflect on the judgement of those who did the hiring.
5
Whatever Trump and his cohort may have been guilty of during the campaign, they are guilty NOW. Of aiding by (at least) omission the mucking up of our elections by the Russians and failing to P,P and D the Constitution. Of profiting from the office of the presidency. Of being gross embarrassments to the country. The last one might not be a crime/grounds for impeachment, but the first two are.
2
The best Trump can hope for is another Bay of Tonkin incident.
Trump remembers all about his own Russian connections. Recall when he claimed he did not "even know any Russians." In reality, he knows LOTS of Russians and his campaign staff and advisers and family know LOTS of Russians. And, in reality, dealing with Russian oligarchs -- as Trump et al have done -- is dealing with Putin by extension. So Trump is sweating, in public. His protestations ring hollow.
6
donald trump's has made a career out of cheating, deceit and law-breaking -- with the republican party and 40% of the electorate devoted to propping him up at all costs, it's hard to imagine that he fears being caught now.
2
Sadly, with a fully complicit Congress in place, the President has nothing to worry about. He once said that he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose any supporters. It appears that that claim, outrageous as it seemed at the time, extends to Congressional supporters as well.
2
He should be scared to the point of resigning. There’s no way his presidency will survive Mueller’s probe.
6
Trump can say there's no collusion as much as he wants, but that doesn't make it so. If anyone seriously believes that Trump was unaware of the meeting in Trump tower with a bus load of Russians, then they are just as delusional as he is. Kushner trying to set up a secret back channel of communication with the Russians is collusion. Flynn telling the Russian ambassador that they would take care of the sanctions once Trump was in office, is collusion (as an aside, it is worth pointing out that Trump has not implemented the sanctions that were overwhelmingly voted for in Congress).
As for obstruction, when Trump asked Comey to back off on Flynn and then fired him after he refused, that is obstruction. When Trump asked the heads of the intelligence agencies to try to influence Comey into stopping the investigation, that is obstruction. Trump's clown Nunes running bogus errands/interference for the White House is obstruction. Trump personally, and publicly, trying to discredit the FBI and Robert Mueller, is obstruction.
The Trump Administration may say they are not concerned, but actions speak louder than words . . .
6
#1 job is to protect and defend. Is denial and/or failure to fully engage in the defense of US election security from Russian interference (for money or any other reasons) considered treason?
3
Mike ... " Is denial and/or failure to fully engage in the defense of US election security from Russian interference (for money or any other reasons) considered treason?"
Legally, no. It could be part of a "conspiracy against the United States," which legally is not quite the same thing (although as a practical matter that may be a distinction without a difference).
Trump was fully aware of the Trump Tower meeting with Russian intelligence and Jr., Jared & Manafort. Gates will inform Mueller of this. Trump has Lied. He and his campaign colluded. But it is the money laundering for Russian oligarchs to whom Trump is significantly indebted to and the tax evasion which will be the crimes Trump and his family will be jailed for.
5
Trump explained to the American people that he fired Comey "because of the Russia thing." His statements and tweets often seem self-incriminating and revealing of suspicious culpability.
One could argue that Trump's promise to "drain the swamp" is in the same vein. When Trump said he'd drain the swamp, he seems to have meant that he would show us where the swamp is, who inhabits it, and why it is critically important that America saves its democracy from the swamp's dirty, dangerous, corrupt, and unhealthy environment. Thanks Donald!
4
Of course Trump should worry. But we should worry more about Mueller, and ensure his protection from Trump's meddling. Another question is what can Mueller do? He can't indict or impeach Trump. It is up to Rod Rosenstein and Congress to decide upon Trump's fate. However much could happen between now and the hour of reckoning when Mueller finally presents his findings.
5
"Another question is what can Mueller do? He can't indict or impeach Trump."
The legal precedents seem to be that a President can be indicted for matters that occurred prior to assuming the presidency but can only be impeached for matters that occurred during the presidency.
1
Perhaps Trump thinks he will be able to pardon all his cronies specially Paul Manafort. He believes he has the power to do so and from what I have heard he can. If that would happen than there has to be a call for obstruction of justice.
It is maddening the way Congress is shielding him and making excuses. One can only wonder if Mitch McConnell and the Paul Ryan and many other elected officials may also have some skeletons in the closet regarding the Russians.
We can't know for sure with all the dark money present in the recent 2016 election.
We must end Citizens United!!!!
4
".......nothing produced publicly by Mr. Mueller to date has claimed any wrongdoing by the president nor any illegal collaboration with the Russians seeking to influence the 2016 election."
That's the key sentence in this story. During Watergate they couldn't keep anything from leaking. You don't think if they had any real dirt on Donald Trump it wouldn't be page 1? If Mueller had anything real somebody on his staff would leak it with glee. More and more people are waking up to the fact that much of this has been Democratic Party propaganda with their accomplices in the media. They don't have anything. Or it would be out there by now. Nixon was toast by this time. Incriminating evidence was on the table. Where's the evidence against Donald Trump?
1
He said to Lester Holt that he fired Comey because he was investigating the Russia "thing" ( his fifth grade vocabulary, not mine).
Why would anyone have to leak that?? He SAID IT ON LIVE TV!
Since then there have been numerous leaks about his requests and directives to have parts or all of the investigation ended.
Where have you been?? The obstruction case. Is already out there.
4
Please Mr. Mueller don't give up on America.
Please also include the business dealings of the Trump organization in Panama and other Hotels, Golf courses when he had investors from Russia and Drug Cartels. Please investigate this dealings with Ivanka, Don jr. Eric and Jared.
Thank you and God speed
7
Trump won't be implicated until all the i's are dotted, etc. and all the guilty pleas gathered. And then, BOOM, seemingly out of nowhere, indictments up the wazoo. I hope the NY Attorney General is still involved so Trump can't weasel out by giving pardons.
10
“When you put that all together, the White House should be extremely worried,” said Benjamin Wittes, “You have to ask the question about whether there is a certain measure of self-delusion going on here.”
It's not self-delusion, it's hubris. Trump and his cronies all know they will be pardoned by Pence or Trump himself. What 'crook' wouldn't be boastful, arrogant and reckless if they knew they'd get away with the crime.
6
He should be terrified for his family. Kushner and Donnie Jr., at a minimum, are probably guilty of fraud and illegal contact with foreign entities. At their worst, possibly treason and conspiracy against the United States.
9
I want to know where the horseshoe nail is in all of this.
3
Nothing has changed; it’s still in the shoe...
2
This will all end when Trump is presented with irrefutable facts that he committed financial crimes of a significant magnitude. Those facts may never be made known to the public, but when they are laid out in front of Trump and he understands from counsel that there is no way to suppress these facts or get around them, he will resign "for health reasons" in exchange for some sort of embargo on the incriminating facts.
Trump is defined by nothing as much as by his greed. Does anyone seriously believe that this completely amoral man could countenance life without huge amounts of money and an A list social standing?
Likely scenario: when unable to get financing from US banks who came to believe him an incompetent businessman after his bankruptcies and other dismal performances in NY real estate, he could only raise money from Russian oligarchs looking for some place to launder dirty money. Greedy, broke, and arrogant, Trump took the money . . . breaking laws in the process.
That is what Mueller and his staff of experts in international money laundering are likely to find out. Just my guess.
30
Good guess .
But it has been said that Trump doesn't have as much money as he'd like us to believe.
As for the "A list social standing", he has never and will never have that, much as he's always sought it. Too vulgar, uncouth and lacking in self-awareness.
5
This seems to be the sort of "thinking" that prevails these days:
"Trump may not have colluded directly with the Russian government to win the election, but he’s definitely guilty of something."
In other words, who needs evidence when you're sure the person is guilty, even if you're not quite sure what he's guilty of.
7
Given Trump's exceptionally sordid past including the recent Trump University frauds and all the links and contacts between the campaign and Russians, there is a high probability that Trump has engaged in collusion as well as financial crimes and obstruction. We who consider Trump a serious threat to democracy are willing to let the special counsel take the time that such complex investigations tend to take. It is Trump who is itching to fire Mueller and Rosenstein, as a desperate effort to avoid a full investigation.
8
I'd put it differently. I'm not yet sure of what Trump thinks he's guilty of. The possibilities appear multiple. But I am sure that Trump knows what it is, and that his view is that whatever it is warrants cover up. What we all can be fairly sure of is that innocents do not engage in persistent and continuous denial embellished with ubiquitous lying. And evidence mounts.
5
Back when we had some morals, of course presidents could get themselves in trouble with sleazy aides. But now, with a Republican party that has sleaze as its moral code, it is not likely DJT will be sullied by any of this, unless he himself is found guilty of something. He's a self professed perpetrator of assault! And his base doesn't even wink!
14
Presidents Ford, Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Sen. John McCain also hired Paul Manafort to work on their campaigns.
The allegation of assault against Bill Clinton were more numerous and just as serious as those against Donald Trump. Clinton paid $850,000 to one of his accusers and admitted conducting a sexual affair with a White House intern inside the White House.
1
If Robert Mueller is building a pyramid it will collapse from the weak foundation. The FISA warrant was obtain by deceit and fraud to spy on Carter Page who himself was an FBI employee.
4
Let's see here. Manafort is working on Trump's campaign for "free" when, seemingly from nowhere, the campaign softens its policy stance toward Ukraine. And wouldn't you know it? That also just so happens to be the same country that Manafort owes $19 million to. Now is that just dumb luck or what?
25
Before the Obama administration approved a controversial deal in 2010 giving Moscow control of a large swath of American uranium, the FBI had gathered substantial evidence that Russian nuclear industry officials were engaged in bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering designed to grow Vladimir Putin’s atomic energy business inside the United States, according to government documents and interviews.
Federal agents used a confidential U.S. witness working inside the Russian nuclear industry to gather extensive financial records, make secret recordings and intercept emails as early as 2009 that showed Moscow had compromised an American uranium trucking firm with bribes and kickbacks in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, FBI and court documents show.
They also obtained an eyewitness account — backed by documents — indicating Russian nuclear officials had routed millions of dollars to the U.S. designed to benefit former President Bill Clinton’s charitable foundation during the time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton served on a government body that provided a favorable decision to Moscow
2
Trump and his boys are going to be revealed to be amongst the worst of the launderers of stolen Russian oligarch money, and they are going to jail.
16
The liberal media can promote Mueller all they want. FACT - no collusion has been proven and nothing is on the horizon. With all the leaks out of his office (which illustrates how unprofessional this whole mess is) if there was any collusion on the horizon we would all know about it.
And can we be honest...going back to Soviet Union days Russians have worked to disrupt our elections. This is NOTHING new.
3
I think you're confusing leaks with indictments.
5
So has the USA. You're right, nothing new.
This commenter would be well-served by re-reading Mueller's marching orders:
"Mueller ,,, is running an investigation in order to discover the facts of what happened in our elections with Russian influence."
Mueller wasn't hired to tell us whether the Russian government tried to influence the election. We already knew that. We also already knew that Trump tried to win.
What Mueller was hired to do was to look for collusion -- i.e. Did the Russian government and Trump work together? While many observers (including a certain prominent newspaper that shall remain nameless) now prefer to describe Mueller's marching orders as aimed at Russian influence, that isn't at all what they were: Mueller was supposed to be looking for collusion, plain and simple.
Don't take anyone else's word for it, though. Reread Muellers' marching orders for yourself. They appear in Rod Rosenstein's letter to Mueller.
2
Even assuming that you are correct - that Mueller's job was strictly to prove collusion with Russia (when in fact his mandate was far broader than that), are you saying that if in the process some other crime is discovered Mueller should just ignore it? Should investigators working the case of a missing person end up discovering a murder, should they just look the other way since it is not within the scope of their investigation?
Does it really matter whether it was collusion (deliberate and voluntary collaboration with a foreign, hostile power for personal gain) or blackmail of the President by said power, since ultimately the result is the same?
2
Collusion is hiding in plain sight. That was obvious once Manafort came on board. Mueller is not working to prove collusion. He's tying down all of Trump's financial crimes in order to lay the foundation for criminal conspiracy charges. Best guess is the full report comes out right after the midterm election, so that a lame duck Congress is not tasked with contemplating treason charges.
10
Mueller won't release charges and evidence against Trump until he has undeniable and overwhelming evidence against Trump that compels the AG/Assistant AG and Ryan/McConnell to protect him and the investigation. This evidence will have to significantly convince the American population, including Trump supporters. The Nixon tapes did that; Mueller needs evidence of that level to bring charges.
To do otherwise would be useless and stupid and Mueller has shown himself to be neither of those.
14
Nope! But Hilliary and crooked Obama should be,,, The House is taking up round 2 to show they colluded in trying to bring down Trump. Their misdeeds are coming out. Isn't it great? Democrats are being shown that THEY have done what they are accusing Trump of doing. MAGA! Trump 2020!
3
“I give great credit to the president for his extraordinary cooperation with the special counsel,” said (trump lawyer) Dowd.
I wonder if he had trouble keeping a straight face when he said that.
14
Here is a curious statement:
“I don’t think the president is worried about the investigation himself,” he added, “but it clearly bothers him that people are being prosecuted simply because they worked for his campaign."
The implication Ruddy makes, then, is that you can prosecute ANYONE for lying to the FBI, taking money from foreign nationals to advance their own wealth over the good of the nation, Ponzi-ing and Madoff-ing millions, promising offices to small bankers in the midwest in exchange for 19 million—but Mueller lets everyone else go scot free and only actually points out crimes of those who worked on Trump's campaign. And so—
Unfair?????
5
I don't care if the was no "collusion." It's clear that Russia interfered with the 2016 election (and poisoned American politics before then).
Republican gerrymandering, which is now being ruled unconstitutional by various courts, also played a significant role. The same is true for their disenfranchisement of poor and minority voters by bogus laws to "prevent" non-existent voter "fraud."
Thus, Trump was not duly elected president, because the entire process was corrupted (even if there was no "colluions"); it was corrupted not just by him, but by the entire Republican party.
I don't care if Mueller brings down Trump for something unrelated to the campaign, like obstruction of justice, or tax evasion, or even simply for lying to Congress or a prosectutor. If it was OK for the Republicans to bring down Bill Clinton for lying about an affair, Trump deserves the same for all of his lies. Trump needs to be removed, no matter what the final straw is.
This needs to be done not just to penalize Trump; rather, it needs to be done to hold the entire Republican party accountable for their obstructionism, hypocrisy, corruption, and everything else they've done to destroy our country over the past 10 years.
12
The beauty in Robert Mueller’s indictment of thirteen Russian Facebook trolls is that they’ll never face trial, so Mr. Mueller will never have to prove his case.
Kind of sounds like going medieval to me, but that’s how we roll now in the Land of the Free.
Readers know, of course, that I’m not a Trump supporter, that I regard him as a national embarrassment, but I’m much more disturbed by the mindless hysteria ginned up Washington’s permanent bureaucracy in collusion with half a dozen major newspapers and cable news networks, who have run a psy-ops campaign to shove the country into a war mentality.
2
"The beauty in Robert Mueller’s indictment of thirteen Russian Facebook trolls is that they’ll never face trial"
As long as they stay in Russia, extradition is unlikely. But if they ever travel outside Russia, arrest and extradition become a lot more likely.
1
---“I give great credit to the president for his extraordinary cooperation with the special counsel,” Mr. Dowd said.
“I don’t think the president is worried about the investigation himself,” he added, “but it clearly bothers him that people are being prosecuted simply because they worked for his campaign,” said Christopher Ruddy, the chief executive of Newsmax and a friend of Mr. Trump.
The dis-ingenuity of these people...knows no bounds!
10
Collusion, Obstruction of Justice, and Criminality with financial transactions will be laid out in an extensive report by Mueller. If the evidence is overwhelming, a "Grand Slam" charge will be treason. Impeachment is a cupcake compared to jail time. Imagine republicans having to defend that in both houses.
9
Trump should be worried about his financial dealings. Mueller has made it clear that he is following the money, and Trump's financial past is fair game.
As an issue, Russian election meddling will be a bust. Israel sets the gold standard for meddling, and a double standard won't survive scrutiny.
2
Nearly all Americans would find it entirely improper for Trump to have colluded with the Russian government to beat Clinton in the 2016 election; I sure would. On the other hand, most American would find it entirely proper for Trump to have tried to beat Clinton in the 2016 election WITHOUT colluding with with the Russian government.
But I'll wager that few Americans thought this "collusion" question simply wouldn't be answered -- for many years, if ever. Most of us thought that Mueller would tell us if he comes up with some evidence of collusion, or tell us, at some point, that he hasn't found any evidence and so he's ending his investigation. We wouldn't say Mueller has thereby declared that Trump was innocent of collusion -- just that he (Mueller) hadn't turned up evidence of it.
Now, though, I see that Mueller may simply continue this investigation until he dies. Not sure why I didn't recognize this possibility in the beginning, but I didn't. It now strikes me as not only possible, but most likely.
2
Trump should indeed worry.
Rivkin claims it is not logical for Mueller to roll out his case in pieces if he does indeed have evidence of collusion. But Rivkin--who, interestingly, was born and raised in the Soviet Union--has never worked as a prosecutor and doesn't appreciate the "building block" nature of the prosecution of multi-party, multi-faceted crimes. Prosecutors start at the bottom, flipping lower-level players as they can and layering up evidence so it is overwhelming by the time they get to the top.
What has also impressed me in Mueller's meticulous work is his messaging with each succeeding public step. Announcing Mike Flynn's plea agreement has to make those who interacted with Flynn wonder what Mueller knows. Including allegations in the most recent indictment about Russia's receipt of voter-targeting advice from a Texas-based organization has to make Brad Parscale (of Texas), those at Cambridge Analytica and Jared Kushner squirm. My guess is there are a lot of folks connected with the Trump campaign who are worrying: Am I next?
What we do know is that Trump is no doubt heavily dependent on Russian financing, that the Trump campaign met with Russians to get dirt on Clinton and was presented with a deal (release the Magnitsky sanctions), that the Russians somehow received very sophisticated voter information for message targeting and that Flynn talked with Kislyak about releasing sanctions.
And that there are a whole lot of shoes still to drop.
14
John Adams said:
"Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."
We are in an epic battle to prove or disprove Adams. The millions who voted DT for president voted to prove Adams correct. Mueller dissents. Hopefully he's not Don Quixote.
8
“I don’t think the president is worried about the investigation himself,” he added, “but it clearly bothers him that people are being prosecuted simply because they worked for his campaign.”
Baloney. Trump cares about Trump. He wouldn't lift a single tweeting finger if it were just his friends who were in jeopardy.
11
I think you meant his "friends" since no one this narcissistic could have actual friends—part of friendship is caring what happens to your friends.
Only when Mueller goes after the attorneys who did Trump's illegal bidding will we see the real evidence of criminal actions by Trump. The attorneys were Nixon's Achilles heel. John Dean broke confidentiality because he did not want to be a participant in criminal behavior. Cohen hid payoffs to the mistress just before the election and surely there were others. Attorneys did Trump's fake blind trust happened to advertise as being well connected to the Kremlin. I am sure there are attorneys who know where the skeletons are hidden on tax and banking fraud. We will see.
5
If all this investigation ends in is the financial ruin of Trump, and his cohorts - that will be enough for me. We can be hopeful that Trump will regret the day he threw his red hat in the ring of the presidential election. We can also be diligent about voting in every election, and flipping the congress back to a Democratic majority. A Democratic congress can keep Trump in check, and Mueller can see that he is financially (and by extension socially) ruined. Then through a big push to "get out the vote" Dems should easily win back the Whitehouse. We all have something to do here to see that the likes of Trump never happens again. Trump being punished for his financial crimes would be icing on the cake.
7
Being worried is not a prerequisite for being indicted.
7
Trump will use lawyers to drag this out, no matter what Mueller finds. That is what he does with everything. The GOP will not impeach Trump. The FBI could find a dead body at Mar A Lago with a suitcase full of rubles and the GOP would say "Trump is entitled to due process".
6
Although I am an ardent anti-Cheeto adherent, I feel obligated to point out, that unless he pleads guilty in the "dead body at Mar-a-Lago" situation, he would in fact be entitled to due process. Such is the case for anyone in this country—it's one of the great things that sets us apart from places like Russia.
1
If Manafort did (does?) indeed owe Oleg Deripaskia $19 million, his declaration to work for free on the Trump Campaign suggests that this volunteer work could be considered a form of debt repayment. Are there any signs that Deripaska adjusted his ledger after the election?
4
"Are there any signs that Deripaska adjusted his ledger after the election?"
Well, Deripaskia has dropped his law suit claiming Manafort stole/misappropriate the $19 million. Quid pro quo?
2
What a remarkable mess. The Special Prosecutor is unable to find evidence of collusion and decides to indict Russian citizens who were engaged in selling ‘likes’ to facebook users. American Media, anxious to keep the ball rolling report the indictments as facts to support whatever they need to support. “Guilty until proven innocent” they all scream in full knowledge that there will be no court case to prove anything. And all the while, Mr Steele, who is actually indictable on all the same charges wanders around without any problems. The USA is rapidly becoming a laughing stock as the corporate media try to get clicks for kicks. The Democratic Insiders have much to lose if the real story ever gets out.
4
I think that even if Trump isn't found to have financially corrupt Russian connections, Kushner and his children may have Manafort-like financial issues. Trump may not have personally colluded but he is very concerned that his family will be subject to criminal charges. I think that also explains his efforts to stop the investigation. But the Flynn sanction matters are also troubling. There was Trump, after the inauguration talked by about the Maryland dachas. He's either a Nunes type Russian stooge or simply the person we know to be an overrated business person who lost a billion dollars and can only make money now selling his name or starring in a "reality" TV show.
4
I find the fact that Mueller hasn't uttered a single fact linking his investigation to Trump collusion ENTIRELY logical, because tipping his hand before absolutely necessary would likely engender an immediate constitutional crisis where trump fires Mueller and the investigation simply ends.
So for those who are thinking that where there is smoke there is fire and are disappointed that insufficient evidence of that fire has yet to be revealed, there is reason for hoping that the investigation moves forward as quietly as possible. And I'm personally hoping that congressional elections with a democratic outcome occur before Mueller drops any bombs, because I feel Mueller's investigation is much less likely to be stopped with a democratic majority.
6
I think there is a high probability that Mueller will bring indictments of conspiracy against many of those close to Trump. He will probably also find financial crimes (money laundering, tax evasion etc.) by Trump himself and, whether or not Trump had knowledge of or participated in the conspiracy, an attempt to obstruct the investigation of the conspiracy or the financial crimes or both. I don't believe for a moment that Trump tried so hard to obstruct the investigation merely to prevent questions about the legitimacy of his election. No, highly likely that he is hiding some crime that he himself committed.
6
Trump should be worried that all of his reactions to the investigation of Russian meddling and Putin' denials suggest collusion with Russia since he became President. He may not have colluded during the campaign but it sure looks
like he is colluding now. Wouldn't that be treason?
5
If Mr. Mueller had me in his sights, I would definitely feel like a mouse running from a hawk: terrified beyond all recognition and scrambling every which way to divert his attention.
7
It is beyond comprehension and rationality that Mr, Manafort, in the upcoming days, will not follow the lead of his co-conspirator Gates and come to a plea agreement with the Mueller prosecutors. He has no familial relationship with Trump, nor any previous deep social or business relationships. It appears that he owes Trump nothing of any substance for his continuing silence.
Manafort, I suspect, is under enormous pressure from his family, particularly his wife, to fold at this pivotal moment in his extensive prosecution. He is risking, literally, never seeing his family again, and vice versa, other than through a plexiglass barrier in a federal penitentiary visitors' room. Trump, meanwhile, has his "pardon card" to potentially play with Pence, or whomever is his successor in office.
Manafort has exhausted his tactical avenues. He would be wise to deliver all he knows about Trump's, and others', criminal behaviors.
4
Manafort has another motivation to cut a plea deal ... his age. If he goes to trial and is found guilty (most of the evidence appears to documents) his sentence likely would be functionally a life sentence. If he cuts a plea deal, the sentence likely would allow him to hold his grand children on his lap in his later years.
2
Isn't it most telling that not only has this corrupt billionaires club running things refused to enact Congressional sanctions against Russia for their hijacking of our electoral process in 2016, but has done NOTHING to prevent them from repeating it with a vengeance in 2018, despite repeated warnings of same?
5
There may be a bigger picture here. In working for the Russians, Trump is working for the Russian oil oligarchs, and here it is the KGB reborn Terminator style as a crime family that's main goal is enriching itself. The Republicans here are also working for our own fossil fuel plutocrats, today's robber barons in terms of the external costs that everyone must bear from this, especially the poor living in coastal areas soon to be inundated. It's no wonder that they are even willing to sacrifice our DACA children for their greed, using race as a wedge issue.
I am assuming readers here know about climate change and that it is man-made. Look at the other article about the coastline of Louisiana. Compare that of today with 75 years ago. Assume 4' of sea level rise and then look at the map, both with sea walls and without during storm flooding, which is sure to happen.
It is frequently pointed out that the warming we already have will/is leading to a cascade of other warming events, but just look at the warming we already have, present day CO2 ppm in the atmosphere that, under current law are not coming down. How fast is land ice being converted into rising seawater? What type of tipping events would dramatically increase that? That is, there are two sets of melting data to keep close tabs on. Is this being done? The fossil record shows that in previous warming periods the polar ice caps disappeared.
Zero emissions, beginning with a carbon tax is a way to prevent this.
1
Mueller has competent professionals, unlike Trump, working for the country. Trump may go down in history as the cruelest most sadistic and dishonest president we have ever had.
8
A declaration of innocence is the first words out of every criminals mouth, including their lawyers.
Mr Mueller knows that this is not a standard criminal case he is investigating. His benchmark in bringing charges against Trump and his possible co-conspirators is very high, and he will need to have bulletproof evidence if he determines if Trump violated the law.
What I find more curious is the number of people that surround the President have been brought up on charges, showing that he depended on a number of people who openly violated the law, and have worked against our government.
I wish Mr. Mueller the best of luck in his efforts to remove those people surrounding Trump that have violated the law.
23
Innocent people routinely declare their innocence.
Presidents Ford, Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Sen. John McCain also hired Paul Manafort to work on their campaigns.
George Papadopoulos and Rick Gates pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents during interviews conducted months after he elections. They were no longer members of the Trump campaign at the time that committed an offense. Flynn also worked for the Obama administration.
Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to telling the FBI he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador; however, discussing sanctions with the Russian ambassador was not a crime.
2
"Innocent people routinely declare their innocence."
True, but as Michael Panico noted so do guilty people. The problem is to sort out in which group is the person. Mueller's investigation is part of sorting it all out.
1
Trump has nothing to worry about until the GOP begins to consider their election prospects. That’ll be no sooner than after the 2018 election, because the GOP prospects are better with Trump for that.
Manafort and Gates are liars and sleazebags, so all they are good for is pointing out directions for investigation.
After 2018, the GOP will be asking whether they want another 4 years with Trump, and will he get re-elected. My guess is they are prying up rocks for another candidate, and if a prospect is unburied Trump will be buried.
7
Is it purely coincidental that Manafort & Gates were retained to manage Trump's election campaign? Highly doubtful! The 'coincidence' of theirs and Trump's ties to Russia (Trump's for funding and who knows what else) points to a common denominator, perhaps Putin?
I'd like to know why & how Trump picked such men of ill-repute to manage his campaign.
14
trump is a con man and a dishonest dealer - only those of ill-repute will work for him - it's a pre-requisite.
6
This commenter hasn't been paying close attention:
"[Mueller] is not going to stop until he gets to the top and either confirms the conspiracy did not reach the top or... It's Impeachment time !"
There's a third possibility -- which I confess I didn't know existed but seems to be the most likely now: Mueller can just drag this out until he dies. I naively assumed Mueller's investigation would have a beginning, a middle, and an end. I'm beginning to see there may never be an end
3
What if the ultimate outcome is that Trump won the election through collusion and/or treason? Will all his signatures be illegal as well - e.g., in signing off on the appointment of Gorsuch, and will everything be turned back to what it was as of January 20, 2017? I'd hope so... Trump obviously worries - that much is clear from his smearing of the FBI and other intelligence agencies. That's stupid, as it will only focus them that more sharply because it is a sign of a guilty conscience...
11
Not sure your questions are serious, but I'll assume they are. Answers: Whatever Trump does while he's President will remain in effect. For example, Gorsuch will continue to be a Supreme Court Justice whether or not Trump is impeached or resigns (just as Nixon's actions were all valid while he was President).
Again, not sure you're serious here. I may just be answering questions that weren't real. If so, I plead naivete.
1
3¢: I think she was being serious. Scary thought, no?
2
@MyThreeCents: My questions was a "What if, then what about...". There is no doubt Nixon's election was valid, which cannot be said with certainty about Trump's.
1
Trump's pathetic rally staged on Friday reminds me of a scene in the movie "Soap Dish," where Whoopi Goldberg says to Sally Fields, "Do I need to take you to the mall?"
7
There is no bigger "crooked candidate" than trump! He should be worried because he will have to pay for his lies and the breaking of many laws. From tax evasion, money laundering, unlawful enrichment, treason, etc. Self-delusion is how trump gets through a day. The reality tv game show host is in the twilight zone. Those who enable and support him are headed for a dead end. Hopefully the foul stench of trump and his ilk will be short lived. The electoral college is a disaster for giving US this mess!
11
Interesting, did Trump brag that he only hired the best people? It seems that in reality he hires the best crooks and liars!
17
Re: "...Allies of President Trump acknowledged that the investigation has taken a toll, as the recent indictments and guilty pleas suggest..."
I've noticed how whenever Trump is before the public, and get's, asked about this traitor-scandal / his (soon to arrive), impeachment, he avoids / pretends whoever asked the question ISN'T, EVEN 'physically', present! Passive denialism of this variety WON'T save S.S. Trumptanic!
6
Mr. Trump, I agree, nothing to date shows collusion.
But we have been watching your bluster for a long time already and not fooled and I bet you're pretty nervous.
In the meantime, show us your taxes.
You are probably also worried about financial dealings for you and the Kushner family in the past.
12
If nothing comes of this, it show Trump is an extremely poor judge of character or someone skilled at spotting and hiring people who lack character. There is an old saying Donald; you are judged by the friends you keep.
8
We know right now that Trump has committed dereliction of duty by
hiring Manafort, Flynn and Carter. He ignored their histories. He did not care they had suspicious Russian ties because Trump himself has conflicts of interest with business ventures with the Russians.
Trump should never have been allowed to not release his tax returns as a candidate. His history of Russian financing was well known.
Trump abused his power when he fired the FBI chief for the purpose of interfering in the Russia investigation.
Now we can add dereliction of duty when he refused to protect Americans
from cyberwarfare from his very own personal bankers.
6
What will happen when the pardons begin to fly? A criminal mastermind sits ready to dole them out from the Oval office.
2
I'm not so sure about that. Trump isn't particularly loyal.
1
I won't be a bit surprised if Mueller ends up finding that while pretty much everybody around him was an active crook of one sort or another, Trump himself was simply far too self-involved, arrogant, and dim-witted to notice, let alone to give a hoot.
So, I'd suggest that we're not off the hook just yet, for allowing our own indifference, squabbling, and silly partisanship saddle us with the shabby likes of Donald John Trump.
And I admit to getting a nasty pleasure out of seeing the ranting Trumpists, who can't spell Mueller's name correctly, handle basic English verbs, offer more "logic," than a thrown-in "BECAUSE!" now and then, or show the slightest
5
Even if trump is not personally involved with the Russians (any more so than being in debt to them), enough of his high level staff were, staff that had access to high level intel.
And the Russians paid them for it.
Yeah, it's times like these where I agree with trump for those "good 'ol days"... back when McCarthy hunted down them commies and collusion/conspiracy was a capital crime...
Yep... them good 'ol days...
7
This is getting to be a cold case.
Take Mueller off the case and bring in Lilly Rush.
1
Trump's career is marked by breaking the law - refusing to rent to black people, refusing to pay small businesses who built his buildings and hotels - and suing them when they tried to collect payment, declaring bankruptcy SIX times so that he didn't have to pay creditors, cheating hard-working Americans out of their education tuition with his fake illegal university.
Is he scared of Mueller getting close?
Nope, this is business as usual in the swamp of his own making.
He's never been more comfortable.
5
"It clearly bothers him that people are being prosecuted simply because they worked for his campaign," sayeth Christopher Ruddy.
Methinks Mr. Ruddy spinneth too much. That isn't what they are being prosecuted for at all. The indictments are very clear what they are being prosecuted for.
9
Exactly:
"Those who advocate for the use of the judiciary to unseat a President ... in the absence of a proven crime to cover up, are calling for a coup d'état..."
Some coups are justified; some aren't. The distinction nearly always depends on who gets to decide. Trump's critics insist they should decide, while Trump supporters insist that voters should decide -- indeed, that they DID decide.
In a liberal democracy, no group has a right to claim infallibility -- no matter how often the group's members insist that those who disagree with them are deplorable, or stupid, or whatever. Instead, each individual gets to vote, and whoever gets the most votes wins. Some systems count votes on a national basis (Iran, for example), while others count votes state-by-state (in US Presidential elections, for example). But whatever the nuances, voters get to decide -- not whoever shouts the loudest, not whoever insists that those who disagree with them are deplorable, or stupid, or whatever.
Trump's opponents should keep this in mind. If Mueller comes up with some evidence of collusion, as he was hired to look for, so be it. But if he doesn't (which is looking more and more likely), whether Trump stays or goes will be determined by the voters. It may be time for Trump's opponents to recognize that.
3
Impeachment is a political process. The special counsel’s indictments are taken into account, but the justice department can’t just prosecute the sitting president.
The electoral college decided on trump... he was appointed. The people voted for HRC with over 3 million more votes.
What's amusing to me are the stages of denial trump supporters go through...
Mr. Cents (all 3 of them), is a good example of several of those stages.
The noose IS tightening around trump and his House Of Frauds, 3 cents and as it gets tighter, expect the Fraud to start a war or create another national emergency.
4
3cents: You seem to overlook the fact that the voters did decide, and they went with the other candidate.
As to your conclusion that it looks unlikely that Mueller wcome up with evidence of collusion, I’d wait until the fat lady sings. The best part always comes last. These indictments we’ve seen so far are just the orchestra warming up.
3
To arrive at the conclusion that there is no evidence of collusion is a microcosm of the split between intellect and belief that is driving the divide in this country. Mueller is not running an investigation in order to harass tRump associates. He is running an investigation in order to discover the facts of what happened in our elections with Russian influence.
Anyone who is trying to mask that fact by talking about partisanship is clearly seeing it through the tRump, FOX, Newsman lens. These people make everything a fight against the opposition. Unfortunately for them, they are trying to market their way out of federal indictments. A first.
5
I have a feeling the Republican Establishment will throw Trump under the bus as soon as they get everything on their legislative list crossed off.
The Swamp was there long before Trump, and it will be there long after he, his family, and his associates are reduced to footnotes in a history book.
5
It may be true, as Trump’s lawyer, Mr. Dowd, claims, that Trump is cooperating with the investigation. However, it is also true that congressional republicans, Fox News, right-wing radio hosts, and Trump himself are doing everything they can to disparage Mueller, the justice department, and anyone associated with the investigation. Why is that? And why has Trump failed to impose sanctions against Russia? And why does he continue to praise Putin? The American people deserve answers to these questions and so much more. Trump may not have colluded directly with the Russian government to win the election, but he’s definitely guilty of something.
6
I've figured it out -- who benefits and who suffers from the new tax law!
I think Trump's critics are correct on this one. Everybody's rates were cut -- that's simple arithmetic. But rate cuts affect different taxpayer groups differently (at least if people are willing to forget about the national debt, which nearly everyone seems willing to do).
For example, while a rate cut for the bottom 50% of taxpayers sounds good for them, it won't have much effect on tax revenues, since the bottom 50% of taxpayers pay only 2.75% of federal income taxes to start with. Even if their rates were cut to 0%, it would reduce taxes only by 2.75%.
By contrast, the very top bracket was cut from 39.6% to 37%. Since the top 1% of taxpayers paid 40% of federal income taxes (2016), that rate cut translates into big benefits for the top 1%.
So who pays more? Answer: Taxpayers in the 1-5% range. While the top 1% paid 40% of federal income taxes (2016), the top 5% paid 60% of them, which means the 1-5% group paid 20%. That group will be hit the hardest by the new cap on state-tax deductions and by the reduced cap on mortgage interest deductions.
Put another way, some of the tax burden once borne by the top 1% has been shifted downward to taxpayers in the 1-5% group. The bottom 50% will see their share of tax payments decline, but not by much. The top 1% will see their taxes decline considerably, and the next group -- the 1-5% group -- will see their taxes rise, even at lower rates.
2
Trump may have the authority to have fired Comey; however, he publicly admitted firing him because of the Russian thing. In true Trump style, he took credit for an aggressive act, even when the act was self-incriminating. Essentially, his view is that it is always better to be authoritarian (strong) than it is to be thoughtful.
4
This and the totality of other articles today tend to make the Swamp look more like a Bog with quicksand.
if nothing else these revelations point out how unethical major players in business and the government carry on their business. No wonder budget cuts at Justice and other agencies are pursrued so vigorously by so many.
4
We can fix all of this, without Mr. Mueller, in 2018....if we really want to.
7
It seems to me that proving collusion would be the very last thing Mueller would do if he were to do it for it’s his ultimate goal. Why tip his hand now? I think the Russian indictments are forming the basis for the collusion charges and since they were so detailed he may have done them now to ring an alarm bell for America about the 2018 elections. As for the charges against the Trump campaign workers, they are mainly his way of collecting evidence towards the potential collusion charges. I’m sure he is thrilled to indict these sleazy criminals on bank fraud and money laundering, but his main goal is to flip everyone so they will give him evidence about his main target and the subject of his original investigation-the Trump Campaign and any collusion. That is why we are seeing these money charges now instead of collusion. Therefore we really can’t read anything from the hand he’s shown us thus far.
3
Mueller is playing a long game. So, why tip his hand early?
In psychotherapy you often get the patient to focus on and analyze the past. The dynamics are usually the same, though probably with different players, and it often feels safer for the past to be exposed than the present. Once the dynamics are clear, they ‘clarify’ the present situation.
To me it looks like Mueller knows exactly where he’s headed. And yes, Trump is in a heap of trouble! I doubt he feels “worry” so much. Instead rage! Efforts to take control. Mueller knows sociopaths. So he’s waiting. Gathering small indictments. Watching. Biding his time. Letting Trump delude himself and spin out the line he’s hooked to.
Why strike before the iron is hot?
9
Yes, Trump should worry and be very worried by what is happening in the investigation.
The special counsel is constructing a pyramid of facts and evidence, starting at the bottom and building a structure, one level at a time. We can expect to see future levels based on facts and evidence including indictments and guilty pleas coming in the future. Each subsequent level will be based on the previous one and provide a foundation for the next level of evidence, guilty pleas and indictments.
What I expect will happen is that as the case approaches the peak of the pyramid there will be less and less questioning of what has been uncovered and documented by previous findings.
Collusion, if proven, and those responsible for it do have some breathing room for now but they do know what will be found out and proven. Yes, the worrying time is at hand.
73
Trump's been worried all along. Why else was he tweeting some of the most ridiculous things a person could say about the FBI, the Justice Department, and other matters related to the investigation? Like Nixon in the 70s with Watergate, Trump knows what his campaign did wrong. He just doesn't want to own it.
This presidency has been the most ridiculous, disorganized, and malicious presidency I've ever seen or read about. Pundits lampooned Ford for being unable to walk and chew gum at the same time. They skewered Carter for micromanaging the White House. But Trump and this administration and Congress are in a class by themselves. Repeal and replace failed. Tax overhaul done with haste and with no small number of huge errors. A president who looks for fights, engages in the most petty public behavior imaginable, and a vice president who asks no questions but follows his leader blindly.
Trump, Pence, McConnell, Ryan, Kushner, Tillerson, Sessions, etc., should be worried. Perhaps they should flee to another country. If it were still in existence, East Germany might be suitable for these folks and their uniquely "transparent" and self serving lies.
12
As part of his investigation, is Mueller able to get a look at Trump's tax returns and other business records?
10
He’s LONG had them!
3
If Trump's obvious deference to Putin and dereliction of his sworn duty to protect the United States is due to his money laundering activities rather than to sitting down at the table with Russian intelligence to discuss what they wanted in exchange for setting their troll army against Trump's campaign opponents, so what? And actually, Trump Jr, Kushner and Manafort did sit down at a table with Russian authorities and discuss what they wanted.
7
So what??? If Trump’s money laundering with the Russians is true, we have a right to know.
4
Mueller's focus all along has been to follow the money. Whether or not the trump campaign colluded with the Russians to throw the election may have been a target of the investigation but not the primary target. Trump has spent a great deal of time and effort to hide his financial dealings. We do not know all of his holdings. We do know that he has not divested himself of any of his business dealings but in fact lined his staff with corporate loyalists, Ivanka, Donald junior and Kushner to continue running his financial empire. He has as yet never released his tax returns. But I think after Mueller is through with him we will know just how big a crook the Donald is.
11
@Steve...where have you been? I thought everyone knew Trump was so crooked he made Nixon look like a saint! Well, everyone except conservatives in flyover country; but they have an excuse: congenital anencephaly.
2
Given that Donald Trump seems very much a control freak, how likely is it that he was unaware of the contacts between members of his campaign team and the Russians?
And since Trump is said to have dictated the misleading statement made by Donald Jr. after the meeting at Trump tower through an intermediary (Hope Hicks), could this not be an indication that his denials of any personal (direct) contact is based on his use of 'intermediaries' many more times?
If this is the case, how likely is it that the Mueller investigation will never learn of this indirect means of communication? And what happens to Trump's argument that 'he is not and has never been involved'?
8
Finally, a commenter gets it right:
"However, we need to put less faith in the Muller investigation and more faith in the 2018 and 2020 elections ..."
That's how we do it here in the USA -- elections. Even if Mueller DOES come up with some evidence of collusion (nothing yet, but hope springs eternal), voters can elect whomever they want. Several politicians -- both Republicans and Democrats -- have been elected to office while sitting in a jail cell.
Mueller may get off the dime -- no question that that could happen. But there's no reason for the Democratic Party to sit around and wait for that to happen. The DP should be trying to come up with some new leaders, new candidates who can win elections. Obviously Hillary Clinton was not such a candidate, and both she and Joe Biden are now better suited for Geritol commercials than to run for office. But SOMEBODY is out there to take their places, and the DP should be identifying and grooming such people.
6
I'm not sure why HRC was not such a candidate. She won the popular vote by millions. It is apparent that she was not a flawed candidate: it was a flawed election, tainted by foreign interference.
Also, I can't find any record of "Several politicians -- both Republicans and Democrats -- have been elected to office while sitting in a jail cell." The only mention I found was for jailed Matthew Lyon, who was successful in his congressional bid in 1798. One could make the argument that Mr. Lyon was both Democrat and Republican, I suppose, since he was elected as a Democratic-Republican, but he was pretty thin. I don't think he qualifies as 'several', no matter how you look at it.
The time for inner-party quarrels is when the government is stable and the nation secure. This is definitely not one of those times.
1
Manafort is not flipping on Trump for one reason and one reason only, his fear of Russian vengeance. It is pretty clear that Manafort, his partner Gates, and any number of hangers-on, like Page, were all enmeshed in an international money laundering business. His testimony would probably uncover a lot of other nefarious wheeler dealers who would prefer to remain nefariously anonymous. Why was a man with these kind of contacts on the short list for Trump campaign manager? As for the guessing game on Mueller's case building, He is examining documents. Taking testimony from people linked to those documents and then when they come in to testify, they either confirm what he already knows or reveals a new person or avenue to look at. He is not going to stop until he gets to the top and either confirms the conspiracy did not reach the top or... It's Impeachment time !
12
Manafort is not flipping on Trump not only for fear of Russian vengeance possibly...but also for hope of a Trump pardon.
1
What we see in this article is that people like Manafort and Gates are facing various charges for money laundering and fraud. They had connections to Ukrainian leaders, aligned with Moscow. Their work involved even well before the 2016 elections. How did they make their way into the 2016 election campaign?
Together with the indictment of several Russians and companies from that country, there is too much 'Russian' in this whole drama which we are all watching.
While we all wait for the truth to unravel, we continue to wonder what news would it be, coming out from the Special Counsel's Office? The suspense is building up.
7
Something that I haven’t seen discussed anywhere in print or on tv though Don Lemon mentioned it once but his panel said nothing so he went to commercial. Will Paul Manafort really ever flip? He may be afraid of Mueller and prison. But he may be more afraid of Putin and a poisonous plutonium cocktail more. Does anyone think this is a realistic consideration?
12
Yes, I think Manafort fears that he will be murdered if he talks. And that, just maybe, he's safer in a federal prison, if he can keep the sentence bearable.
On the other hand, he might decide to ask for witness protection and live out his days scurrying from shadow to shadow. The Russians will still find him.
3
Yes, several Russians have already been killed or have died under suspicious circumstances: Migayas Shirinskiy, Denis Voronenkov (who helped the Ukraine against Russian influence), Vitaly Churkin, Alexander Kadakin, Andrey Malanin, Oleg Erovinkin (a possible source of information for part of the dossier), Andrew Karlov, Petr Polshikov, Sergei Krivov, and Nikolai Gorokhov, https://www.cnn.com/2017/03/24/europe/dead-russians/
4
The comments here, almost 1000 so far, show that this country has no inkling what both Trump and Mueller know or hide - Every comment here is based on opposing views. Also the extremely slow pace by Mueller shows too much "better safe than sorry" principles thus avoiding any real progress.
We know from the Dotard's behavior that he's running scared. And nearly every single one of his lies about Russia are demonstrably false based only on publicly available information.
And we know that Mueller's charge is to pursue anything and everything illegal related to his marching orders. So if doesn't find Trump's fingerprints on Jared's handing precinct-by-precinct data to the Russians, he'll find money laundering and obstruction of justice.
Mueller knows he cannot bring such charges too close to the election, nor during August, when people are on vacation.
I'm betting on an early summer bombshell.
5
"...thus avoiding any real progress."
You start by pointing out that no one knows what Mueller knows and then express a conclusion you can't possibly justify without knowing what you just claimed no one knows.
5
Only those as self-absorbed as Trump and his devotees would keep insisting that the key headline is that nothing points directly to Trump, as least thus far. Itwas never about what Trump did or didn't do--does anyone believe he had a secret face-to-face in the way his minions did?
It's about what his agents and representatives did, including his oldest son and his son in law, as well as members of his campaign. In other words, it's about conspiracy.
Proving conspiracy is a very different project than trying to put Trump in a specific room at a particular moment, or show evidence of a 'smoking gun' phone call or email.
The fact that his son and members of his inner-circle met with Russia-connected agents to discuss 'dirt' on Clinton seems to have been set aside, as though it were normal, everyday American political shenanigans.
It's not, and it's not been forgotten by those putting together the broader picture of this elaborate--and ongoing--conspiracy.
8
Are you kidding me? Mueller has indicted thirteen Russians that can't be arrested, and nearly all of the others will never be arrested, face jail time or give it another thought. The charges have nothing to do with the investigation into election tampering and fly all over the place just to justify the existence of the special council. Either find something of substance of stop the charade. Get it out on the table or go home.
3
Obstruction of justice will be easier to prove with a motive. I'm still betting on tax avoidance, loan fraud and money laundering as the final linchpins to Trump's downfall. There will be Russian oligarchs involved, as they have been since at least 2002 (see Trump Tower - Toronto). The charges should read similar to those filed against Manafort and Gates.
The tax and loan allegations against Manafort and Gates are not novel. As the Panama Papers have already shown, the ultra-rich make great use of offshore banks to hide money and transactions. I would be very surprised if Kushner and Trump haven't taken advantage - with impunity.
Trump could stop a lot of this type of speculation. Turning over his tax returns and information regarding foreign accounts, followed by approval of the latest Russian sanctions, would be a great start.
95
He will not do it. His money laundering started in the late 1980s when he was broke after divorcing Ivana and bankruptcies. He got fishy loans from the russians through Deutsche Bank, which he never paid back, and interestingly enough, DB kept lending. His so-called wealth is just money obtained from the russian oligarchs and mafia, not by his "art of the deal." His whole family is involved in the scheme and Kushner was just added when he married Ivanka. For an orthodox practicing Jew, he has shown no piety but greed, deception, and corruption.
8
Robert Mueller has obtained indictments against 13 Russians who took part in a social media campaign to disrupt the U.S. political process, but they can’t be brought to trial because they reside outside U.S. jurisdiction. However, the indictment reveal no Americans were knowingly involved.
George Papadopoulos wasn’t charged for anything he did during the 2016 election campaign or as a member of the Trump campaign. He pleaded guilty to making a false statement during a FBI interview conducted months after the election.
The Muller indictments against Paul Manafort, Rick Gates and Michael Flynn have nothing to do with Russian interference in the 2016 election or collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.
10
And we also know that this is precisely how Andrew Weissman (one of the members of Mr. Mueller's team) went about prosecuting the mafia. That's how you go about doing it. And I, for one, not knowing a thing (other than a few choice details like that) about the business of prosecutors) am choosing not to jump to conclusions. The only conclusions to jump to are the conclusions that come out when all of Mueller's work is concluded.
6
The way that a prosecutor typically works is to focus on the so-called little fish, because in a den of thieves, any smart prosecutor knows they will tell the truth and out the top crook only when they are personally under threat of being tried and convicted for their own crimes. This has long proven to be the most successful route to catching the top crook. What we're looking at now is just the start of what is always a long process.
4
There wouldn't be a Trump without Trump enablers and courtiers, hoping for some crumbs falling off the table.
3
“When you put that all together, the White House should be extremely worried,” said Benjamin Wittes, editor in chief of Lawfare, a blog that analyzes legal issues, and a friend of James B. Comey
"...a friend of James B. Comey".
What would you expect a friend of Comey to say?
Maybe the real purpose of all these indictments and further charges is to keep the Mueller investigation alive. How long does anyone think the public would remain silent in the absence of some result - any result - from Mueller?
To assume that Mueller is building up to something impeachable, as many comment here, is to assume there's something impeachable in the first place. Hope isn't fact, but we'll keep waiting...
2
Impeachment is a political process. Grounds for impeachment are largely up to the legislature. For the Republicans in control, there is no offense that would ever be impeachable. To the rest of us, the bar has already been met. The rest of us will have a say in November.
5
EB,
Impeachment is indeed a political process but Trump's political enemies are counting on Mueller to provide them the ammunition with which to succeed.
General Flynn along with Karen McDoughal, seem to me to be the tipping points in this insane trailer park circus.
3
I didn't vote for President Trump. At its core I felt he was unqualified for the job. That he is a sleaze, well his comments and actions speak for themselves. That his social policies are tainted by racism, what else is new? After all his father's company and President Trump himself worked to prevent Blacks and other minorities from renting in the family's apartment projects.
I didn't vote for Mrs. Clinton either. I felt she was a liar. Wasn't it Mrs. Clinton that put forth the story of courage under fire as she left her plane on the tarmac in Kosovo, completely exposed to sniper fire hitting the pavement around her? In case you missed it, it never happened. Isn't it amazing how Mrs. Clinton came out to state how much she supported a woman's right to be believed when accusing others of rape and sexual harassment but shamed and shouted down her husbands accusers years back or how she trashed Monica Lewinsky for her story of oral sex in the White house.
My hope? I want this investigation over and done with. If Trump is guilty, impeach him and get him out of office fast not with this slow drip. If he is innocent of collusion, treason or whatever then say so fast.
The country needs a clear view of what needs to be done to deal with the problems we face. Lets get to it. Dems get over it, he ran a smarter better campaign than Hillary. Repubs, get together with the Dems and write legislation and pass bills that benefit the entire country not the 1/10 of 1%.
2
I voted for Bernie in the primary.
But I voted for Hillary in the general.
And probably a lot of us wished you had done the same thing.
There is no comparison of Hillary to Trump.
The country and your children will pay the price.
The Republican tax bill has already taken the the predicted 2018 deficit of $600 Billion and turned it into $1 Trillion.
That is $6,667 put on the credit card of every working person and the accumulated debt to be handed to your children.
And that is the deficit, so that $6,667 will be added to our credit cards every year!
And whatever tax break of $1,000 or $2,000 each middle class tax payer is getting will go away in a few years.
But adding the $6,667 each year will go on and on.
1
I'm torn between hoping to god that Mueller has the ties that bind DT to Putin and his money laundering schemes. and this habitual rambling on Twitter, to:
being afraid, very afraid of Pence, who apparently is the "Kochs BOY". Either way, our Democracy seems doomed in the end.......SAD
8
You guys keep hoping but no evidence of collusion except Hillary if you eliminate the middle men. But you guys aren't worried about that. Wait until the DOJ IG report comes out. We'll see who gets locked up then. Aren't you tired of being disappointed?
1
Here is something for you to think about:
The Republican tax bill has already taken the the predicted 2018 deficit of $600 Billion and turned it into $1 Trillion.
That is $6,667 put on the credit card of every working person and the accumulated debt to be handed to your children.
And that is the deficit, so that $6,667 will be added to our credit cards every year!
And whatever tax break of $1,000 or $2,000 each middle class tax payer is getting will go away in a few years.
But adding the $6,667 each year will go on and on.
1
Hey, I remember you now! You were the one complaining about Obama’s doubling the national debt. It all comes back to me.
From the beginning of the Mueller-Russia affair I have been concerned that Trump may be telling the truth when he denies any personal involvement with Russia's meddling in the election. I think that it is very likely that he really was not involved, not because he is honest and patriotic - neither of which he is - but because he is too stupid, lazy, ignorant and simple minded to be able to concoct a plan like that, and has too short an attention span to listen to the criminal gang of advisors and relatives who were indeed involved in such a plot. I also think that the only charge that is likely to stick is that of obstruction of justice, which he brought upon himself by clumsily trying to cover up a misdeed of which he was personally innocent. He may not have even known about the plot being carried out on his behalf, nor been able to understand that such plot is treason, no less so than the crime committed, for example, by the Rosenbergs. This is Kafkian, but it gets even worse. If it proves impossible to make a solid obstruction of justice case, then in the eyes of his adoring masses he will be the well intentioned leader surrounded by a corrupt and criminal court. The same that many Germans thought of Hitler and Russians of Stalin. Because the implications are too horrendous to even contemplate, I hope beyond hope that Mr. Mueller will be able to make the charge stick.
4
Another possibility is money laundering from the past 20 years.
Ken Starr was brought in to investigate Whitewater. In the end, they impeached Clinton for lying about sex.
Money laundering seems like a much bigger deal that lying about sex.
2
Hopefully, this all will be resolved soon, with unimpeachable results and clarity, and the Republican President securely behind bars wearing a jumpsuit the color of his hair....
4
"Mueller Is Gaining Steam. Should Trump Worry?"
Only if he is "guilty" of collusion with Russia...Oh wait that's NOT a crime, so the answer is a resounding no!
1
“I don’t think the president is worried about the investigation himself,” he added, “but it clearly bothers him that people are being prosecuted simply because they worked for his campaign.” C. Ruddy of NewsMax, and a Trump friend
Simply because they worked for his campaign? Wow. That's a triple-axle toe loop spin, no disrespect to the Olympic figure skaters. How stupid does Ruddy think people are? Such gargantuan lies have apparently now become necessary to protect the Trump Administration
7
The Bots are out! Some of the comments on this thread are ridiculous! Just because Mueller has not indicted Donald, doesn't mean that Donald is innocent!
As with Watergate, investigations of this type take time! At the very least, they are very complex and involved many players. Be patient, the truth will emerge! Watergate took two years! Read a little history!
On FACT that many who are claiming "there's nothing there" are not facing is this: for a campaign that claims no Russian collusion, they sure did have many, many meetings with Russians! And have many operatives, i.e., Manafort, Gates, Page, and Flynn who ALL had/have ties to Russia!
Finally, let's not forget that the Trump Towers servers are known to have been communicating with the Big Russian bank's (Alpha Bank) servers!
There is plenty of smoke....and underneath a simmering fire!
Donald is very worried. Mueller and truth are coming for him....just wait!
6
To paraphrase Martin Niemoller, the German priest "Finally, they came for me."
5
All the news that’s fit to print, I hope you reprint this story when Trump is exonerated just to show the world how you have tried for months to get the President by any means you can.
"Every single woman-all 93 of them-who has accused me of misogyny is a LIAR." Isn't that right, John?
5
"..isn’t going to go anywhere” says former Reagan & Bush DOJ lawyer of the totality of Mueller's actions. Fooling yourself, David B Rivkin Jr, or just others?
Every time 'the faithful' chants "Lock her up", their minds wander a little farther astray. Every time they hear "We won", the hollowness rings a little longer.
On 29 Sept 2015, then Majority Leader, Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told Sean Hannity “Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she’s untrustable. But no one would have known any of that had happened, had we not fought.”
HOW MANY YEARS did the now-retiring, now-mutinying, now-fleeing-his-demons Trey Gowdy spend taxpayer money going nowhere on Benghazi?
In June of last year, Spencer Zwick, House Speaker Paul Ryan’s fundraising chief, said about Comey testimony, “there’s nothing we can do about it.” Also saying, “The people in this room, who give money to the Republican Party and who are focused on helping get Republicans elected, they do it because they believe in an agenda.”
Yes, anything and everything to achieve the donor's agenda, including protection of that Absolute Control Mechanism which can cede NOTHING, especially “the weapons of war" that killed OUR students' classmates.
6
trump is truly the Lord of Lies. What does this make his followers and acolytes?
6
“The bad news is that the special counsel has a scorched-earth prosecution aimed at crushing the president’s associates.” …. “That people are being prosecuted simply because they worked for his campaign.”
To which Mr. Ruddy might have added, “And just because they have a history of laundering money and other illicit transactions.”
Which begs the question: Out of all the campaign managers in the political world, how did the ultra-sleazy Paul Manafort end up directing the Trump campaign? Could it because of his close ties to the Russians and their sycophants in Ukraine?
The decades old advice, “follow the money,” holds true. As the Mueller investigation circles Donald and his team, it is the Trump’s financial liabilities and the likelihood that it was a truckload of Russian cash that came to their rescue - with a few strings attached - that is at the core.
Is Donald worried? Well, so far the president who is the master of handing out nick-names that ridicule and demean hasn’t dared give one to Robert Mueller.
3
Trump should be worried. There may not be evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. But what bout collusion between Trump and Putin as individuals? Little has been said of why Trump is so tolerant of Putin, saying nice things about him and especially not imposing the sanctions drawn up ;by Congress. There may not be a secret pact between Trump and Putin but there appears to be an implicit agreement, "I'll be nice to you if you don't tell the world of my secret dealings in Russia or release the videos of my cavorting with prostitutes during the Ms America Pageant. Just wondering if there isn't something there?
3
Trump is worried. Why else would he praise Putin over and over again, and not forward the sanctions against Russia that were enacted overwhelmingly by Congress? Putin has him in his talons and Mueller is squeezing him from the other end. He is a snake, Dowd is right.
3
The proposition that Mueller's indictments don't connect Trump to the Russians is laughable. With all the thousands of experienced right-wing nut-job political operatives that Trump could have picked as a campaign manager, he just happened by accident to pick the guy whose former client just happened by accident to have been Putin's client in Ukraine. No connection to Russia. Right.
4
So fast this point even the Times analyst declares that Russia and Trump did not collude. But we still have people claiming that there was collusion. If there was collusion then find it and reveal it. As for trump having connections with criminals, what else is new. Trump has admitted to paying off politicians when he was a democrat so he obviously learned well. Politics is a dirty business played by dirty players, everybody owes somebody. If trump is guilty get him and get everybody else as well. I do recall a wanted criminal that contributed to an election campaign, colluded with Iran and Russia and still got a pass from a seated president, an attorney general, a Secretary of State etc, and nothing happened with that one so I would not hold your breath.
1
Trump is the most dangerous American president in my lifetime of 80 plus years. He has exposed the weaknesses of our system while sharing the Republican focus of winning at all costs.
It's unbelievable that it comes down to a special prosecutor Mueller to protect the American people from a deranged and delusional wannabe autocrat that pandas to Russia and battles against the majority of American citizens.
By now we all know that's it's about the money, the one guiding principle that has guided Trump throughout his life. This drama is slowly unfolding and teaching all citizens what the Constitution is truly about.
4
It's not even a question. Trump is worried.
4
Any decent poker player does not show his hand till the end. I'm sure Mueller has plenty on trump and his cohorts even as I write this. Mueller's "got ya" moment will be his card played. Just watch. The collusion and money laundering is in front of our face.
6
“It doesn’t make sense to unfold piecemeal an indictment of Russian entities and Russians if you have any hope of building a collusion case. It makes no logical sense.” So says a Republican lawyer. Hmm. He doesn't say why. If the indicted Russians were shown to have had contact with people in the Trump campsagn...
3
Could we see the Republican (Nunes) memo as it would have been redacted IF the president had not intervened and released it without the FBI examination/redaction?
3
Read the Steele dossier, and follow what Mueller has done so far. Draw your own conclusions.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3259984-Trump-Intelligence-Alleg...
3
Money laundering. Trump will resign before being nailed to the cross. He's a lying, self involved cheat and a fraud, who's never worked an honest day in his life. An honest day. He doesn't even know what truth feels like. And he has no respect for people or institutions that protect the truth. I look forward to his day of reckoning, whether by Mueller or karma itself.
7
Q: What we all going to do, if in the end Drumpf-as usual-was able to beat the rap? Throughout his life, he became a legend for escaping punishment for all his crimes.
If that to happen, and we don't win Congress back, we are doomed.
We might as well prepare for prez Ivanka.
1
New sign above White House entrance: "Abandon all hope ye who enter here".
7
To all those waiting on evidence of money laundering....Gonna be a long wait folks. Its never going to happen. Never.
2
You wonder how far this hacking by Russia is tied to the GOP generally.
Trump & Paul Ryan fired the chairman of Election Assistance Commission, who all year had been helping states protect our voting machines from being hacked. The guy was well-regarded. The firing a day ago is suspect.
Paul Ryan might be a bit nervous these days. Carter Page had said to an MSNBC host ---months before the Nunes Memo--- Ryan would release a memo that would save Page, but indict the FBI + CIA on behalf of Russian intelligence. The Dem memo proved Nune's/Ryan's memo as false.
Insiders say Trump's Rick Gates lied as to whether Ukraine was a topic in a meeting held by Manafort + GOP Rep. Dana Rohrabacher while Barack Obama was still president. Kevin McCarthy had been caught on an audio saying to Republican leaders that Putin pays Rohrabacher and Trump. They denied saying it, but the audio was released.
Insiders believe Paul Ryan invited Spy Kislyak + other Russian officials to meet administration members/associates/senators and others in cahoots with Russia to the Republican National Convention. Interesting that Rohrabacher's name is associated with Manafort + Gates' meeting----the one Gates is said to have lied about.
4
If only all of us who have had to deal with con artists like Trump had the vast resources of the FBI at our disposal. But at least maybe we'll get the vicarious satisfaction of seeing that, no matter how cagey and devious and conniving his attempts to derail the investigation, Trump will ultimately be called to account for his crimes. My hunch is that his crimes include treasonous acts on his part because the Russians have the goods to blackmail him. All of President Trump's actions to date toward Russia and Putin since the election smack of this -- including his latest scandalous gesture not to sanction Russia in his efforts to pressure North Korea on nuclear arms.
5
Trump should worry (and America should worry) that Mueller and his team are not finding any collusion evidence, but continue their witch hunt for purely politics purposes. Stop wasting our money and stop giving the Russians way more credit for doing very little. Your headlines do more damage to our country than the Russians ever could.
President Trump would not have fired Comey or attempted to fire Rosenstein if he wasn't worried.
6
There is no collusion case as originally set out. The infamous leak of the DNC and Hillary Clinton's campaign were not some convoluted complicated hack as laid out by the NYTs but was done by a disgruntled DNC worker. The Mueller investigation was partially instigated by the Steele Dossier which was a partisan anti Trump document by the Clinton campaign. That said one can hope that Mueller can find through his investigation a way to bring down Trump. Or at least put enough heat on the Republicans to dump Trump in the 2020 primaries.
And yet oddly, the timeline on the Steele dossier doesn't fit at all, and you can't name the disgruntled DNC worker.
Gee, I wonder why that might be?
4
President Trump, relax, be happy! There's no proof of collusion and the early March cooldown will be more proof we need global warming!
Why do you think Mueller's goal is 'undefined'? I see these streams of investigation, all of which have evidence to support them:
1. Russian misinformation affecting voters' opinions;
2. US citizens who coordinated/colluded with Russians to spread false and stolen information in order to affect voter decisions (Donnie's "I love it" emails to Russians, Kushner & the Mercer's data-mining business to focus Russian 'bots' and trolls);
3. Trump & Trump in-law Kushner business deals with Russian mobsters, setting up conditions for potential (probable) blackmail and pressure to bend laws (refusal to enact sanctions, etc.) to benefit the Russians;
4. Trump's own behavior - lies, firings, tweets, etc., that provide evidence of obstruction of justice, and evidence that supports the facts that all of the above have taken place.
Those all seem quite clear to me, and all together define "treason.'
5
It is difficult to tell the difference between this Kabuki dance with a largely female cast, the Japanese would be aghast, Debby, Nancy, Donna, Loretta, Maxine, Kirsten, Elizabeth, Susan, Samantha to insulate Hillary from the fall that would reach to Eric, John, James, Andrew and Barack or the French farce of indicting unreachable Russian people to appear resolute without accomplishing any real result. The democratic sycophantic donors in his office have skills I'll give you that.
Mr. Ruddy says “but it clearly bothers him that people are being prosecuted simply because they worked for his campaign.”
Actually they're being prosecuted because they broke the law. but suddenly the
"law & order" party is consumed with sympathy for accused criminals. Hey Trump supporters! Care to explain?
3
Honestly, Mueller has to be like a cat in a box full of mice. So much scurrying, so many targets, so much to do at once! The mind is boggled.
MAGA: Mueller Ain't Going Away. Sorry, Devin...
7
It sounds so simple: The leader of what was once a huge empire is looking to do anything to reclaim it.
And tear apart the nation he holds most responsible for his loss.
Including all the techniques a master spy, ala John leCarre’s “Karla” would: honeytraps, moneytraps, blackmail, moles and ... placement of a controlled President?
Given, through “social media”, after George Smiley’s time, power to frighten sufficient people into allowing a worried, inexperienced, thin-skinned man who doesn’t remember what he said yesterday and has admitted “the art of the deal” is to lie or at the least, heavily exaggerate to mislead?
What other kind of leader of the US would attack Congress, Judges and even his own Executive Branch?
I am frightened, it seems it CAN happen here.
4
Trump worry? This oaf is the epitome of "what me, worry?". Trump has spent his entire life getting everything he wants. From his spoiled brat youth to adulthood, when his father handed him the keys to the Trump Kingdom, Trump has never had to do a hard day's work in his life, never had to worry where his next paycheck was coming from, never had to worry about serving his country, never had to worry about being sued, or prosecuted for alleged criminal activity, because he had what is most valued in America, money. Trump and his family have the means to buy their way out of their myriad sticky messes. Laws covering private citizens are much more lenient than ones governing people who work for US, government employees. No matter Trump takes no salary. That is a canard. It implies Trump is above being corrupted, bribed, blackmailed.
The Trump family has been mired in one business scandal after another. Citing an old saw, when asked how someone acquires a massive fortune: "They made their money the old-fashioned way. They stole it". This attitude is what Trump en famile has infected the White House with. They are the most untrustworthy scoundrels we have seen in quite some time.
By Trump's own doing, he managed to get himself investigated by one of the most dogged thoroughly efficient government officials around. With the inscrutable Robert Mueller heading the investigation I would not want to be Trump or his family.
DD
Manhattan
4
I often ponder on the shame, scandal and disgrace he inflicted on his wife and young children. I assume money is more important than his family. Sad
4
Despite his broadly disingenuous comments, Trump’s NewsMax buddy can no doubt see with hs own eyes that not one single Trumpkin is, or has been, in his words, “being prosecuted simply because they worked for (Trump’s) campaign.”
No. They’ve been charged with a range of federal crimes and have, in several prominent cases, already admitted their own guilt. Big, big difference, even to a Maximum News type person.
3
Should trump be worried? Listening to the rambling, incoherent, nonsense excerpts of CPAC speeches I would say that the entire far right (read Republican Party) is in a state of panic. They have gone way past worry.
4
Looks like it's time to make a major investment in Kimberly-Clark.
When Mueller exposes all of Trumps bad actors, and shows the real tone of Trumps campaign and White House, the American people will finally throw the GOP out of the Senate and Congress and totally defang the Orange Menace. That may be the best we can hope for.
4
Undefined goal? Give me a break! Trump sold his ruble'd soul long ago and now is trying to mortgage mine and yours-and the blood of every patriot throughout our young nation's history-to the devil too. Mueller is doing an impeccable job of fitting the puzzle together despite Republican intransigence and obstructionism. Soon the puzzle's final piece will have a defined, incontrovertible shape.
4
The big bomb Mueller could drop on Trump will involve his financial obligations to Russian oligarchs who bailed him out via Deutsche bank loans . To have a President so obligated to any foreign leader will be a bitter pill for the Republicans to swallow . I'm waiting confidently.
3
The juiciest irony in all of this is that the major parties have switched roles. For decades, Republicans accused Democrats of being Russian lap dogs, and the Democrats denied it. Now? Just the opposite.
2
Trump's enemies might be sorely disappointed. One and a half years later, Special Counsel is going after things like lying to FBI, money laundering etc. So White House can rest in peace. It may hurt itself in other ways. Special Counsel should not receive special consideration.
With every guilty plea and conviction, we hear Trump cry NO COLLUSION! Mueller has forced guilty pleas from members of the campaign and the former National Security Advisor for lying, money laundering, corruption, stealing, and conspiracy against the US. Why are we allowing someone who hired these people stay in power? We should ALL be appalled by the fact that Mr. Trump hires and works with felons at the highest levels of his campaign and his white house. Mr Mueller has not closed his investigation, so there is certainly more to come. Crying NO COLLUSION in all caps in response is fairly anemic given the severity of the crimes his former staff has plead to which are worse than collusion. It seems really odd. Imagine any other president whose senior campaign officials had plead to crimes like conspiracy against the US, money laundering, lying, stealing, hiding ties to foreign governments for personal gain. What kind of person would not be appalled by this?
3
Trump should worry.
The country should worry.
Every day we are confronted with unprecedented revelations about this president. We have no idea what Mueller has up his sleeve. He is expertly picking apart the financial and political web of deceit behind the campaign and presidency. Truths will be revealed. And it will be the truth that will bring down Trumps house of cards and the possibly the Republican party.
Yes, Trump should worry. Reality is going to catch up with the reality TV star turned Fake Politician, Believe Me.
4
Penetrating article by Peter Baker. I agree with Benjamin Wittes's comment:
“You have to ask the question about whether there is a certain measure of self-delusion going on here.”
Trump and his supporters are all about self-delusion. Trump gets some of his naïve followers to proffer apologies for him; he himself is incapable of doing that. Ever since Trump restructured his failed business to a branding organization, his business model has been to gain endorsements from clients who pay for his name. Trump is employing that tactic in the Russia investigation. Thus Trump has defenders who claim that there is no unethical behavior in the Trump administration, let alone criminal behavior.
The Trump tactic is revealed by his entranced followers when they try to make a conclusion about the Mueller investigation before the case is ended. They neither have the intelligence, nor the attention span, to read the final report when it's released. Many of us await Mr. Mueller's conclusive analysis.
And it is very suspicious to us that Trump and his psychologically enslaved Republicans keep attacking the Mueller effort. Lack of confidence of one's innocence is indication of one's guilt.
4
Finally someone is draining the swamp! Thank you Mr. Mueller. Please continue until it is left high and dry.
4
How does Christopher Ruddy of Newsmax make the statement that "there is still no evidence of Russian collusion?" Ruddy could not possibly have a clue what Mueller has that has not been reported. It is likely that most of what Mueller has discovered has not been reported at all. They only report indictments, and they report them when they are fully ready to do so. So, such a statement from a "reputable" news person is absolutely absurd. Mueller may have nothing. Mueller may have everything. No one knows except Mueller and his tight-lipped team. Most commentary on this investigation, other than discussion of the indictments, is meaningless. And, when those discussions evolve to speculation on what may be to come, it is just that, speculation.
Also, another savvy commenter on another website made this comment:
Manafort may never flip if flipping involves exposing Russian oligarchs or anyone else in the Russian hierarchy. He may be rather afraid of being assassinated.
4
Just shows that Ruddy owns a false-news organization.
2
Lifting Russian sanctions for financial considerations. Sure.
It’s gonna go down like this, around Jan. 2019 Mueller is gonna lay on the table what he’s got on our Teflon Don. It’s gonna be devastating, money laundering and income tax evasion. Nothing else needs to be addressed. Trump and the government are gonna cut a deal. There will be a financial reckoning for Trump and he will not run for re-election. Our National nightmare will be over and the swamp dwellers will retreat into the muck. I can live with that.
3
President Alfred E. Newman...sorry,,,President Donald J. Trump can only not worry for as long as the Republicans hold the majority in both houses of Congress. If he ends up facing Democratic majorities, his goose is indeed headed for the oven. Even his packed and stacked Supreme Court cannot override and impeachment.
5
Trump, the Republicans in Congress, Fox viewers, evangelicals, and the Trump base seem to be trapped in a fun house of mirrors that reflect distorted views of reality. The Mueller investigation is where those beliefs encounter reality.
A candidate whose campaign staff is documented to have had at least 30 contacts with senior Russians with all campaign advisers and staff later lying about their contacts multiple times does not value truth. He values loyalty.
Repeating "there was no collusion with Russia" hundreds of times is like writing in chalk on a blackboard "I will not talk in class" or whatever. In Trump world, repeating a mantra many times erases its reality, magically. Shouting "Lock her up" maniacally about a campaign opponent who was thoroughly investigated and exonerated is simply irrelevant when the current president has been in office for more than a year now. It isn't Groundhog Day. Trump did the same thing with his racist birther lie against Pres. Obama that he continued for years of denialism.
Why do Trump and his followers think repeating lies makes them real or believable? Just say no cannot overcome the evidence of conspiracy with a hostile foreign power, or financial conflicts of interests, or any other actual criminal actions. Evidence, money trails, and truth are being revealed every day.
Mr. Mueller and his investigation are the living proof of law and order and justice in the United States as opposed to Trump's little house of horrors.
4
Ahh, the Meuller indictments. Shall we examine those? It seems that some dealt with millions of progressives and major media outlets cooperating with Russians in ther nationwide "trump is not my president" movement. That is the closest thing to treason exposed by Meuller thus far. I guess we could just overlook that though since it kind of crushes the legitimacy of the entire movement.
2
Someone needs to explain how am I supposed to find common ground with people who scream "Lock her up" in response to Trump's rants.
4
I have not heard Trump offer any support for Muller's investigation all though he has discovered very important information about Russia and the individuals who have pleaded guilty. Why as president of the USA who seems to KNOW that he himself is 100% not guilty of collusion or any wrongdoing is not supporting the investigation and conviction of those who are guilty ???
5
Yet another speculator:
"I have some suspicion that Mueller is planning to indict Trump and his crime family right after the midterms ..."
Add your name to the list! Since Mueller has so far failed even to ALLEGE what we hired him to look for -- collusion (remember that?) -- we're left to speculate about what he MIGHT tell us in the future.
Maybe Mueller will tell us more in the future. Maybe he's just getting his ducks in a row and keeping his cards close to his chest and playing chess while others play checkers -- the metaphors have been nearly countless, and I'm certainly not the only one to mix them.
But maybe Mueller WON'T tell us more. Maybe we'll just hear more about entirely unrelated crimes -- such as those with which he's charged Manafort and Gates. Maybe we'll just hear more about what some dastardly Russians did to help Trump win the election. Maybe we'll NEVER hear anything about what Mueller was hired to look for: collusion.
Maybe, maybe, maybe. All we know for sure is what's actually happened, which is pretty straightforward: Mueller has presented no evidence whatsoever -- not even ALLEGED -- that Trump colluded with the Russian government in the 2016 election campaign (or in anything else, for that matter).
At some point, more people will ask Mueller to put up or shut up. I get the impression that that day is farther off than I'd ever have guessed, but sooner or later nearly everyone will insist that Mueller come up with SOMETHING, or stop looking.
2
I’m wondering. Would colluding with Russia include a Russian national flying to the United States and, working with members of the Trump campaign, who at the time of the RNC convention was the putative nominee of the party, change a RNC party plank on the US response to Russian activities in Ukraine? And the Republican nominee was not involved and had no knowledge of what and why? A witless president for sure or .....
3
It seems incredible that in 2018, Trump is still talking about the 2016 election like it happened yesterday, and seems unable to grasp that it's over and he won. Possibly, he has never gotten over the fact of those 3 million more votes that went to Clinton and that prevent him from claiming to be a popularly elected president.
Also, the one word in the indictment of the Russians, that seems to exquisitely sum up Trump's entire persona is "unwitting." I doubt very much that there has been anyone as unwitting as Trump in the White House. He is as unaware, ignorant and oblivious to anything unrelated to himself as it is possible to be. The indictment may not have included Trump in the "unwitting individuals" mentioned in the indictment, but it caught him in it's description nevertheless.
4
Manafort has always been a swamp leader, a guy willing to push all ethical boundaries, and gifted us revolving door lobbying as we know it today. If nothing comes out of this investigation but a sentence for Manafort, it will be well worth it for America.
3
If Trump should be worried it would be about a biased and dishonest FBI and Justice department that were corrupted under the Obama administration, used to spy on the Trump campaign. There are those at the FBI who are worried about the truth coming out and will likely do anything to prevent that outcome - including trumping up evidence to implicate Trump in some bogus collusion with Russia.
The fish rots from the head down and under Obama the FBI and justice department began to rot. It appears Obama and company pulled a Nixon and used the FBI to spy on political opponents. Obama, members of the Obama administration, and the democrats DO NOT WANT the American people to discover that truth and will do anything to prevent it.
should trump be worried? only if he's not soooooooo delusional he thinks his crowds are the biggest, he's really smarter than a turnip and really a successful businessman.
as T-day approaches and we can finally begin talking about impeachment, I'm reminded of the wisdom of homer simpson. when bart complains that today is the worst day of his entire life, homer corrects him and says its the worst day -SO FAR
go, Mueller, go.
2
Feel free to keep up with your delusions, Trump supporters.
The man lies pathologically, and has been involved in more lawsuits than any other 1000 people, and he has cheated literally countless others. He will not let us see his tax returns nor will he divest from his holdings. And most of all he acts like a man with much to hide.
Yet some still see a saint in white.
It is a free country, for the time being anyway, and if we can keep Donito Trumpolini from seizing the total power he so deeply craves.
5
The Trump Organization's true vulnerability is money laundering, and the tax returns will show both the revenue generated by the sale of at inflated prices and the "rebates" which, of course, will be hidden as a "marketing cost".
I am sure that by following the money through the different bank accounts they will find the proof they need because it will show up as a "pig through a snake".
3
There is no American citizen alive today with closer ties to Russian oligarchs that Paul Manafort. Absolutely no one. Manafort was Trump's campaign chairman, Gates his number two.
Russian oligarchs are implicated in the falsehoods spread by Russian troll farms, the hacking of the DNC, and channeling money to the NRA which was then used to pay for pro-Trump/anti-Clinton ads.
How could Trump-Russia collusion not happen?
4
Hogwash:
"As far as I'm concerned, Trump colluded with Russia when he publicly asked the Russians to hack into and release Hillary's emails."
Trump said that several years after Hillary had left the State Department and, she said, destroyed every email. Either Russia had already hacked those emails, years earlier, and used them as it saw fit, or the emails no longer existed. There was nothing left to hack.
All Trump was really saying was: "OK, Russia, if you hacked Hillary's emails years ago, presumably you've already used them as you saw fit long ago. How about telling us what they said too?"
1
While I have not read all the articles on Mueller's investigation nor the readers comments, I am aghast that there is no mention of Trumps refusal to release his tax returns.
The crux of the case seems to be financial with the Russians associated to Putin lavishing large amounts of funds to the Trump and Kushner companies.
Have the Kushners released their tax returns?
3
President Trump's been publicly panicking practically everyday since March 4, 2017 when without evidence he accused President Obama of wiretapping him. Now with ex-campaign leader Manafort indicted and Manafort's number one aide Rick Gates in a plea deal with Mueller I think the President is terrified.
3
Money laundering is extremely serious. It is a crime under the Patriot Act, due to the fact that it is used extensively by terrorist organizations as a source of funding. When you launder money there is a strong likelihood that some of that money ends up in the hands of terrorists. Every financial institution and everyone involved in finance in the USA is completely aware of this.
3
I think Trump is the give away himself, it's obvious he's already worried. Anytime anything has been announced in the light of new indictments or news from the Mueller investigation, the first response by Donald Trump is a plethora of attack or defensive tweets proclaiming hoax.
Any other President who is dealing with this Russian involvement in our campaign would say I'm disgusted by the Russia's intrusion, shocked and be giving a full throated endorsement and support of Robert Mueller getting to the bottom of the Russian actions, and enact bold sanctions and preventative measures to prevent this from ever happening again; instead with Donald Trump he acts and gives all the signals of a man with a lot to hide.
What is really shocking is that not only does Trump act like a man with a lot to hide, and a guilty man, the Republican Congress has been so mute and impotent in their comments or actions, especially letting Devin Nunes go unchecked in trying to subvert the credibility of the investigation, they will be held to answer some serious questions after this is all over.
It amazes me with all of the known and proven contacts by the Russians with the Trumps, and their campaign to this point that The Republican Leadership in Congress act like nothing was going on; if any Democratic campaign had meetings with Russians to get dirt in their own building, campaign chairmen, national security adviser indicted among others, etc. etc. etc., they would shouting impeachment ,
4
The word "unwitting" is being used as proof that there was no collision. This is a slippery slope, as it can be applied to anything Trump does or says.
2
What does Trump have to be worried about?. He acts like the guilty toddler who runs up to his mother crying "I wasn't the one who broke the vase in the living room" before she even knew that anything was broken. Since he has already shown us that his mind works like that of an adolescent it does appear that Trump knows there is something that Mueller has or will find that implicates Trump himself in some sort of foreign entanglement. What that is remains to be disclosed. Methinks, however, that the President doth protest too much.
3
I think Trump is obvious very worried his sleazy dealings are going come crashing down on him. Anytime anything has been announced in the light of new indictments or news from the Mueller investigation, the first response by Donald Trump is a plethora of attack or defensive tweets proclaiming hoax.
Any other President who is dealing with this Russian involvement in our elections would say I'm disgusted by the Russia's intrusion, shocked and be giving a full throated endorsement and support of Robert Mueller getting to the bottom of the Russian actions, in addition enact bold sanctions and preventative measures to prevent this from ever happening again; instead with Donald Trump he acts and gives all the signals of a man with a lot to hide.
What is really just as shocking is tthe Republican Congress has been so mute and impotent in their comments or actions, especially letting Devin Nunes go unchecked in trying to subvert the credibility of the investigation, they will be held to answer some serious questions after this is all over. If this were the Democratic campaign or President, with all these conflicts, communications and entanglements with the Russians that has been proven with the Trumps, The Republican Leadership in Congress would not only be screaming impeachment and treason, they would moving in that direction beyond any shadow of a doubt.
3
The President's defenders are whistling through the graveyard. Whether or not he "colluded" personally with the Russians, he's sure been unusually friendly towards them, and as his friendship seems to be available depending on how much money he can get, it would be very surprising indeed if he didn't have close financial ties to Russian oligarchs, all of whom are Putin's flunkies. Every single last one of them. If they are not Putin fluknies, they are in jail.
2
USA as a country is under serious threat due to growing influence of religion in every field- more so in education (both school and higher education) and research. Quality of American education and research has deteriorated drastically and it affect out ability to generate wealth and also public policies. Religion is also affecting almost every contentious issues like gun violence and immigration. Many Churches routinely organize gun fairs and also distribute gun for religious conversions.
Many orthodox catholic churches actively promote illegal immigration from Latina American countries. They also give shelter and arrange for jobs for such illegal immigrants in USA. Other 'minority' religions (e.g Islam, Jews, Hindu, Sikh etc) are also doing the same. The easiest American visa would be religious preachers and it's greatly misused.
It also became one of the core reasons for polarization of American politics. Democrats made it their moral obligation to defend whenever they hear the term 'minority' (racial and religious)- irrespective of laws and benefit of the country. Dems promote this mentality of playing victim card by minorities.
And that also make the Republicans hardening thier policies to promote protestant (mainly evangelical) fundamentalism and anti-minority rhetoric. They exploit white supremacy, Christian/evangelical fundamentalism and so-called (jingoistic) 'patriotism' and then mix it with crony capitalism.
1
Mueller needs to wait until all is examined before he reveals any charges against Trump. Trump needs to go down first (and I believe he will for tax evasion) so all the others will be punished for their crimes. Trump would pardon any family members accused of wrongdoing.
1
“but it clearly bothers him that people are being prosecuted simply because they worked for his campaign.”
No, Donald, people are being prosecuted because they broke the law. It's remarkable how many people you know have broken the law. It's almost as if you DON'T know the best people.
2
The time has come for us to abandon any attempt to work with or convince the trumpsters that democracy is in danger. It is. Yet they continue to claim all is an FBI conspiracy. This is lunacy and we must leave them behind, move to protect our country and save them from themselves, although they will never thank us.
22
What Mueller has arrived to so far with regard to Manafort and Gates is at best peripheral to the core of his investigation which is to determine whether Russian agents colluded with the Trump campaign to circumvent the electoral process.
The indictment of 13 Russian nonentities betrays the cursory nature of the investigation since most of what is alleged in the accusation has been made public long ago by none other than the Russian media. Conveniently for Mueller, who is on thin ice, not a single offence is extraditable under the law of any of the 48 member states, including Russia, of the Council of Europe submitted to the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights.
With the passage of time and in the absence of a tangible criminal offence, i.e. one committed on US soil by US nationals, equivalent to the burglary of the Watergate that would lead to convictions and whose alleged cover-up might lead to accusations of obstruction, Mueller's investigation resembles a jerry-built scaffolding.
Those who advocate for the use of the judiciary to unseat a President for exercising his executive prerogative, in the absence of a proven crime to cover up, are calling for a coup d'état under any other name.
2
A few petty little technical details.
1. Mueller was charged to investigate Russian meddling in our elections, not Trump's collusion.
2. It is irrelevant to our laws whether or not a crime is "extraditable."
3. So far, Mike Flynn et al have pled to lying to the FBI. Right here in America. And the latest to cop a plea, and Manafort, are accused basically of money laundering, tax evasion, and bribery. All are violations of our laws.
4. I've seen nobody demanding that Trump would simply be hauled down the White House steps in cuffs, appealing as such a moment would be. They demand his impeachment, which is a) the Constitutional procedure for removal of a President, b) not gonna happen with this Congress.
And I have a question: what is it that you think Trump, "exercised his executive privilege," to do? Because if this happened before his swearing in, he didn't HAVE any such thing.
2
You don't get my point. The 13 Russians will not be brought to justice and therefore no one will be convicted. So far that is all we've got with regard to the Russian meddling. Mueller went out his way to say that no American was involved.
So far, with regard to either the Russian meddling or the collusion, the Trump campaign is no more involved than you and I.
All we have so far in that regard are baseless conjectures. Muller has got to come up with relevant accusations.
The Trump Show is no longer a comedy, it is a tragedy for which all American are paying a heavy price. The question asked most often when traveling abroad: "How could the US elect someone like Trump as president? " The answer: Trump lost the popular vote but the American electoral system was captured by Republican corrupt practices paid for by their wealthy owners and assisted by treasonous collusion with the Russians. Sound like Austria and Germany of the 1930's? Yes, history is being repeated. Only a massive voter turnout to reject this GOP/Trumpian disaster can possibly restore our democracy.
19
Christopher Ruddy: "People are being prosecuted simply because they worked for his campaign.” Mr. Ruddy is wilfully delusion. People are being prosecuted for money laundering, bribes, lying to the FBI, and so on. NO ONE has been charged for working on Trump's campaign, because that is not a crime. One would think that Mr. Ruddy would know that, but apparently not.
16
I suspect that Trump, Kushner and many others are worried. As the head of Stalin's secret police famously said:
"You show me the man, and I'll show you the crime."
That's an overstatement, since many of us can't be charged with a crime no matter how hard someone may look. (I think I'm in that category.) But what Stalin's secret-police chief is usually true, and that probably worries Trump and the others around him.
5
Time to manage expectations. While these two men have committed serious crimes, it still looks like a thin link to collusion involving Trump.
2
“secretly trying to help Mr. Trump win the election”
That’s not really true, is it? The indicted Russians were indicted for identity theft and bank fraud, but not charged with meddling in the election.
Chaos was the only Russian gameplan, which is why, after Trump’s surprise win, they organized anti-Trump rallies. Before the election, they promoted Trump and Bernie Sanders to gin up opposition to the person whom they believed would be the next president — Hillary Clinton. -from Nolte
Even the democrat leadership has given up on this, as evidenced by the Schiff memo, which is entirely defensive and continues the tradition of offering no evidence for Russian collusion with Trump and glosses over the democrat collusion with Russia to influence the election.
3
Here is collusion:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_campaign–Russian_meetings
Russia government, get it? The only question is if Trump knew about it.
2
The President should be very worried. Mueller is systematically building the case, just like prosecutors do when investigating any organized crime. They charge people and turn them into witnesses as they move up the "food chain." While everyone is paying attention to the Manafort/Gates progress they seem to have forgotten that Flynn was allowed to plead guilty to reduced charges. There is only one reason prosecutors allow such high profile defendants to plead to such reduced charges, and that is due to their cooperation in going higher. Flynn was National Security Advisor and he answered directly to the President. So going higher, only points to one individual. In the case of Gates, Mueller does not need him to convict Manafort. The case against Manafort is document and records heavy. For Gates to cut the deal he has, Mueller plans to use him to go higher in the organization, and that will be Trump's family members and Trump. It is known that Trump and Kushner used Russian financing on some of their real estate deals. Manafort did business with Russian's involved in politics in that part of the world. We now know for a fact, that there was a clear effort by Russians to interfere in the 2016 election. If you don't see how this all comes together into a conspiracy case, you are wearing blinders. We must also remember, Mueller has formally asked Trump to come in for an interview. Trump's bravado about he couldn't wait, has now turned into now way! Stay tuned...
12
"Mueller Is Gaining Steam." Really? It seems more like he's grasping for some kind of, any kind of, outcome and ending. The indictments seem half a bubble off, if not more. His entire existence there is tainted by clear conflicts of interest. And without this paper and other mainstream media to prop it all up, the whole effort would have folded long ago.
3
This already puts the Teapot Dome scandal to shame. But the biggest shame is the silence of, dare we say: the collusion of Republicans in Congress with the many Constitutional violations of this administration? And while the nation is focused on the paranoid DT, the Chinese are going about the world scooping up whatever they can in the way of influence and cooperation — and it’s plenty. The world will not look the same post Trump. It will be a lot less secure for all democracies.
16
Should Trump worry? If he isn't, he should be.
And Trump fans should understand that this investigation is far from over. In fact, it's just really beginning to move. Trump and his family are intertwined with Russian gangsters and oligarchs. Even his son said most of their real estate business transactions were made with Russians. Eventually, his empire will fall.
13
The premise of this article is that Mueller is getting close to nailing Trump.
This premise is unfortunate; it misleads readers into not doing anything but waiting for Mueller to perform the coup de grace to end Trump forever.
The fact is there is already ample evidence in the public domain to begin impeachment hearings. Impeachment is the tool the Founders provided us to protect our government from presidents who disregard our rules of law.
Much as I/we admire Mueller and collectively await the conclusion of his investigation, it is to Congress and the American public that need to act.
The media, NYT included, is doing a disservice to the nation in avoiding the overwhelming evidence that Trump is destroying our constitutional government. Whether impeachment is realistic or not, whether it is a dangerous word to even utter, or not, does not negate everything Trump has already done, said and written, all in very public modes. If we don't act now, what makes us think we'll act after Mueller completes his investigation?
Drawing an analogy from Parkland, as those sheriff's deputies who shirked their duty to protect students, so Congress and the public are also shamefully hiding from their elected and citizen responsibilities. Continuing the analogy, the media should and must keep the spotlight on the murders within the school; reporting that Mueller is making Trump tremble is akin to reporting that 911 has been called.
6
Every single day that Trump refuses to implement the Russian sanctions overwhelming passed by Congress is proof that he is colluding with Putin.
15
“but it clearly bothers him that people are being prosecuted simply because they worked for his campaign.”
This quote, from Newsmax reflects Trump's backwards opinion. Trump picked dishonest slime to work for is campaign. Trump in his businesses, did whatever he pleased and sued whomever disagreed. He selected operators of the same ilk for his campaign and that is why they are being prosecuted.
Also, Trump continues to defended the Russians even after the start of the Mueller investigation. Recently, Congress, by massive margins passed a bill authorizing new sanctions on Russia. Trump refuses to implement them. Whatever his reasons for love of Russia and Putin, he surrounded himself with dishonest international business operators who had worked with Russia.
That is the reason for the prosecutions in the Russia investigation. It is not a witch hunt for our poor, downtrodden, persecuted little snake oil salesman.
8
Mueller must be a very worried man.
There's plenty of speculation here that he has not revealed any collusion evidence so far because he is playing n-th dimensional chess. But the plain fact may be that he has he has not revealed any collusion evidence because he has none.
Mueller must be worried about timing his report, without upsetting a lot of democrats who will accuse him of influencing the election, whichever comes soon after, even if it is for some county commissioner out in the boonies.
And they will turn and begin their witch hunt against him.
There is never, ever going to be any proof of Trump-Russia collusion, because that has never been what this is about.America’s unelected power establishment doesn’t care about impeaching Trump, it cares about hobbling Russia in order to prevent the rise of a potential rival superpower in its ally China. The US is using the hysterical cult of anti-Trumpism to manufacture support for increasing escalations with Russia, and the anti-Trumpists are playing right along under the delusion that pushing for moves against Russia will hurt Trump.Well they will not hurt Trump, because there has never been any Trump-Russia collusion. If there had been it would have been picked up by America’s sprawling surveillance networks and leaked to the Washington Post before the end of 2016, and if Trump were a Putin puppet he wouldn’t be continually escalating toward direct conflict with Russia in ways his predecessor Obama never would have dreamed of doing. They aren’t hurting Trump with these loud cries for increased sanctions and hawkishness, they’re imperiling us all.
1
The final couple paragraphs are disturbing.
The "purpose" of any legal investigation is to find the truth.
Any other purpose is a misuse of power and is an injustice.
In a proper investigation, you collect data and follow the leads wherever they may take you.
The obstruction of justice seems quite clear and provable. He fired Comey to protect his friends and family (Flynn, Manafort etc.) and himself, and confessed this on TV to Lester Holt. He obstructed further by conspiring with Don Jr. to falsify testimony about the Trump Tower Russian meeting. He and his staff clearly and clumsily conspired with Chairman Nunes to obstruct the Intelligence Committee’s investigations into the Russia Probe. Currently indicted and unindicted Trump campaign leaders lied to the FBI and or couldn’t remember having numerous contacts with Russian agents. This all points to corrupt or criminal intent. I’m sure Mueller has even more evidence than we can imagine.
8
“I don’t think the president is worried about the investigation himself,” he added, “but it clearly bothers him that people are being prosecuted simply because they worked for his campaign.”
Fake news dished by a guy who heads "Newsmax" with no sense of irony. Those individuals are being prosecuted for rather more than working on a political campaign. So will Trump, sooner or later.
7
I believe that Trump's biggest fear is not indictments against him but the release of data (tax returns etc.) that show that he is not rich, perhaps even has a negative net worth. Bear in mind that he often touts that he is the biggest this and the best that but since the election and even during most of the campaign he no longer brought up his supposed massive wealth. Long before the election, he changed from building hotels and resorts to "renting" his name, selling neckties, vodka, etc., none of which would generate significant wealth.
His very fragile ego will burst with the strength of a nuclear bomb once the truth is known.
5
Can we get back to reality for just a moment here?
Trump says there was no collusion. His opponents say there was. We hired Mueller to find out which side is correct. So far, Mueller hasn't presented any evidence of collusion, or even alleged that it occurred. Maybe he will some day, but he hasn't yet.
That's reality.
2
It is reality that Trump is and has been surrounded by Russian operatives since Day One of his campaign. It is reality that Trump was bailed out multiple times with Russian laundered money. It is reality that it took two years to nail Nixon for Watergate. It is a reality that those who choose to live with head buried in the sand will continue to say ..well there is just no proof !!
3
This always was - and still is - a fishing expedition. Everyone knows that Trump surrounds himself with people - like Manafort - with a rather shady background. Everyone knows that Trump's capacity for discerning right from wrong isn't very great.
So for people like Mueller - who seems primarily interested in scoring - there are points to score. He is likely to come with more of the same: like accusations of financial malfeasance - what isn't in his task description - and accusations of lying against the FBI - the ultimate tool to get innocent people into jail.
Oh, I forgot interference in the elections accusation. No Russian gave Trump a chance to win the election: they were just pushing their view on the US - just like the US does in many countries. But being an alternative news source isn't punishable so the weird myth of influencing elections has to be kept up.
The likely outcome: more damaging "news" about Trump and his entourage - that the Mueller supporters hope will influence the next elections. Good pr for Manafort. But in the end nothing that justifies the continuing existence of Mueller's investigation.
1
I agree with this commenter's second sentence -- not so sure about the first:
"More will be revealed. I just hope the revelations come quickly."
So far, what's been "revealed" is that Manafort and Gates did something wrong years before they went to work for the Trump campaign, and that numerous Russians did numerous things to help Trump win. Mueller hasn't even ALLEGED that Trump colluded in any of that.
As for Flynn and Papadopoulos, two points: (1) they got in trouble for lying to the FBI, not for what they actually did; and (2) if they know more, one must wonder why they haven't "revealed" it. Both of them pled guilty months ago and promised to "cooperate." Why have we heard nothing more from either of them?
1
Here is what we know.
The Russians actively worked to get Trump elected.
Trump himself is completely out of character in his treatment of Putin and Russia, including his failure to explicitly state that Russia interfered/hacked the DNC. This highly unusual stance began before the Russian efforts became public knowledge.
The Trump campaign/administration have moved in ways that were both beneficial to the Russians and contrary to positions held even by the Republican party (changes in the Republican platform, promises by Flynn to remove sanctions, discussions, Magnitsky act).
The Trump campaign showed that they were enthusiastically willing, on multiple occasions, to "collude" with the Russians. There only defence being that the Russians failed to produce the illegally obtained material they sought.
Trump publicly (national TV) said that he fired Comey over the Russia investigation and told the Russians in the Oval Office (!) that he believed that firing Comey ended the pressure he faced over the investigation.
That there were (are?) multiple streams of intelligence information that points to connections between Trump and the Russians.
Trump's campaign manager, and deputy campaign manager, were charged/plead guilty to being agents of the Russian backed Ukrainian government, attempting to hide that fact and launder the money made.
What we don't know. (At least publicly)
That Trump and his team actually made an explicit deal about these mutually beneficial actions.
9
Any deals trump made with the Russians (Putin) are likely financial and we have not been privy to all of trump's financial arrangements with various Russians nor have we seen his tax returns. Mueller has exposed these dealings by Manafort, Flynn and Gates, trump is next.
3
Al Capone was taken down for tax evasion. Follow the money.
However, we need to put less faith in the Muller investigation and more faith in the 2018 and 2020 elections as a way out of this nightmare. Our Congress has given the store away to the mega-donors. We need to vote them out.
9
The worst Mueller can do is slow his rollout of indictments, which he is doing, and wait for the mid-term elections to swing the house or senate democratic. For within hallowed chambers falls the responsibility of a political censure or impeachment, and for it to be successful they need a Dem majority. The longer the ruse of searching for collusion can be allowed to drag on, by Rosenstein who funds the ploy, the more political Mueller's team looks and the more biased he will deem to be by history. Mueller, in my view, was never going forward to prove collusion-- he was aiming lower at his old standby obstruction, Comey telegraphed the play from jump street, trying in earnest to trigger the charge they know all too well they have him on. They, Comey/Mueller et al, need the mid-term victory to seal Trump's fate. Beware the ides of March.
4
Each new charge and indictment that has come out of the Mueller investigation has seemed to be a surprise to those in the know. I think it's safe to say that we don't know exactly where the Mueller investigation will eventually lead. But there is one truth that we've learned since at least Watergate; follow the money.
Donald Trump has been in the NYC real estate business his entire life. There might not be a business with more loose financial dealings. It's almost impossible to imagine that Trump has not been involved with some very shady financing through the years. When Mueller 'follows the money', it's highly likely that Donald Trump will be guilty of financial impropriety. And Russia may just turn out to have been a large player in the financial world of Donald Trump. It would certainly help explain his constant appeasement of Putin and Russia.
Stay tuned.
9
I think Doug K has it right:
"I believe [Trump] was clueless that Russia saw him as the weakest candidate, so went out to get him in office. he didn't have to actively collude ..."
We've long known that both the Russian government and Trump wanted Trump to win. We've also long known that both of them took steps to accomplish that. Standard operating procedure. The question is, and always has been, did they work together?
So far, Mueller has alleged that Manafort and Gates did bad things that indisputably had nothing at all to do with the election campaign, and that numerous Russians did numerous things to help Trump win, without telling US election authorities what they were doing.
Mueller doesn't even ALLEGE -- much less offer evidence -- that anyone in the Trump campaign colluded with Manafort and Gates, or with the Russians. Am I missing something here?
True enough, Mueller might just be keeping his cards close to his vest, or playing chess while others play checkers -- many other metaphors have been offered. But so far, Mueller hasn't reported anything of value. He hasn't done what we hired him to do. Again, maybe he will, some day, but he sure hasn't yet.
Rivken is the one who makes no sense. The Russian indictments are perfect strategy on Mueller's part. Because they make it much more difficult to oppose the investigation as a witch hunt, and it is now all but certain that Russia interfered to help Trump. "Incontrovertible", was the word I believed McMasters used in a european press conference.
8
The article writes about over a million pages of campaign documents as evidence of Trump's cooperation with the Special Counsel. But the Special Counsel should have more documentation. There are literally hundreds of thousands of pages of tax over decades that he should be able to examine. There are the myriad of business transactions including real estate sales that involve Russians and other foreign nationals. Indeed, the full expanse of Trump's business dealings with Russia and other foreigners may be very illuminating and very damaging for the president. But the Special Counsel should have all of this and is required to investigate.
We are a functioning democracy. We aren't a kleptocracy or family run empire. If Trump is a white knight we will find out. Alternatively, if he something other than that, we should discover that too.
6
In response to Trump Jr.'s meeting with representatives of the Russian government in hopes of getting dirt on HRC, Trump supporters always point out that they (Trump jr. et. al.) didn't get anything. That seems like a tacit admission that it would indeed have been collusion if they had received what they thought they were going to get, but since they didn't get it, it was not collusion. Which seems like a tacit admission that it WAS attempted collusion. So, their position is that the Trump campaign is guilty of attempting to collude with the Russian government to violate Federal election law, but only of ATTEMPTING to break Federal laws, right?
3
Mueller is facing something that he has never experienced in any investigation he has undertaken, the fact that he could be fired at will by one of the people he is investigating. It makes sense to me that he would slowly build a case without implicating Trump or his family members until all the evidence has been reviewed and all the principals have been interviewed.
7
At the end of all this discussion I think we can agree to the following:
1.) Russians are attempting through active measures to harm our democracy.
2.) Putin wants Trump to be the president.
3.) Trump shows no interest in criticizing Putin and his authoritarian governing of Russia.
4.) Trump to date continues to question the determination of the US intelligence authorities that Russians are taking active measures to harm our democracy. He has stated just recently that it could be the work of others.
5.) Mr. Mueller is doing a good job in performing the investigation and has been effective as measured by indictments and guilty pleas of Trump associates.
6.) Appropriately Mr. Mueller is not showing his hand on the direction of the investigation. That he is only disclosing what is needed at the time to take legal action in the investigation.
7.) No one knows where this is all going and so we need to stop second guessing and let Mr. Mueller complete his investigation, present his report and make public all evidence obtained during the investigation.
8.) We should not prejudge Trump as guilty or innocent until all the investigation is complete, the facts are made public and he is given an opportunity to defend his actions and rebut any accusations.
4
Robert Mueller and his team may have Trump’s income tax submissions and is following the money. Connecting the dots that will stick in a court of law is a time-consuming task. Mueller and his team is getting to that place that Trump doesn’t want them to unearth. Hence, all the FBI verbal attacks and insults. We, the people should continue to morally support Special Counsel Mueller and his team. Thank you.
7
What some Trump backers commenting here don't realize is what Adam Schiff said on CNN this morning - Mr. Steele did not know who (Democrats or Republicans) was paying him for his dossier. A fact that Devin Nunes and Donald Trump have conveniently withheld. So much for "conspiracy theories" from the right.
11
"'I don’t think the president is worried about the investigation himself,' he added, 'but it clearly bothers him that people are being prosecuted simply because they worked for his campaign.'" --Maybe they're being prosecuted because then-candidate Trump didn't exactly hire "the best people" to run his campaign in the first place.
6
In an accompanying article about the Skadden law firm, there is concern about uncovering the all the lawlessness there too. Money laundering and corruption have been present in our country for many years, with Trump quite involved. Not one entity was held accountable for a manufactured major recession in 2008 that brought many to ruin. I think it is naive to think that the moneyed and powerful will be held accountable now.
5
Trying to co-opt an FBI director, firing him when he wouldn't play ball, attacking the FBI, Justice Department and the special prosecutor, and calling the investigation a hoax at every opportunity are not the actions of someone who isn't worried about the result. On the contrary, they betray a visceral fear of exposure.
8
Yes, he should. If not for himself, then for his son Donald and his son in law. His administration is already tainted by a swirl of improprieties and financial misdoings by members of his cabinet. Mueller is laying the groundwork, and the closer he gets to Trump, the more likely Trump will tweet something incriminating.
3
Mr. Pence should be worried as well. As the fiasco transpires, Pence who has an insider's seat at the table is doing nothing to stop the wrongdoing or protect the security and wellbeing of the nation. At what point does this become criminal negligence? At what point does it become aiding and abetting an adversarial nation? To my mind we are fast approaching that point if we are not already there.
11
Obstruction of Justice occurred when Trump concocted the lie about Junior's meeting with the Russians. Hope Hicks was involved in that up to her neck and I don't think she's willing to go to jail from Trump or anyone in his family. I anticipate that she will become a cooperating witness shortly after the indictment on lying to the FBI. But it's the money trail that will bring down him, Kushner and the rest of the family. The Russians own him. And once that evidence is unearthed by Mueller here's hoping that we'll finally see some Republicans putting the country first and do their Constitutional duty instead of trying to save what's left of their party.
7
This is hardly a question worth posing as Donald Trump is in such a deep state of denial that he wouldn't see a problem with the Mueller investigation even when there was a knock on his door.
What should be conerning, as well as worrying Americans is the extent to which Mr. Trump has in any way facilitated any Russian involvement in our free and democratic election process, especially since he has not once come out against even the remote possibility of it ever having taken place.
Clearly the lights are on in the White House, but no one appears to be home.
4
The charges and evidence against Trump will be revealed in Mueller's final report or final indictment and not sooner.
Trump's followers need to stop thinking like Trump and to start thinking like Mueller. Why would Mueller disclose any portion of the evidence that he may be accumulating against Trump? It would afford Trump the opportunity to wage a PR campaign defending against it or increase the likelihood of Trump's firing Mueller.
Trump and his people can keep yelling "no evidence of collusion" while twisting in the wind. However, the operative unspoken word is "yet."
There's a lot of heads yet to roll, e.g., Kushner, Don Jr., Priebus, McGahn, who are all in Mueller's sights. But without doubt, Trump's will be last. The obvious possibilities are conspiracy to break election laws, obstruction of justice, or money laundering. It might also be bribery or even treason. We do not know yet.
The assertion that Trump's absolute refusal to say anything bad about Putin or Russia, to acknowledge Russia's campaign meddling, and to enact sanctions against Russia as ordered by Congress is based solely on his concern that doing so would tend to delegitimize his election is terribly weak. It says that he is willing to endanger our entire democracy for that reason alone. It is much more likely that Trump's actions are based solely on his concern that he will be impeached, indicted, tried, convicted, and sent to prison. That makes more sense.
8
It may "bother" the president that people who worked with his campaign are being prosecuted, but that's nothing compared to how much it bothers us that we have a president who surrounded himself with people who commit crimes. A real president might be outraged that Russia interfered in our election and express some concern for the possibility that persons with interests contrary to those of the U.S. wormed their way into his inner circle. A real innocent president, that is.
7
Mr. Gates rode with Trump on Trump's campaign plane and was liason with the Republican National Committee. He was Manafort's protegè and was in the transition team. All the persons - those fired and those not, were in Trump's inner sanctorum or campaign some time or the other. They have been present at meetings with Russians, including his son-in-law Jared and Trump's sons. If all that is just happenstance then the co-incidences are one too many. And let's not forget. They don't have Security Clearance as yet.
4
Mueller is writing a book.
He is establishing characters , motives , times and places. He knows the ending already, as most great writers do.
The Manafort and Gates indictments reveal them as career criminals. My goodness: Gates lied negotiating his plea deal. They involved themselves in the campaign - Manafort volunteered and took no salary knowing the real payoff - since they understood it as another criminal enterprise.
Manafort was in the Trump Tower meeting about " orphans". If Manafort flips Trump, Jr. and Kushner are in greater legal peril.
The taunting Roger Stone, self-professed orgy aficionado whose Nixon tattoo on his back must add a novel wrinkle to the festivities, will be shown little mercy. Federal prison will be his next sex playground.
Trump truly believes that you can buy or lie your way out of anything. This is what 4000 lawsuits and 6 bankruptcies have taught him. Celebrity added another layer of protection. He thinks the Oval Office renders him immune. But Kushner knows better as he only needs to consider his own father.
But most of all, Trump completely misunderstands Mueller who is everything Trump is not. And Trump should have never compared the intelligence community to the Nazis. Their lives are a contrast in private indulgence and public service. It is a personal battle for the heart and soul if not future of the country.
Mueller is writing a Western. Bet on the Sheriff.
7
Actually I think he is paid by the word and writing to a deadline. There is no there there. And the venality of our political masters cuts across party lines. There are no surprises here.
1
Only the best people...
1
No, he should continue with his boneheaded ways.
4
The Mueller investigation will bring down Trump over racketeering and money laundering, not Trump/Russia collusion. Every time Trump says, "politicians were always coming to me for money", I hear, "protect me or there will be many others going down with me". Hence the infamous personal finances red line utterance, which was akin to waving a red cape at a bull.
It's fairly obvious at this point that WH cooperation and the turning over of any documents related to the political campaign is merely a complacent gesture to Mueller's investigators to try and pen them to a collusion investigation. It's a rather clumsy tactic, but a tactic nonetheless.
Do you realize that NOTHING has been found regarding Trump? Manafort's problems go back to before Trump's nomination. But feel free to keep up with your misleading headlines.
3
The FBI should place Manafort and Gates under protective custody to protect them from Russian assassins.
2
I'll take the sage advice of Yogi Berra.
One of America's Greatest Generation.
Unlike the bone spur, "5 deferment" coward occupying the oval office, Mr. Berra served his country in the U.S. Navy as a gunner's mate.
America's Yogi seems to be speaking to the electoral college's treasonous appointment.
Speaking to a totally unfit blowhard. Speaking to this self described "Genius" who lost the election by a resounding 2,900,000 ballots.
"It ain't over till it's over"
3
The Socialists are just quivering in anticipation as we know. According to them he's guilty, because he's Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton lost.
Mueller's been on the case since May of last year and he has complete access to all of the FBI records on this Russian thing dating back more than a year before.
What do they have to show for it? Manafort & Co caught with their pants down, tax fraud, money laundering, etc. Yes, a big deal, but dates way before the election. Other than that? Lying. And the truth they hid provided no insights. If the FBI were to investigate all Americans like this they'd be able to indict 80% or more of the population.
This is going to go no where other than some more lying charges. The Russians messed with us, like they have for years and like we have for years with them. It had no material impact on the election. Trump did not win on his merits. Hillary lost because of her lack of merits and someone had to get elected. Time to move on.
3
Well Mark, I'm assuming you're in the portion of the citizens who could be credibly indicted for serious crimes if investigated sufficiently. Thanks for the confession. Your estimate that 80% of us are in that same boat is just the usual assumption that criminals make that everyone is like them. I know I'm not in that group, nor am I aware of any friend or relative who is.
But it's easy to see why you have such sympathy for Trump & his minions.
1
Us socialist are used to getting ripped-off. Remember when the Republican Supreme Court installed Bush over Kerry. Equal protection my foot. And what did we get? The Iraq invasion... the gift that keeps on giving. As for Trump's election, we'll never know for sure whether his slim margin of victory in three states was a result of Russian interference. I ask the following of Trump supporters: Why did the Russians favor Trump over Clinton? Should not Trump be required to release his taxes like other presidents? How could a man who said he would hire only the best give jobs to so many thinly experienced individuals? Why would Trump select Manafort, a man who represented clients who worked against the interest of the United States as his campaign manager? Why did the Republican's change their platform position at the convention to be more favorable to Russia? Why hasn't Trump implemented congressionally mandated Russians sanctions? Why is it that while Trump campaigned to lock-up Clinton over her handling of classified data, there are numerous members of his staff, including Jared Kushner, that are improperly cleared and still have access to our nation's secrets? I have many more questions but my last is, why hasn't Trump criticized Putin over anything? He's insulted everyone else.
1
I firmly beleive the Mueller's investigation will lead to criminal charges filed against DJT for money laundering, bank fraud, and other financial crimes arising ou of his business activities for the last 10 years before he became POTUS. Why else would he not release his tax returns? He is not willing to share publicly all the business entities his is in bed with and has been in bed with for the last decade! How do you think Manafort got his job? The same way he secured allthe russian money for Trump's projects around the globe? That is why there is so much interest in him!!!! BTW, Mueller has Trump's tax returns for the last 20 years and is reading each and every one line by line! Don't you think otherwise!
4
Anyone who takes time to carefully read the 10 page Democratic memo will recognize the pile of sleaze which has amassed since Trump's GOP hijacking of America.
All the enablers need to be removed along with him. ALL of them.
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4387027/Democratic-Memo.pdf?h...®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
5
Does everyone not see the double-talking non-lies in Trump's statement, "We had a crooked candidate"?
Not an opponent, a candidate. Who is the "we" in that statement? Surely Republicans.
Yes, Republicans, you did indeed have a crooked candidate.
It is astounding how stupid half of the electorate is, and how they fall all over themselves to rage against reality and their own best interests.
4
Trump -- What me worry?
Of course he is worried. That is why he delivered a fiery speech to his base on Friday.
That is why he is still persecuting Hillary after 2 years.
That is why he told that stupid story about the snake.
He has the need to wrap himself in the comfort of his base.
5
Great job by Mueller so far - now go get Hunter Biden (dirty dealings with Ukrainian gas co) and Trump!
1
It’s it is obvious that Mueeler is laying the ground work for a conspiracy case against Trump and/ or his traitorous lackeys.
2
Trump is a vile man without any sense of irony and decency. He still calls his past opponent Crooked Hillary to elicit the chants of Lock her up.
The irony is that he is totally crooked and corrupt
and if justice were to prevail he will be locked up.
Yes Trump is very anxious and acts like a very guilty
man. He should be worried about his future
and his money laundered real estate empire as well.
4
Why is no one talking about the NRA-Russia money connection?
3
Trump only cares about money and his ego and at the worst, he will do is to close his horrific reality show when rating is down.
Trump is doing his best impression of Alfred E. Neuman these days. But I think he is beyond worried and he should be. Lock him up.
1
I'd be more thrilled if it brought down Jared "Superboy" Kushner. Or even better Trump doesn't speak up to save Donny Jr. from prison.
1
' the campaign provided 1.4 million pages ' to Mueller?
For a gang that couldn't campaign straight, a bunch of self-described nincompoops, that sure seems like a lot.
Trump is not worried that foreign governments are messing with our elections. And whereas every American should be pleased by every little bit of rot Mueller ferrets out, but for some reason our president isn't. That is perhaps even more pathetic than his bone spurs.
3
I understand that 80%+ of the NYTs readers are liberal, and anything that doesn’t feed the “Russia Trump collusion” storyline causes cognitive dissonance in you all, but take note:
-after more than a year of the Mueller investigation there has not been one single shred of evidence out of Mueller that anyone in either the Trump camp, or in the US for that matter (read his indictment of the 13 Russians) colluded.
-after more than a year, not a single media outlet (most of which favor the democrats and their political principles) have found any shred of evidence of Trump collusion, despite near constant attempts at finding one.
All I continue to hear from liberals is “wait, there’s something there, it’s coming.” What I conclude is the Dems lost in 2016, and in their typical “I know better” way are trying to remove or delegitimize a democratically elected president.
Step out of your echo chamber and wake up. Trump is here to stay.
2
Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts completely.
Meet the modern GOP and their lying and likely money laundering leader.
3
I remember Watergate.
The difference between my group and the Republicans was that my group had known all of the details for a year (okay, full disclosure: we had an underground newspaper) and the Republicans did not have a clue what the crimes were, who had done what and why even the Republican politicians were horrified and going to impeach him.
Now, granted, we are talking about an entirely different Republican Party today versus the one 50 years ago. The R's back then didn't hate the "administrative state". They weren't plotting to destroy it. The Tea-Party and the Freedom Forum hadn't popped up yet, in fact, the KKK and their ilk weren't considered "nice people". They were, rightly, considered goons and ignorant thugs and no one foresaw that they would be dragging the entire party over the cliff or ruling from the Oval Office. (In fact, yesterday, Trump, Jr., gave his official "like" to the whacko who wrote the screed that the young of Douglas Parkland are "actors", their friends were not killed, this is all theater. Oh, be proud, Republicans, be very proud!)
I bring up the Ghost of Nixon-Past to alert the R's of today that now is the time to get yourself up to speed on who all these people are, who did what to whom, and how this will lead to trump & co. being impeached.
I don't want you to be surprised.
R's back under Nixon were "surprised", but today we have the internet, we have Wiki, but your "smartphone" won't make you smart if you don't use it.
Use it.
3
trump needs more exercise. How about a nice morning perp walk?
4
If one believes that the evidence points to money laundering and racketeering (as I do) by the most corrupt WH occupants in our history, the nexus with Russians is unavoidable. Further, the nexus includes the Russophiles inside this insidious and traitorous regime, and the Congress (think Rohrabacher), and those who are so wedded to the GOP hold on power that they protect this monster despite the mounting evidence of his treason. I am drawn back to the question, what is he hiding????? ANd also: who owns him?
2
Most campaigns are unfortunately sleazy. The Clinton's took it to a new level with their underhanded sabotaging of Bernie Sanders' campaign and the billions grabbed for their "foundation", but as she's a Democrat, the New York Times all but gave her a pass. It's sad having to skip over most of the Times lead stories as they are simply biased wishes.
1
“The bad news is that the special counsel has a scorched-earth prosecution aimed at crushing the president’s associates.”
Christopher Ruddy's laughable claim is one more reason why I never look at his highly ideological putlication, Newsmax!
2
'In the last 10 days, Mr. Mueller has indicted 13 Russians and three Russian companies on suspicion of secretly trying to help Mr. Trump win the election, added new charges against Paul Manafort, who was Mr. Trump’s campaign chairman, and secured a guilty plea from a lawyer tied to Mr. Manafort’s business dealings with pro-Russian figures. The guilty plea on Friday by Rick Gates, the former deputy chairman, raised the pressure on Mr. Manafort.'
Not so. According to the linked NYT webpage, each of the three companies and each of the thirteen has been charged with conspiracy:
'In a sprawling 37-page indictment, Mr. Mueller charged the 13 Russians with conspiracy to defraud the United States, and connected them with a four-year effort to undermine and influence the 2016 presidential election. The Russians — and the three companies that facilitated and funded their work — are accused of using social media, the identities of American citizens and politically charged topics to manipulate an already divisive campaign.'
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/23/us/politics/mueller-investigation-cha...
2
Am I the only one who visualized Mad Magazine’s Alfred E Newman’s “What, me worry?”
Two years back, a Trump supporter (now obvious that his first name was Boris or Vlad...) engaged me in a back and forth on how Trump would be a great president given his business background and tried to challenge me using Game Theory.
Given that Robert S Mueller III, living legend, is ACTUALLY playing the classic Game Theory example of “Prisoners Dilemma” between Manafort and Gates.. I wonder what that Russian troll is thinking right now about Trump’s brilliance... ;)
2
This is really getting bizarre. It looks like Trump and the trumpees don't understand the election is over and their boy 'won'. They keep obsessing with HRC, what is their problem? Maybe their problem is that their boy almost daily exposes himself as a lying malignant narcissist with quack ideas to solve problems and a bromance with Putin, who hates democracy. Sadly these pathetic creatures somewhat successfully draw the trumpees into their pathology. The good news is they are a distinct minority.
3
Mueller is drying part of the swamp and that's good.
1
Can anyone imagine how Hillary Clinton or any other Democrat would be slammed for even a fraction of the close associations Trump and his swamp dwellers have maintained with such paragons of virtue as Paul Manafort? Lock HER up?
3
Anyone who takes time to carefully read the 10 page Democratic memo will recognize the pile of sleaze which has amassed since Trump's GOP hijacking of America.
All the enablers need to be removed along with him. ALL.
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4387027/Democratic-Memo.pdf?h...®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
2
While impeachment is likely inevitable due to Trump's clear obstruction of justice, that's only a step along the path of seeing justice fully done: proving Trump guilty of colluding with Russia, then convicting and executing him for treason. That's the endgame, not impeachment.
Convicted traitors deserve death. Mueller is on track to prove Trump is a traitor.
2
There is a very clear pattern that the Mueller indictments and guilty pleas support. Michael Flynn, Rick Gates, and Paul Manafort--all major figures in the Trump campaign--were in the pocket of Russia. To this list we can also add "useful idiot" and campaign foreign policy expert, Carter Page, who the Congressional Republicans had the audacity also to use as the focus of their conspiratorial attack on the FBI and the FISA process. It's all there staring us in the face. A candidate who continues to hire, despite warnings, and to defend to the point of firing the FBI Director, people bought and paid for by Putin and his allies is himself also been bought and paid for by Russia.
1
Not sure about Trump, but Kim Jong-un should be terrified.
It would be the perfect way out for Trump. He gets to stop being president, and enjoy his old age, and then he and Ivanka, and the rest of them, can say "the Washington establishment had it in for him", and they forced him out of office. A few clowns might even say that it was, in fact, that. Every day his presidency continues, he shows himself to be an even bigger idiot.
It would be the perfect way out. Pence can pardon him, if need be. Ford did that for Nixon.
1
If you are a Trump supporter and you believe that "there's nothing there," then why would you worry about Mueller putting Manafort in jail, for offenses that took place before the Trump campaign?
Are you arguing that fraud, money laundering, and illegal secret payoffs to foreign politicians are legal and something you support?
Or does it cross your mind that a sleaze like Manafort was chosen for a reason?
2
Trump worries all day and probably half the night. He is unable to prioritize what he thinks are threats and he is never going to have a worry free day. Why? He is insane.
5
I'm really not sure Trump is all that worried.
Remember this is same supremely arrogant guy who said,
"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters."
1
Only two possibilities exist. Either the trump administration was totally incompetent and criminally negligent to be unwittingly used as tools by the Russians or they were intentionally collaborating with them. Either way, they have no business in the White House.
14
While Mueller investigates and builds his cases, America remains in a state of speculation.
But one thing Mueller's investigations have already revealed and we know for absolute certainty:
Donald J Trump associates with the worst of people. He traffics with money-launderers, tax evaders, shady Russian oligarchs, people with a history of criminal behavior. His pals are liars and thieves stealing from taxpayers.
Whether or not Mueller ever charges Trump with collusion with a foreign power to gain the White House may become a footnote to a presidency that is and will forever to be known as the most immoral, degenerate, self-serving, deplorable presidency in American history.
The bigger story, dwarfing Trump collusion, will be the Republican Party which has revealed it is not loyal to America. That it is a party of traitors. That story is being written by Republicans every day.
16
Trump should be worried. Maybe because he’s used to getting his way since childhood with fighting dirty he thinks Mueller will leave him alone.
The US laws are for everyone. Just because our President is apparently mentally disturbed does not mean he’s above the law.
5
Thank you the former paper of record for giving at least one good article on this subject- I know this will not be printed- but I am on the internet with many criticisms about your status- and people read it.
Of course Trump was informed at every stage...he funded the whole thing! Fake President who should resign immediately!
3
"Ty Cobb, the White House special counsel, has said that Mr. Manafort has no damaging information against Mr. Trump. Mr. Manafort insisted again on Friday that he was innocent and would fight the “untrue piled up charges.”"
Manafort is really something else.
The stuff he was doing doesn't even qualify as "hiding in plain sight", it was just "in plain sight".
And if there was no "collusion" or conspiracy with Russia, all of this activity with Russia would have to be the most fortuitous set of coincidences in the history of politics.
Both Manafort and Trump had extensive monetary dealings with Russia years before the election (that Florida house sale at a 40 mil profit, please). Did Manafort simply make that connection and calculate that aiding Trump in the election could help both of them, while keeping Trump essentially unaware (unwitting) and playing a passive role in all of that?
You need a bucket full of Heinz Ketchup to make that burger go down.
Yeah, I think Trump should worry.
8
“We had a crooked candidate," he declared.”
Yep, sure did, elected him they did, and now we have a crooked president...
There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile. He founded a crooked campaign upon a crooked tale. He brought his crooked friends, which fought his crooked clan, And they all lived together in a crooked White House.
5
Trump tower meeting was well disclosed by Trump Jr. under oath. Not a crime to have met with them and no one has said anything bad was talked about. The issue is the Russian lawyer was sent by Fusion GPS owner Steele who met with the Russian lawyer the day before and after the meeting. Why would Steele send a Russian lawyer to set up Trump Jr when he was getting paid by a law firm that was being paid by Hillary campaign for information on Trump? All information such as the Dossier on Trump was received from the Russians via Steele who hated Trump! SO Hillary was colluding with them and this is the only evidence of collusion so far. Also the dossier was fake and the FBI never verified it and then used it in a FISA warrant to mislead the judges into getting a warrant to tap Trump campaign. What you have here is a massive Watergate. Set up fake collusion with Russia in a set up meeting with a Russian lawyer to then use on Trump to get a warrant to tap his campaign phones. meeting leaked by Steele to the media! Then share wire tap info with Hillary campaign. Many laws broken, campaign finance, lying to FISA judges by FBI etc... House Of Rep has already requested to DOJ to arrest Steele. Also OIG report out next month will show what they all did!
2
Trump has obviously been the beneficiary and intermediary of money laundering activities. Whether he was smart enough to realize it, or brilliant enough to realize it and hide his tracks like a good mobster boss, remains to be seen.
Either way, we have a president who got involved with Russian financial criminals and was too dumb to suspect anything, or a president who was repulsive enough to put one over on the people surrounding him and is content to watch them go down. Neither is a flattering look.
4
Michael Kearins - How about that time on national television Trump ASKED the Russians to look into "it" with his own words. What kind of a president does that?
7
So Trump is annoyed that sneaky, dirty criminals that worked for him are getting arrested? That just shows more of his bad character. A president should be glad those committing crimes be arrested.
6
And Trump would say, "No delusion...No delusion....."
3
Does anyone else agree....? If I was Paul Manafort and I owed a Russian mob guy a TON of money, and I was being squeezed by the Mueller investigation.... would it not be time to take out a good life insurance policy?
7
The man certainly behaves that he's guilty...of all kinds of things. There's little doubt that Trump and his family has broken the law so many times that they really don't know what Mueller will uncover. That Mueller has charged so many of his campaign principals of felonies (for which most have already pleaded guilty to) that the sky's the limit for what felonies Mueller will charge Trump and his children. No doubt he's freaked out. He knows if he had just stayed out of politics, he and his family may have gotten away with their crimes. Why do you think Melania was freaked out that he had won. She knew that their only chance was to stay below the radar. To be president is to be the most scrutinized person in the world. That's the last thing you want if you have skeletons and other felonies in your closet!
7
I just have this horrible feeling that Trumpski is going to skate away from all this with an "oh well..." and we will continue to endure his ripping apart of America. The only thing that may convince his supporters of his perfidy is if his personal greed is exposed by tax returns and what must be an extraordinary debt to the oligarchs.
2
Thanks for the new word for my vocabulary! However, I think anyone who still supports this president is beyond the reach of logic and an honest assessment of the facts (and that includes some of my family members). Convincing Trump's supporters of his untrustworthiness is a waste of time. If these people still haven't figured out that he earns the moniker "Don the Con" on a daily basis, they're engaged in some pretty powerful tribal self delusion and will never change their minds - even if he "stands in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoots somebody".
1
"We had a crooked candidate."
Really?? Give me a break.
Crooked Trump's nickname should be "Boomerang Donald" - because every insult he hurls can be equally applied to himself.
4
“I give great credit to the president for his extraordinary cooperation with the special counsel,” Mr. Dowd said.
This quote is very revealing. Mr. Dowd must be making bigly bucks. Not only is he raking it in as a LAWYER, but he is also one fine PR person, thus doubling his take! His understanding of what "cooperation" means is wonderfully creative and very PRish.
If being 'cooperative' in an 'extraordinary' way means to give over a mountain of documents (bury them in paper comes to mind) on the one hand, and then claim in no uncertain terms that the whole investigation is one big hoax, then Mr. Trump is fulfilling his role, (in his own warped mind) of being Lord and Master of the world, "For the Lord Giveth and the Lord Taketh Away."
Amen to that, and to another adage, "What Goes Around, Comes Around!"
1
Regardless of where a person falls on the spectrum of guilt it is undeniable that there are a lot of oddities and questions here. This president has not helped his cause with his behaviors.
Why would he be so reluctant to recognize Russias bad intentions to the American people? Why would he gush over Putin who is a known corrupt pariah and seeker of power?
4
Anyone think Manafort is going to roll? Someone will push a button on him if he ever cooperates and he knows it. They should be looking at The President's water boy, Schilling, who conveniently disappeared.
He should only worry if he's been lying.
1
"it clearly bothers him that people are being prosecuted simply because they worked for his campaign". Yeah, or they are being prosectued because they broke the law... Geez...
4
I hope Trump worries. But I am not sure he is mentally stable enough to worry. He has such an over inflated idea of his self worth and immortality that it seems worry is side tracked.
Any one at all, president or other, who approves the sale of assault weapon is bonkers. That teachers should be armed is an obscenity.
The NRA is a small crackpot organization ruling our country with weapon sales by arming anyone who arbitrarily wants to kill. But Killing anything but game is not only a crime but an immoral act against humanity.
We would not need guns for self defense if there were no guns and if they were collected as has been done in civilized countries like Australia!
4
Worried? The man is displaying panic. He thought he'd be immune to indictment. Now he is being squeezed into a corner by the Special Prosecutor that will allow him no wiggle room. His betrayal of this country, his obstruction of justice, his continual bald faced lying will all be laid bare. His special money ties to Russian be made public and he will go down in Benedict Arnold-like disgrace.This is the first president to die in federal prison.
5
If Trump is impeached, Pence and others around him will go down with the ship, especially Kushner and Don Jr. But I tend to believe Bannon's prediction that it won't be for collusion but money laundering and other financial crimes that leave this White House dripping in sleaze.
5
If there's nothing, why does Trump never ever critisise Russia or his precious friend Putin, when he otherwise attacks anyone else, be it friend or foe?
2
Trump is not a traitor in the usual sense: a person who turns against his country for ideological reasons. Trump entire political philosophy is based on making Trump richer and pretending that is what will Make America Great Again. Trump is a grifter whose empire has been on very shaky financial ground for a very long time. Baby boy Kushner is in the same pickle. Those nasty European and American bankers were beginning to look askance at them. They needed and still need money to stay afloat. Like a taxi driver with a gambling habit or some other poor guy in over his heels, they've been financing their businesses with dirtier and dirtier money. And now their rich "friends" want something in return, ie a freer hand in the worlds of politics and business. They aren't trading atomic secrets, but they are trashing the good name of this country and the security of our electoral system and the western world for the benefit of a murderous autocracy. A few Republicans know it and want to stop it but most of the Republican Party is too busy trashing the social safety net and the environment and making the richest richer to care what the con artists and grifters are doing over at the White House.
5
The issue now boils down to who hired Manafort and Gates to run the campaign. Was it Jared? Donald Jr? Ivanka? Donald Sr? SOMEBODY made the decision.
38
I think that's just part of it. Let's not forget the "O" word, OBSTRUCTION. He fired Comey and twice admitted it had to do with Russia. It was reported that Mueller then tried to get his old job back. If true, the only reason could be, he wanted to make sure an honorable person ran the FBI.
While he pressures Manafort to flip (I'm not sure he's going to), I think Jared is very much in Mueller's crosshairs.
2
Donald Trump hired Paul Manafort and his partner Rick Gates because of Manafort’s work on the Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and John McCain presidential campaigns. If it “all boils down” to this, there no point in continuing the investigation. Trump is one of five U.S. presidential candidates who hired Manafort, but that’s not illegal.
I would suggest that once Putin realized that Trump might actually be the GOP nominee and had a long shot chance of actually winning the election, he instructed Trump, through one of the many intermediaries, to hire Manafort, make Flynn his NSA, and Tillerson his SOS. Putin clearly has Trump by the short hairs, he knows and can reveal all the details of the dirty Russian rubles that bailed Trump out of his many bankruptcies. Trump knows that if Putin did that, the Trump real estate empire would collapse like a house of cards.
Trump should only be worried if his business interests aren't above board.
Therefore, he should be about to blow several rather substantial {stable genius} mental fuses.
Not that we would notice the difference, but an even money bet says he won't go down alone - he will take all and sundry with him.
That's what children do when caught redhanded.
33
How do this child’s accomplishments stand up next to yours? Just wondering, is all.
“We had a crooked candidate,” Trump declared. The crowd responded with a signature chant from the campaign trail: “Lock him up!”
22
Pretty rich that John Dowd gives so much "credit" to Trump for co-operating with Mueller when it's obvious that Dowd will be the one keeping Trump as far away as possible from actually talking with Mueller's team himself. If Trump has nothing to hide, why not be interviewed by Mueller ASAP?
22
of course he should be worried. he has been a criminal his entire life.
he has criminalized everyone who works for him including the R congress who
simply look away.
he has probably committed an impeachable offense practically every day since he has been in office.
43
I couldn't say it better myself. Trump acts like a guilty man, intent on obstructing justice, not an innocent man.
' Building a pyramid', yes. Dem memo just put the kabosh on over-reliance on Steele memo. Roll on, Mr. Mueller. One thing is for sure, it was a campaign of crooks!
27
I heard the CVS just up Pennsylvania ran out of adult diapers, XL. You bet he's nervous.
18
Am I the only one who grew up watching Red Dawn and The Day After Tomorrow? To surround yourself with traitors is unconscionable. The chair is against the wall.
19
I have some suspicion that Mueller is planning to indict Trump and his crime family right after the midterms in hopes that democrats win. Mueller knows that Trump could order the military to stand down while Russian tanks rolled down Pennsylvania Ave and republicans would still protect him.
33
Yes! Who else is at the root of all this money???
Godspeed, Mr. Mueller. The nation is with you!!
34
The meeting with Trump jr, Russian lawyer and Manafort that supposedly would implicate them in collusion is well disclosed already by Trump Jr in hearings in front of congressional investigators. It was not a crime and all was reported. They never received the supposed damaging information on Hillary from that female Russians lawyer. They realized she had nothing to give except request for adoption rights to be restsblished via Russia and USA. No documents were surrendered because that then would have been a crime. Now why weren’t documents exchanged? Because the Russian lawyer met with Steele who ran fusion gps was conducting a investigation on Trump. Remember the fake Russian dossier that Steele gave to Hillary campaign? Fusion gps was funded by a law firm that was funded by the dnc and Hillary campaign. So why did the Russian lawyer meet the day before and after the Trump jr and Manafort meeting? Because it was a set up by Steele and his company to entrap members of the trump camapaign using that Russian lawyer. There could not be any documents turned over because then Steele, Russian lawyer, Hillary campaign and dnc would be committing a crime too even if trump JR accepted the documents. What we have here is a ny times article that fails to mention these details and discredited their hope to brainwash readers into thinking Trump colluded with the Russians. The only collusion thus far is Steele, his company fusion gps,dnc amd Hillary with the russians
4
And you expect Don Jr to say anything different that sound like that were told by a guilty, lying 5 year old?
Beyond pointing out that following "because," with a claim you've not substantiated in any way at all doesn't prove a darn thing, it's pretty hilarious that you're still stickng with the "they were just talkng about adoption," fable.
And so starts another conspiracy theory. Who is this person ? And which planet is he from ?
As far as I'm concerned, Trump colluded with Russia when he publicly asked the Russians to hack into and release Hillary's emails.
46
What about democrat collusion when Obama’s FBI offered to pay, or actually paid foreigner Steele knowing that Steele was claiming to work with two Russian government officials in order to influence the election?
Or democrat Simpson of FusionGPS when he hired foreigner Steele knowing he was claiming to work with Russian government officals in order to influence the election?
Or Hilary’s campaign and DNC hiring FusionGPS through a pass through law firm knowing they had hired foreigner Steele who claimed to be working with the Russian government to influence the election?
How about Obama’s AG allowing the Russian lawyer in to the US on a special visa several times? Or Simpson of FusionGPS meeting with her before and after the Trump Jr meeting? Or Simpson having worked with the Russian lawyer for years prior her meeting with Trump Jr? Or the Russian lawyer hiring numerous democrats as lobbyists prior to her arrival under Obama’s AG’s special visa.
Not a republican in that bunch.
Mueller is a joke, he goes after low level operatives for Trump, who have no money to defend themselves. Mueller has UNLIMITED money to go after anyone he wants, while the victims have to use their own savings to protect themselves. They either bankrupt their families or "agree" to a plea deal. Mueller is a coward, who would never win these cases in court, and just bullies his way to "convictions". Let the government fund both sides of the case and see what happens. No difference between this witch hunt and the old Soviet justice system, guilt is a given they are just figuring out the sentence. Mueller is hoping to flip the low level people to go after the big fish, I doubt he will find anything other than lying to the FBI.
3
I suppose then, if you are to be believed, that Trump shouldn’t have mingled with so many witches and crooked folks in his campaigning so as to not have drawn the eyes and ears of those who are at the fore of this witch hunt. There are witches to be found, and Trump has only himself and his poor management style to blame.
Working up from the small fish in order to catch the big tuna is standard procedure in white collar criminal investigations.
According to Open Secrets, Gates has a net worth of over $5 million, so he is hardly poor. Manafort was Trump's campaign manager, not some "low-level operative". Save the right-wing propaganda for the low-info folks over at Breitbart, thank you.
1
Sorry, Manafort and Gates are not being prosecuted because they "...worked for his campaign". They are being prosecuted because they allegedly engaged in money laundering. The shame for Trump is that he hired the swamp.
31
More will be revealed. I just hope the revelations come quickly. The spider web of treachery and deceit that the Trumpsters are weaving is dense, disgraceful and probably treasonous. I look forward to seeing the whole dishonest and reprehensible Trumpist crew locked up.
28
Worry
Be very worried
His businesses will collapse
15
They have collapsed numerous times, and he came back. the art of the deal.
1
Of course Trump is scared. His portfolio of propaganda is now more limited. He called Papadopoulos a coffee boy. He stated Manafort left his campaign early and was not needed to win. He used to say he did not know if Russia interfered and called Russian interference a hoax. After the detailed indictment of 13 Russians, supported by search warrants of computers, intelligence, and surveillance, Trump stopped saying Russia’s interference was a “Democratic hoax.”
He now only resorts to the mantra, “No collusion.” Unfortunately for Trump, Manafort did meet with Russians offering dirt on Clinton, the Russians did hack the DNC, and the Russians did leak the hacked emails at a time Trump was begging Russia to find more Clinton emails.
Additionally, one reading Schiff’s rebuttal memorandum, which is heavily redacted, realizes the redactions are not to conceal sources or methods of collection, but to conceal how the Russians were connected to Carter Page and the Trump campaign. Trump does not want the public to know the truth. Instead of Trump stating what is false about Schiff’s memo, he says it bombed - failing to even call Schiff names.
What worries Trump most is he knows Mueller is singing “Bad Boys, bad boys ... Jared I’m coming for you.” And when Mueller gets Jared, the ball game is over.
27
I feel sorry for all the liberals out there, for when this all wraps up and no Trump/Russia collusion is shown by Mueller et al, what will the democrats and CNN have to talk about?
And with the economy finally in overdrive and the stock market back up, and wages to workers increasing....its going to be a long 8 years for those who have “D” after their name.
6
I feel sorry for all the trumpublicans out there, for when all this wraps up and exposes the Trump/Russian criminals who conspired to obstruct justice, and launder money for russian mafiosi, et al, what will the trumpublicans and Fox "news" have to talk about?. Oh the economy, and market that is up because Obama saved the economy from meltdown destruction by the last republican president and administration? Its going to be many generations before republicans are not a laughingstock among civilized people.
You live in VA, right? Did you miss the results of the last election in your state?
1
Wait until those tax cuts kick in and the country is in dire straights due to lack of revenue, debt - something the Republicans are always ok about when they are in office - and the deficit is climbing, the economy will be in free fall and the Democrats will have to bail the country out AGAIN. And, there is still little to no wage increases for the lower middle class, to middle class American.
The tiresome “Lock her up!” chants of Republicans, most recently at the Conservative Political Action Conference, will become a footnote in the history of the Trump administration and its many attacks on candidate Hillary Clinton. It’s uncertain whether Manafort, Gates, Flynn, Papadopoulos and perhaps others close to the president will serve much or any time in prison. I don’t hope that Mr. Trump will be locked up for collusion or obstruction of justice. For other reasons—for example his lying, denying climate change and toadying to the NRA—I do wish that his affiliations with unsavory associates will stain his tenure in the White House and shorten the time before he can retire and move far away from Washington. Perhaps a long vacation at the Trump International Golf Links in Scotland. Please, Mr. Mueller, “Link him up!”
11
Republican, right-wing, conservative, evangelical Trump. Keep saying that. They want and own him. Good. I'm so glad he's not a Democrat.
Some would say that my party's a bunch of 'losers'. Cool. I'm good with that, because time moves on and things change. The used and abused and politically lazy/ignorant common Americans will eventually awake to the nightmare of their own making. Trump is just the worst of the worst examples.
President billionaire bully? Wow. Christian nation? Hardly. Not even in the ballpark.
So, you folks own this creature of greed and self-love and materialism. No real compassion for 70 years. He is your man, and, when this traitor, money-launderer falls, your 'moral superiority' falls, too.
I don't wish ill on anyone. I don't want to dwell on blame. I want good-hearted people to help lead this country into a 'more perfect Union' or 'common good' and 'love'. We can. We should. And today, and in November, that path is a Democratic one.
29
"Mr. Manafort participated in a meeting in June 2016 along with Donald Trump Jr., the candidate’s son, and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, with a Russian lawyer on the promise of receiving incriminating information about Hillary Clinton on behalf of Russia’s government."
Can you say collusion? A little collusion here, a little there, pretty soon collusion everywhere!
"Mr. Manafort also reportedly offered during the campaign to give “private briefings” to Oleg V. Deripaska, a Russian oligarch allied with President Vladimir V. Putin who claimed Mr. Manafort owed him $19 million. Prosecutors are interested in learning how a Republican convention platform plank on Russia’s intervention in Ukraine was watered down."
What is it going to take before the press says collusion?
17
From the cover of Mad Magazine came the rallying cry, "What me worry?" Watch Trump pardon Manafort. Odds are Manafort already knows it and will tell Mueller nothing. How's that for a conspiracy theory?
6
Convictions that come from a state level cannot be pardoned by a President. Only Federal convictions can be pardoned by a President.
Trump can't pardon anyone, including himself, if financial crimes are found in New York or any other state.
I don't think donald directly colluded. I believe he was clueless that Russia saw him as the weakest candidate, so went out to get him in office. he didn't have to actively collude, they were already helping him.
6
Then why did Jared lie about his meetings? Why did all of them LIE about Russian contacts, meetings, money, deals??
tRump is owned by the Russians, and his family is deep in it. Don't tell me his isn't aware. Oh, and the meeting on AirForceOne where tRump worked on Jared's notes with him?
"Trojan Trump" and his Russian handlers should be very worried. It's pretty clear many of these arrogant two-bit criminals did not cover their tracks during 2016 and in previous years. Example: Manafort and Gates allegedly bragging about their bank fraud activities.
No one on the Trump team thought they would win so they never covered their tracks. Mueller as an ace patriot prosecutor is probably trying to be objective but he and his team are probably personally offended with what they found and what the alleged criminal activities - treasonous activities - were.
I think Mueller and his team are not feeling angry, they are feeling hate towards this band of alleged criminals. And nothing gets you up in the morning to go to work like a good hate. Yes, Trojan Trump should worry.
9
On 8/22/2017, the Russian website pandoraopen.ru published a 2006 interview with Oleg Deripaska that had originally been published by The EurAsianTimes, conducted by Nikolai Asmolov. In this lengthy interview, a garrulous & confident Deripaska asserts that Putin is nothing more than a 'top manager' reporting to Russia's business 'elite'; that anything whatsoever must be done to protect their business interests; that democracy is just a fiction -- the comfort ritual of voting, while in fact leaders all over the world are chosen by powerful insiders; also, that courts 'everywhere' are run by judges who execute the orders of this same small circle of shadowy power-brokers, who therefore have nothing to fear from anyone & accountable to no one; that capitalism = Gangsterism, everywhere. The interview yields insights into the motives & beliefs of Manafort's Russian boss. It won't come up in the EurAsian T search engine, but IC experts must have it. The US public certainly is entitled to know that T's Kremlin role model & his kleptocrats mock the very notion of 'rights' for non-billionaires & non-insiders from their tiny cohort. We should understand these people don't believe in free & fair elections at all -- anywhere. Watch the superb "Death of Stalin" (bought mine on iTunes): these were the formative years for both Yeltsin & Putin. They shaped the profound cynicism & ruthlessness of people like Deripaska as well as many of T's business partners in his RE deals with Soviet expats
7
Excellent, Maria. Thank you.
This is why Trump and his enablers are so dangerous. Any of us can be stricken by an overruling greed, or selfishly cruel and anti-democratic thought. But Trump's enablers don't even try to counter negative character traits humans widely have.
They don't try because of the philosophy you have perfectly described in the interview of one of Putin's Mob Bosses. Our Russo/Republican Congress is filled with such people, and since Nixon, but particularly Reagan, this subterranean feudal philosophy is dominant in that craven political party.
While the NYTimes and other media are doing a very fine job following this crucial investigation, more articles should be written clearly exposing what is wrong with Putin's Crime Government; how it operates and what it believes.
All this talk of dangerous plutocracy or oligarchy...Responsible media like the Times should educate all of us about why this trend is bad. The normal "It's un-democratic!" Or, "It's against the Constitution!" are not deep enough explanations about why Russia has become a blood enemy.
Thanks again.
2
Trump, now shouting his innocence in all-caps tweets, is cracking like a soft-boiled egg.
What will be, will be - but it won’t be pretty.
8
In Mueller we trust....
in the voters ? not so much....
14
An educated, engaged and united populace is the greatest threat of all to this administration. We know when we’re being sold-out to our enemies. And we recognize the daily barrage of noise seeking to divide us. It’s absolutely disgusting. And absolutely clear. The hammer will fall on these traitors.
13
Even if Trump is never implicated or indicted, there is an old saying: Lie down with dogs, you get fleas. If everyone around you is "dirty", and especially if you chose each one of them, it kind of makes you dirty too. This would be a great social lesson to teach our kids. But the sad fact is that as president, he is destroying all that is good about our democracy and our nation. A real president would be working to bring us together...he can only inflame and distance us further because it gets him some attention. If he were in school, he would be one of the kids the teachers and counselors would think needs attention because of his behavior. Oh, forgot...that IS what happened when he was younger but daddy had enough money and influence to get him into another school.
When Trump was campaigning he was threatening. Now he is downright scary. And probably guilty of things we will never know about. Wish those 19 women would come forward with civil charges...not for the salacious satisfaction of the press, but with civil and criminal suits. No one except Mueller is doing anything to reign Trump in, and irreversible damage is being done. I remember the outrage from the GOP when Michelle Obama said for the first time she was proud of the US. Where is their outrage when we have a president who makes us all ashamed?
12
The Russian lawyer meeting with trump jr and Manafort is well reported to Congress by trump jr under oath and it was set up by Steele who created the fake dossier that the Russians gave him and Steele in turn gave it to Hillary campaign who was paying him millions from her campaign. Steele met with the Russian lawyer the day before and after the trump jr meeting and it was a set up to entrap them in some sort of Russia collusion effort. This is all fact. It was all verified by Congress. What we have here is Russia collusion with the hillary campaign not the trump campaign that they wanted to make one believe with the Russian lawyer meeting that Steele set up. The nytimes knows all of this and the author fails to mention these facts. Perhaps they still have some remaining hope to somehow push their fake Russian collusion story with trump but it’s now beyond doubt that only Hillary campaign colluded with Russia. Congress has already referred to the doj a request that Steele be prosecuted. Mueller will not investigate Hillary and Steele Russia collusion because he is going to be implicated in the uranium one deal where he was in charge of the fbi then and failed to perform his job after one of his agents kept disclosing that bribery was taking place between Hillary and bill Clinton for the uranium one deal to take places. Next month the Oig report is coming out and don’t be surprised if Rosenstein and mueller will have to resign their posts due to those issues.
1
Has Mueller obtained access to the tax returns of Trump etc?
4
So Democracy has become government by subversion. Join in everyone, bring the house down. If you don't like this one, you will love the next one. It will only get better.
Not to worry. This analysis stops short of what is really likely to happen. Manafort will keep his mouth shut and Trump will pardon him for any convictions. Trump himself has no worries about collusion or obstruction because the GOP in Congress will never-ever impeach him. And the more corrupt Trump is shown to be, the more tightly he base bonds to him -- that's an important part of why they love him!
2
Russian Gate is comparable to Al Capone, an Italian Gangster who was responsible for the deaths of his gangster rivals, Bootlegging Prostitution , illegal lGambling, & more.The only thing they were able to convict him of was tax evasion.The end result of Mueller investigation will result in the conviction of people like Manafort & Flynn, but Trump who gave tacit approval to the Russians will not be convicted of collusion.Kushner & Trump Jr.may also be convicted but like Flynn, & Manafort will be pardoned by Trump.That is why Trump is gleefully running around shouting no collusion, which is partly true as there will be no evidence that Trump directly instigated Russia Gate.Hopefully the voters will look upon Trump as tainted & vote him out of office.
4
I wouldn't know Paul Manafort if I passed him on the street, nor do I care a whit about him. But this is absurd:
"Mueller has already prevented Paul Manafort from ever again being complicit in the spilling of blood by dictators worldwide ..."
The Ukrainian politician that Manafort and Gates worked for was the duly elected president of the country. He was replaced by a "dictator" in a US-backed coup.
Manafort may be a bad guy -- I don't know (or, frankly, care). But let's get our "facts" right.
1
Trump says that there is no collusion, maybe right. But why doesn't he enact the sanctions passed by the House and the Senate? Something is rotten, and not in Denmark.
9
It seems the clearest and surest way to protect America from the Russians is to vote out the Republican Party.
8
How can there be no charges of collusion for Trump? His son according to Steve Bannons book did a treasonous act meeting with the Russians for bad info on Hillary . None was found. Then Trump in his own loose lips on public tv during a rally asked Russia for help in finding 30,000 emails. The GOP fight dirty in every election and they have no moral compass. Sure they claim they are christian but if they support NRA and their blood money and are ready for war with anyone they are not in my book. We need to dismantle the corrupt electoral college .
6
it bothered the godfather that people were being prosecuted simply for being part of the mafia.
go figure.
5
Please hit pause on the groupthink, which may sound crazy because I am a Democrat.
The indictments show exactly what Mueller does not have, namely, a connection between the president and these crimes - which is basically arresting underlings at a troll farm.
I thought we were going to get indictments about the DNC hacks by Russian agents. Fancy Bear, all that stuff.
The bar has been lowered from the DNC hacks to indicting people who work at a comment farm and were posting on Facebook.
Sorry, but there's a big difference between agents hacking into the DNC's emails and giving them to Wikileaks, and a band of trolls in St.Petersburg producing memes.
2
Clearly, Mueller is desperate - all he can do is cast about, put someone on the rack. and hope he hears something the can use against Trump.
After all this time, we still have not been told what bad thing Trump was supposed to have done. "Concluding with the Russians" is to vague to even rise to the level of an accusation - it is simple a slur.
But the real mystery, is why anyone would think getting rid of Trump is a great thing, when the far more rabid Pence, is waiting to take his place. I'll take a common crook, over a religious zealot, any day.
2
Cut to the chase: Just vote the Republicans OUT. Vote Trump OUT. 2018 people!
7
"... our nation will be forced to reckon with the question of how so many were so foolishly duped by the grifter and his Republican cabal of goons and cowards."
--Dave T., Cascadia
We already know the answer, of course. A confluence of economic, social, and personal factors made that "foolish many" vulnerable to the Carnie Come-On and his instinctive ability to take advantage of their weakness. Others not so foolish saw a chance to play the system for personal gain--in a system built on the ideal of trust in the rule of law, however poorly executed at times. Throw out the Fairness Doctrine, add Citizens United, and voila! Corporate-paid propaganda, corporate-paid politics, divide-and-conquer conspiracy, separate information streams, single issues, alternative facts, alternate realities. That explains the foolish ones. Many not-so-foolish ones are greedy opportunists out for themselves; the fewer regulations, the better. Both types share with the Corrupt One a contempt for the rule of law. Moderates who thought their party was about fiscal responsibility, encouraging small business, and a vacation to a national park every year are in limbo. One said to us in 2016, "Is there a single Republican candidate who doesn't make you cringe?"
1
“Mueller is gaining steam.” Thank God, it’s about time (although I’m guessing the dream team had “steam” all along).
“Should Trump worry?” He should, obviously. However, 45 has allowed the US to fall squarely into his golden toilet with no regard for either the future of America or the world court of public opinion. Why start now?
1
I hope that Trump is NOT worried. If he becomes too worried, he will fire Mueller and pardon everybody involved, including himself. Then we will be back on the road to revolution or dictatorship or both.........be worried, America ! Especially so if our spineless Congress does not take back its constitutional power.
3
I have faith in Mr. Trump's ability to overcome. He will adjust well to a one piece suit, smaller accommodations and chow instead of his beloved Macs... He will do trades and best deals are yet to come, and he will spin stories.... Heck, he might even get the support of the guards, be elected as first amongst crooks... Evangelicals will pray for him, historians will have their work cut, and America shall overcome! It shall be remembered as a deplorable lapse act!
2
Unfortunately I do not believe that this President is bright enough nor has the necessary discipline to pull off collusion. More likely that they have personally embarrassing dirt on him.
2
Note to Trump ,
Don’t worry about a thing. Relax, have a couple of quarter pounders and a chocolate milk shake. Call Stormy.
3
So there may not be evidence of direct collusion (yet)? But Trump promised to "drain the swamp," whereas it appears he is up to his ears in it -- he, Jared, Trump Jr, and a bunch of his election/transition team all have messy Russian connections. They may not have colluded with the foreign swamp, but they all sure liked getting their hands dirty in unAmerican activities.
J
2
As Deep Throat, the Posts Watergate source and FBI associate director, said in All The Presidents Men, in these type of investigations you work from the outer edges and go step by step. In other words, you carefully position your pieces before you move. If you shoot too high and miss, everybody feels more secure. Or as Emerson said "When you strike at a King you must kill him."
2
If Mueller has the goods on Trump it makes sense for him to keep his cards close to the vest until he finishes putting every detail of his case together. If he tipped his hand too early the presidential pardons would start flying.
1
I’m afraid that as the investigation gets hotter and closer to Trump, Jr, Kushner, he will do something drastic like start a war with North Korea to distract the media and the people.
1
Gates was Manfort's assistant and tried to explain to Manafort how to alter a file so Manafort could falsify a loan application. Manafort was the Trump campaign chair for two months. Manafort and Gates lied about their fraudulent financial activities. Manafort left the campaign three months before the election.
The only worry our President ( and all of us) should have is when news will begin to be news again and we can all lay this cruelly, oft-beaten, dead horse to rest.
2
I wonder if Trump had appointed Mueller instead of Deputy A.G. Rosenstein, if Mueller's head would have rolled before he took the reins and waded too deep in his efforts to clean out the swamp, an issue that the president pledged to do himself. It's unfortunate that the swamp, full of snakes and man-eating gators turned out to be in the president's own backyard.
2
Does Manafort really have to worry about the Mueller investigation? People seem to be forgetting that Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution states that the President "shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment ..."
2
Can anyone doubt that Manafort will never talk, for the best of reasons: Putin will kill him if he does? There's no witness protection program, or anything else, that can protect Manafort from the wrath of Putin, and Manafort knows this better than anyone. No Trump pardon needed. Death is an even stronger incentive for Manafort not to talk than joining Bernie Madoff at the gin rummy table for the rest of his life is to sing for Mueller. Forget Manafort. One doubts that Mueller's case stands or falls with Mueller.
1
The play is on to catch the king but what about his followers? Here is a President who has failed to defend the nation from an attack by a hostile foreign power, certainly benefitted from it and is resisting its investigation. He has enriched his private interests, and those of his family. He has denounced the press as “the enemy of the people.” He has threatened his political opponents with imprisonment. He has denigrated our allies and aimed racist vulgarities at an entire continent. So, Trump may well be worried, but you can’t impeach the people who back him or the party that put him out there, even though he reflects their character perfectly: a failure of the spirit, of the imagination, and, most acutely, of public education; a lack of courage and an active moral compass; pure, unvarnished greed; delusional. Such people will be around when he's gone and will not change; they are literally besieged by a rapidly changing world about which they do nothing but obstruct progress and kow-tow to those whose wealth they venerate as Godly. Consider for a moment what they have come to: roughly 30 per cent of the population, armed and dangerous, with a Waco incident mindset and a political party whose brand is enforced ignorance and fraud, backed by the purveyors of gun addiction, plus bespoke propaganda services. The rest of us must stay vigilant and smart. The firing of Mueller must be planned for as the sting of the century, he's perfect bait for a chump like Trump.
1
Should Trump Be Worried? I am definitely worried.
I am worried that Trump will serve out a full three more years and that his daily demolition of civil discourse and the institutions of democracy will bring the USA to its lowest point since the Civil War.
Putin sure got his money's worth out of Trump, that is for sure.
4
But this is the thing to remember, no matter what happens. Trump is, and always has been nothing but a gangster as his close association with people like Roy Cohn, Felix Sater and Tony Salerno revealed long ago. And like them, he will not be constrained by any moral or legal considerations. To survive he must shut down Mueller's investigation and pardon all those who can incriminate him. Of course, he shouldn't get away with it, but then he shouldn't be where he is now, either. But largely because of what Hillary Clinton aptly described as a vast right wing conspiracy, he just might succeed.
2
Muller is creating a beautiful ham sandwich full of ham,cheese,mayo,lettuce,tomato. He will throw a lot of stuff into the garbage along the way and the he will indict the ham sandwich. That is what he does.And of course the garand jury will do what ever he says and walla a beautiful ham sandwich is indicted. God forbid that he eats it and goes home.This country should be better than this. This constant judicial involvement I Presidential politics. And in this particular case you can not make a truly great ham sandwich so go home.
2
Says Christopher Ruddy, Trump’s buddy...
“I don’t think the president is worried about the investigation himself,” he added, “but it clearly bothers him that people are being prosecuted simply because they worked for his campaign.”
Two lies in one sentence.
2
Anyone familiar with how Booby Fischer played chess will recognize the methodical attack that only he knows where it's going and where it will end. Trump is in big, big trouble and he doesn't even know his checkmate is certain. Sad.
1
Should trump worry? He’s already scared witless, you can tell how he responds and the lies that he tells and his tweets. He is frantically doing everything he can with all of these constant side shows to steer our attention away from Mueller.
He’s been trying to discredit the FBI,and Mueller in particular, for the last year and a half, all for the same reason. Lastly he is constantly discrediting the press who has been successful in bringing out tons of hidden information, and is in collusion with FOXNews to do the same.
4
Trump is - unfortunately for him - like the boy who cried wolf: Even if he’s telling the truth, his continuous habitual lying means that the only people who believe him are his “base” who believe everything he says, even when he contradicts himself, which is most of the time. What I see Mueller doing has nothing to do with having a political axe to grind. He’s simply doing what any good prosecutor would do, and what broke Watergate wide open: He’s FOLLOWING THE MONEY wherever it leads him. It’s hard to believe that the trail won’t eventually lead to Trump himself. It’s looking more and more like a RICO case. I don’t know what a RICO-type impeachment would look like. - I’m not terribly worried about an armed uprising by Trump supporters if it comes to his impeachment or removal. A revolution needs leaders and organization, and Trump supporters by their very nature have such faulty intellects and disordered thinking that the likelihood of an organized insurrection seems remote. What I DO wonder is: Is Trump’s brain also so flawed that even if he were desperate, it wouldn’t occur to him to suspend the Constitution (a document for which he has nothing but contempt), declare martial law, dissolve Congress, take the Supreme Court into custody, and issue an order to shut down all media sources except, of course, Breitbart and Fox News - with NO end date. Which leads me to another question: Would Fox News support even that? Or would even Sean Hannity think that that’s going too far?
3
"but it clearly bothers him that people are being prosecuted simply because they worked for his campaign"
Last I checked working for a campaign was not Illegal.
Pop.. Flynn, Gates, and others pleaded guilty to crimes not campaign work.
Collusion is: secret or illegal cooperation or conspiracy, especially in order to cheat or deceive others.
Publicly asking the Russians to release stolen emails, guess you could say it wasn't in secret.
creating a false pretense for a meeting with Russians.
At this point I have faith in Muller to gt to the trurth
Collusion, Probably, too many threads from the campaign staff and trumps financial past make it highly probable. Why can't we see the taxes?
Ineptitude/incompetence with out a doubt yes. No administration in American history has had the self inflicted problems of this administration. Convictions, indictments,resignations failed confirmations all unprecedented.
Obstruction of Justice again highly probable starting with all the Comey issues and extending to undermining the institutions he is supposed to protect.
Dereliction of duty, absolutely. Twice now the heads of our security agencies have stated in open hearings that the Russians meddled in our elections. to that extent the body of information grows. POTUS has done nothing to protect our 2018 election, virtually nothing to punish or deter Putin.
The question is, is that treasonous?
2
Sorry Mr Ruddy, but people are not being prosecuted for working the campaign. They are being prosecuted AND pleading guilty because they committed crimes!
Take your spin elsewhere please.
3
There is no collusion. This is a political witch hunt. The Russians did try and influence our election the same way the CIA interferes with foreign elections. President Trump did not collude with the Russians to win, if they had anything it would have exposed by now.
2
Release that tax returns Mr. Trump. DO that and if there's nothing there, the heat reduces a hundred fold.
Tax returns!
Outside of that, as the Mueller team keeps getting closer and closer to the Inner Circle, we'll see some heads lopped off to several more of those snakes.
I have no doubt that there are plenty of shoes left to drop that will pick-off the abominations cuddling up close to Trump. None live saintly lives. (Conway, Miller, Hicks, The Kush, the Cons sons, Kelly...etc)
2
A worried Trump would worry me more....especially if he has things to hide and cover his tracks.
He appears to have no scruples. He is shamelessly unprincipled. He has "friends" who are likely to "do" things to help him get or keep power. My worry would be what is Mr Trump capable of doing (with enormous resources at his disposal from Russia and likes of Mr Roger Stone) to derail Mr Mueller?
The angry NRA, the dwindling relevance of Republicans makes them more likely to support Trump even if it means not doing the right thing for the country. Mr Trump lacks empathy--a rather bad omen for US.
Whether Mr Trump worries or not, USA should worry, and should be scared.
3
This column does a good job of avoiding the word collusion, but all too often we see that word used in the context of Mueller’s investigation even though it has no legal meaning. The fact is, Trump’s defenders love to see it used because it’s so easy to deny. Trump does it all the time. Mueller must prove that actual crimes were committed and/or there was some level of conspiracy to commit a crime, whether that crime is accepting illegal campaign contributions, emoluments, money laundering, obstruction of justice, tax evasion, treason (YES!) or all of the above. If we stay focused on the concept of collusion we risk missing the objectives and complexity of the investigation. Mueller knows better. Trump’s professional sycophants and congressional enablers will not be moved to revisit their blind loyalty unless Mueller indicts Trump for crimes that are provable beyond a doubt and are truly heinous. Of course such charges won’t move most of his supporters who will use their love for faux conspiracies to find reasons to excuse the despicable behavior of their righteous demi-god.
3
“I don’t think the president is worried about the investigation himself,” [Ruddy] added, “but it clearly bothers him that people are being prosecuted simply because they worked for his campaign.”
People are being prosecuted because they allegedly engaged in criminal behavior, not because they worked for the Trump campaign. Only those who still claim the investigation is a "hoax" would make such a ridiculous statement.
3
I believe that to have a chance of being successful ("successful" defined as busting Trump and forcing him from office), Mueller must prove a narrative that illustrates, chronologically:
--- Trump's long and fruitful relationships with the Russian Mob (essentially that government)
----That he knowingly and purposefully conspired with the Russian mob/government to illegally attempt to influence the election.
----And that these two above led to an Obstruction of Justice.
Trump should be sweating bullets and if he isn't, that is quite scary. It implies he has a plan to counter all this. He himself is not intelligent enough to conceive the details, but certainly the snakes in grass around him are entirely capable of coming up with something, particularly when their necks too are on the chopping block.
Prior to the end game of pardons, or created crisis as diversion, or some other shenanigan, perhaps involving the Supreme Court, Trump's strategy has been to keep his base rabidly rapt, while at the same time giving the disgusting Republican Congress their craven dreams-come-true.
Interestingly, while giving the Republican Congress this preposterous largesse, Trump's howling base simultaneously threatens those Republicans who are the slightly more moderate but in the pockets of Big Corruption, like big oil, or big pharma, or coal, etc.
Mueller's biggest problem may be the Russo/Republican Congress where the tentacles of corruption run very deeply.
4
Does anyone think that Mueller may have been looking at Trump's taxes?
3
These days Trump and his "What? Me?" behaviour look much like the 1950s cartoons of a target in the middle of a map that is surrounded by red arrows that all point to him.
Mueller is using lesser charges to press Trump's cronies to admit to the big deal, Trump himself.
And Trump already shows his nerves in a big way.
Just remember what he said only a few days ago about the new actions against North Korea, the ones that will be so bad the world would suffer.
This is way more than the usual "I'm in trouble let's go to war" reaction of any US president in the past few years.
This was a declaration of a nuclear war against another country that in any other case would have led to immediate sanctions against the US like e.g. the sanctions against Iran.
And Trump again got away with this kind of madness.
People are used to his rants by now and have stopped taking him seriously.
All the same, Mueller is getting closer to Trump and Trump knows it.
Which is why Trump, being the imbecile bully he is and always was, is preparing the big gun, the nuclear option against a foreign enemy.
Not Trump should worry, the world needs to worry and the Americans need to get rid of Trump immediately before is too deep in his cul de sac and starts a nuclear war.
There is no need for the world to face a nuclear war just because of one criminal and his delusions of grandeur.
"Ceterum censeo Trumpem esse delendam" as the classic saying goes.
1
In an opinion piece on another page of The New York Times entitled "In Donald Trump, Evangelicals Have Found Their President," David Brody, co-author of
“The Faith of Donald Trump: A Spiritual Biography," (sic) writes ”But evangelicals truly do believe that all people are flawed, and yet Christ offers them grace. Shouldn’t they do the same for the president?" Thus, we must assume that when Trump, on Friday, referred to a "crooked candidate" and his supporters responded, "Lock her up," that this was a crowd of non-evangelicals. Because surely if this crowd had been comprised of evangelicals, they would have been offering grace instead of that vengeful, hateful chant.
1
One more player taking a deal and soon it's Manafort's turn. Or is it? He is likely facing time either way, and if he rolls on Trump, no one is left to give him a pardon - except Pence - who might be able to claim purity by letting him rot.
You are in a tough spot Paul. Choose wisely!
1
Mr. Peter Baker:
"With each passing day, Robert S. Mueller III.....seems to add another brick to the case he is building — one more indictment, one more interview, one more guilty plea. "
With each passing day, Donald J. Trump, the 45th President of the United States of America, seems to remove another brick of his tower of power.
Inane tweets, senseless interviews, poorly crafted letter to explain Trump Tower meeting, inexplicable lack of meaningful action against Russia, impulsive firings, rants against judges, F.B.I., etc.
Should Trump worry? Yes, indeed.
When there's a huge crack in the foundation, it's only a matter of time til the bricks hit the ground.
1
Trump has nothing to fear, if he’s innocent.
1
People are being prosecuted “simply because they worked for [Trump’s] campaign”? Seriously? These people broke the law and have admitted guilt - just because they happened to volunteer to participate in a high profile political campaign that got them investigated doesn’t make this a political witch hunt. I thought the GOP was the party of “law and order”?
2
I cannot believe that this tired reprisal about "no collusion" is still taking up column inches. Collusion/colluding isn't even a crime -- the actual crime is conspiracy, and Trump is drowning in it.
From firing Comey, to his remarks to Lester Holt, his dictation of Don Jr.'s letter, to his refusal to impose sanctions passed by Congress, his refusal to publicly slam Russia for interfering in our elections, his complete disinterest in trying to prevent it from happening again -- he is part of a criminal conspiracy.
The law actually specifies that a person doesn't have to actually commit a specific act, to be guilty of conspiracy.
This Trump is running a criminal enterprise out of the Oval Office. Amidst all the nitpicking talking head "experts," listen to Jill Wine Banks, formerly Jill Wine Volner, former assistant Watergate prosecutor, and the one who questioned Rosemary Woods about the 18 minute gap on the tape.
She is clear, precise, and explains conspiracy so that any lay person can understand how and why Trump is guilty first and foremost of conspiracy to obstruct justice, let alone money laundering, and all the ugly ties he has to Russian money and the Russian mob.
Should Trump worry?
How can you even ask?
1
Should he be worried ?
No.
Why ?
He chose Mueller.
End of story.
It is clear to me that The Trump Campaign hired shady actors that had complex financial ties Putin operators, and Donald Trump had no problem with that. In addition we now know the names of several Russian operators that criminally meddled in our election, and we know that Don Junior and Jared Kushner had no problem reaching out to Russian operatives for “dirt” on Hillary Clinton, and KNEW about the hacked DNC emails in advance of their release, and Donald Trump had no problem with that, yet tried to cover it up. Trump should worry. He is in this up to his neck.
2
Unfortunately, the only thing Mueller is leading is an entire waste of time and money. Over a year of effort and millions of dollars spent have turned up absolutely no evidence of any type of collusion between the current President and Russia. What is fascinating is that Mueller's investigation points a spotlight on how Democrats waste taxpayer money.
1
The hypocrisy of the Grand Oil Party and Trump that he let his son-in-law who does not have full clearance read and see highly sensitive intelligence reports, yet Trump wanted to make sure that the House Democrat's memo went through scrutiny before its release.
1
Remember two words which signify the fears within Trump World:
Deutsche Bank.
3
I forecast the following:
1. Mueller's full investigation will show a broader Russian influence peddling scheme among members of Congress. Funding will come from/through laundered PAC's (using Citizens United as a shield), but ties to Russian oligarchs will be shown.
2. Mueller's investigation will illustrate how financially thin Donald Trump was and how financially reliant Donald Trump was upon Russian oligarchs and Vladimir Putin.
3. Mueller will show how Paul Manafort & Rick Gates got connected into Trump's 2016 campaign after Cory Lewandwoski resigned. This is the missing link in the puzzle: Why Manafort (no connections to Republic major candidates and running a political campaign). The continued links to Gates with Steve Bannon will be explained.
4. I predict Mueller will show money laundering within Trump family and Trump Enterprises with ties to sketchy and foreign lenders through well known financial institutions.
5. I predict Mueller will show ostensive tax fraud and providing false and misleading information to financial institutions by Trump Enterprises and/or Donald Trump.
6. I predict Mueller will demonstrate quid-pro-quo policy promises by Trump's campaign to Russia which may rope in US politicians and corporate CEO's.
7. I predict Mueller will demonstrate how deep this scandal runs. Whether Republicans AND Democrats have the courage to release the full contents will test their oath of office.
2
I understand how Mueller’s strategy works. But I wish he would hurry up and finish the job. The longer it takes to get rid of Trump the more time Trump and his incompetent posse have to do permanent and lasting damage to our country.
1
What do Trump and his cohorts have to worry about? He has the power of presidential pardon for himself and the others should convictions result from probable prosecutions. Whats left? Shame? Trump doesn't experience that emotion.
If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck.
Mr. Mueller will do the investigation thoroughly, prudently, logically, and then, lay the facts out for all the world to see.
I’m a patriotic American 1st, and I say let the war hero and consummate American, Mr. Mueller, do his work.
The criminals he removes along the way is just icing on the cake.
Frankly, based on his tireless, focused, and professional approach to his work, perhaps he should be President!
3
No, he shouldn't. Why would any other person worry when a sleazy lobbyist is forced to plead to something? If the FBI were conduct a dragnet of all lobbyists, it would catch many more.
Trump's critics will read into this what they need to. Clearly, they cannot let the "Russian collusion" idea go because that would mean they'd have to accept that he won the presidency without it.
1
Sorry, this article is wishful thinking on the part of the Times. What is being demonstrated is that the political class, those people who would like to rule us are corrupt. I have no doubt that a Special Prosecutor with the brief that Mueller has, if set loose on the Democrats or Congress generally would have half of them locked up. Maybe we should do that. That and term limits.
Meanwhile, back here on earth, there is no evidence of "collusion" nor of the supposed crimes that gave haters of Trump the vapors. There is no there there.
I really wish we could look closely at the way our betters in Washington keep secrets and I really wish that that travesty, the FISA "Court", could be eliminated. These are real problems and have slipped thru the cracks. Again.
2
If someone believes Mr.Trump won't pardon all he can and The Supreme Court won't free all they can they have more faith than I
Manafort has not and will not flip! A conviction will just result in a Presidential pardon. Is this a great country, or what?
2
“I don’t think the president is worried about the investigation himself,” he added, “but it clearly bothers him that people are being prosecuted simply because they worked for his campaign.”
Huh?
I thought they are being investigated and prosecuted because they broke the law and some of them might have committed treason.
But what do i know?
6
Biron, so far the charges revealed in the article have everything to do with money laundering and nothing to do with treason. That could change at any time but perhaps we should stick to what we know instead of what we hope for in our declaration of truths.
I hope Mueller digs and digs and digs and the investigation expands tremendously. Just like the GOP (Starr) investigation of Clinton. It's time for payback. What goes around comes around.
2
I just watched “All The President’s Men” last night - talk about deja vue. Can’t wait for the remake.
2
There is no better indicator of Trump & Co's guilt than how loudly they are screaming and attempting to derail the Mueller investigation.
Mueller, at age 72, is enjoying his last big assignment. So far, acting as both the cop and the prosecutor, an unusual feature of special prosecutors, he is chasing indictments that have nothing to do with collusion and in each case, predate the presidential campaign or, in the case of the Russians, exculpate all Americans from wittingly participating in any of the Russian efforts to disrupt the election. The latest charges have Mueller now playing the IRS with tax evasion charges. This guy will be charging traffic violations pretty soon. The only people who seem to be exempt from his broad brush are the Clinton's who were absolutely involved with the Russians thru the Steele Dossier, which the Clinton Foundation and the DNC funded. It would seem the only target of Mueller's investigation would be Republican's unfortunately.
What this article does not say nor does 45 ever say, "Did Russia interfere with the 2016 election? 17 US Security services say ,"Yes". 45 says nothing whenever the subject comes up or seems logical to say. Does 45 see the Russian interference as an act of war or bad intelligence on the part of the 17 US Security Services. What does 45 understand "preserve, protect, and defend the USA" mean? Is it just military offence? Could it include cyber warfare? When 45 noticeably avoids mention of Russian interference. what does that indicate? possible ex-wife's suicide?. ignorance?, guilt?
Yes indeed - Trump should be worried not only about himself but his son - Donald Jr. and his son-in-law also. There's a reason he won't release his taxes and why he wants to be Putin's best friend. As soon as Special Counsel Mueller can connect the dots - the White House swamp will be drained and America can be 'Great Again.'
3
Why shouldn't Trump be worried?
Since start, he has behaved like he is guilty by firing Comey, intending to firing Sessions, Rosenstein, and Mueller; giving false excuse for his camp's meeting with Russians at Trump Tower; meeting Putin privately without following proper protocol when attending overseas meetings,...
In addition to Trump's long-term financial entanglement with Russians, his camp had at least 18 known meetings with Russians and intended to establish back channel with them during the campaign...
Haven't there been sufficient flaming smokes piling up that will lead to huge Russian orange fire?
Yes, Trump has been very worrying since the beginning. Don't forget Trump's tweeter storm last week after Mueller indicted 13 Russians. Why did he need to react in such a fashion? because he knows he is guilty?
1
So far no member of the Trump campaign has been charged with during anything unlawful during the 2016 election campaign or as a member of the Trump campaign or with unlawful collusion with Russia to interfere with the 2016 election.
The charge against Michael Flynn had nothing to do with the Trump campaign or the 2016 election. He pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents during an interview conducted after the election. He denied he had discuss sanctions with the Russian ambassador during the transition period when audiotapes showed he had discussed sanctions. Flynn broke no law by discussing the sanctions—which had been imposed after the election—with the ambassador.
Papadopoulos admitted to lying to FBI agents during an interview conducted months after the election. He claimed he met a Maltese professor before joining the Trump campaign when he actually met the professor after the Trump campaign announced his selection as a campaign aide. Papadopoulos was not a member of the Trump campaign at the time of the interview. Papadopoulos has been charged for attempting to cultivate contact with Russians—that’s not illegal.
The charges against Rick Gates said Paul Manafort have nothing to with the 2016 election or Trump campaign.
The Mueller indictment says the indicted Russians communicated with many Americans—not just Americans connected with the Trump campaign.
Christopher Ruddy, the chief executive of Newsmax and a friend of Mr. Trump said, “The bad news is that the special counsel has a scorched-earth prosecution aimed at crushing the president’s associates. I don’t think the president is worried about the investigation himself,” he added, “but it clearly bothers him that people are being prosecuted simply because they worked for his campaign.”
. . . . . . .
Curious as to why Ruddy's statement did not read:
"The president is clearly bothered that so many high level people who worked on his campaign have broken a multitude of laws."
6
No evidence of collusion! Trump and his surrogates scream it but that certainly doesn’t mean anything, it’s all public posturing not based on truth.
We do know that Mueller continues to indict the men around Trump and there are certainly many more indictments coming in the near future.
Trump isn’t just worried, he’s terrified and the 13 tweets he fired off about the Mueller probe a week ago were the work of a cornered and desperate man.
4
The fact that Trump is still supported by a majority of Republicans is the most astonishing factor in American history. The family values party. Lol. The law and order party. Lol. The strong defense party. Lol. They have shouted these values while wrapped in an American flag for decades. But they have proved that the only thing they value is being in power. But not so they can govern. Only so they can rule. They are willing to put up even with treason by Trump, and the thousands of lies he tells to stay in power. They have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that they have no moral compass whatsoever.
5
Yes I bet a trump is worried as he should be. The house of cards will one day be blown down time is not on his side. The American people and the world knows what this smack did and has done. I for one can not wait until he is removed from office in disgrace. It would be nice to see him in prison but I do not think that will happen.
1
Derek, if the world, the American people , or you know and have evidence of a crime by trump then you need to contact Meuller and provide the evidence! If you have no proof and you are motivated by emotion then perhaps you should alter your public opinion. Wait, could you be a bot supplying false information in an attempt to disrupt our justice system? Who knows!
Between the FBI and Mueller they have been looking for collusion for 18 months - No collusion has shown up in any of the indictments - A few perjury traps and financial indictments, but absolutely no evidence that Trump and Russia colluded in election meddling - Democrats better start focusing on issues that voters care about instead of their only issue being anti-Trump - The 2018 mid-terms are fast approaching and the democrats are poised to take the house, but if all they talk about is Trump is the devil they may just blow their chances
The more Trump proclaims “no collusion “ the more I believe there was and is collusion among Trump, his representatives, and foreign interests, including but not limited to Russia.
1
“but it clearly bothers him [Trump] that people are being prosecuted simply because they worked for his campaign.”
Herein, lies the main point... people aren't prosecuted unless they did something wrong... even if it's just "lying" to the FBI. Trump smacks of a criminal whose only remorse comes from getting caught.
I don't think Trump is involved with collusion. Anyone who set up a scheme would be foolish to include him in the details, BUT Trump is a useful pawn.
The bigger concern is money laundering and undeclared income that could lead to tax evasion. Manafort had his own reason to work on the campaign for free. Articles talk about NYC condos being used to launder money through a convoluted maze of LLCs, which is where Trump could be involved. Whether or not Trump knew what was going on lies between him "doing the deals" while minions do "day to day paperwork", and "no one does anything with my [Trump's] money unless I approve it"... but even with his blustery ego, Bannon was able to snooker a seat on the NSC when Trump signed a document that he didn't read.
2
Earth to Democrats:
1. Trump is NOT going to be impeached. Repeat: NOT.
2. If I'm wrong about #1 (which I'm NOT), Mike Pence will become President. That's kind of how we do it here in the US of A. Will that really make you happy?
There's a better way!
The only way the Democrats are going to retake the Presidency is the way the Democrats have ALWAYS retaken the Presidency: Come up with a good candidate and get him or her elected. That's kind of how we do it here in the US of A.
It's not so hard -- many Democrats have done it in the past -- but it does require some advance effort. You can't just keep offering up retreads like Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden, who should be doing Geritol commercials. For goodness sake, even Al Franken will be 69 years old on Election Day in 2020.
Come up with some new blood! Start now! Don't wait till 2020 to get started.
And remember: Trump is NOT going to be impeached. And even if he does (which, again, will NOT happen), either Trump or Pence will be President in 2020 and running on the Republican ticket. You can't beat Trump or Pence simply by telling voters that your candidate is "not Trump" or "not Pence." You've tried that approach already, and it didn't work very well.
3
As expected, the Newsmax CEO is dissembling and giving misleading statements (aka spin). He says Trump is not worried for himself (then why is he so obviously sweating bullets?). No, he says, Trump is concerned about his associates who are being prosecuted just because they worked on his campaign. Nice try. Between them, Manafort and Gates have indictments charging 58 counts of criminal activity (at the last count). That's hardly a trivial number. And it's certainly not due to some penny-ante partisan game playing. Mueller, a life-long Republican, is known as a Mr. Clean and is also known for his high moral and ethical standards.
2
It would behoove all to consider the odds that Mueller and his team would have taken this investigation on if it were anything but a 'sure shot'. Mueller has distinguished himself as a combat veteran, a prosecutor, and FBI Director. He is past 70 and knows that this investigation will be his legacy, one that will overshadow his previous accomplishments. In a similar vein, consider the quality of his team. At least 16 distinguished attorneys leapt at the opportunity to work on this investigation, taking a surely long sabbatical from their own successful practices. This team did not commit themselves to this work to go down in history as the gang that couldn't effectively prosecute the most obviously corrupt, dishonest, impulsive man ever to occupy the White House. Trump, on the other hand, can only muster a small legal team that is bush league by comparison, due to his history of stiffing, lying, making public attacks and foolhardy comments, and his complete inability and unwillingness to listen, take direction, or be part of a team. I'm betting on the Mueller.
1
Please, please, please, Mr. Mueller, wrap this up before we have to endure a $30 M waste of money on a cringe-worthy military parade.
2
Lock him up (Trump, family and 'friends) should become the new mantra. Not because he's a political rival, but, because the depths of his corruption are a clear and present danger to our democracy.
2
Publicly the White House appears to be whistling past the graveyard as Mueller spins a web of indictments. However, the fact that close Trump associates from the President on down to the putative coffee boy have all been deceitful in response to many questions and compulsory filings shows that this brave face is a facade. By their actions they’ve shown that they harbor guilt even if the crime is yet to be exposed.
1
I would submit the question to be asked is less whether Trump is worried than it is are WE worried. We very much should be if we aren't!
The only thing more dangerous than a wounded animal is a wounded cornered animal....and Trump is rapidly approaching that position.
Trump is known prevaricator of the first order, a denier of fact, a deflector and distracter of a magnitude that would make a prestidigitator from The Magic Castle envious. These traits coupled with his insatiable need for adulation could easily be the recipe for his starting WWIII simply to give us something bigger to chew on than his illegalities and those of his family.
Should Trump be worried? Yes he should, and his actions and incoherent babblings inform us of the fact he is. WE however should be all the more worried as our lives, indeed the habitability of the earth itself teeters precariously on that edge.
I'm confident that Mueller will find the financial ties between Trump's business dealings and money laundering that he did through his vast real estate empire for the Russian mob and oligarchs. It was they who threw Trump, an incompetent businessman, a financial lifeline. In return, Trump allowed them to use his real estate enterprise to launder their money and avoid taxes. Mueller will eventually find this.
1
I really don't care if Trump is worried. He's either 1) innocent, 2) guilty, but protected by his very POTUSness (who apparently is above the law) or 3) guilty and we can do something about it. I've listened to countless reporters, lawyer pundits and read even more articles and columns and it is impossible to figure it out.
But, I do care that I am very worried about my country. Trump could be completely innocent, but he is still a divisive, incompetent, self-absorbed charlatan and I don't think I'll ever understand or get over the fact that he was elected POTUS. The whole world weeps for us.
Larger goal - yeah, this ain't all for nothing. This isn't about a garden-variety money laundering; that's just the low-hanging fruit and no surprise to anyone who paid any attention to Donald Trump's career over the decades before he became president; it's always been known his associates are almost without exception shady characters. Whether collusion with the Russians to influence the election will ultimately be proved I don't know, but I'm pretty sure Mr. Mueller has an, um, higher-level target in his sights. First you round up the lower-level people (and even filthy rich, brazen crooks like Manafort fit this category) and then you ... SQUEEZE. It'll happen, folks - hold tight. Mueller knows what he's about and what the ultimate point is here.
Trump agreed to release the Democrat Memo rebuttal was because he could not have won the Democrat's lawsuit to release it. Trump could not show any legal cause to block it.
And so it goes with Mueller's investigation. Trump might have sent Junior to the meeting with the Russians but he knew. He KNEW. Trump is a control freak and a micro-manager. He KNEW. During the campaign, he expressed this every day. He was the deal maker and no one else could do his job but him. He also said that he knew more about the Russians than any of the intelligence agencies. Well, he can't have it both ways now. His minions are refusing to take the fall for this criminal.
Trump will be guilty as charged.
Mueller oversteping the bounds of his commission.
According to his order of appointment, Mueller’s independent investigation was to be limited to:
(i) any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump; and
(ii) any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation; and
(iii) any other matters within the scope of 28 C.F.R. §600.4(a).
https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/967231/download
If Mueller does overstep the bounds of his commission it would fall to the DOJ official who appointed Mueller and oversees him in the special counsel role, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, to recognize that occurrence and take steps to refocus the investigation.
The examples of previous Presidents- Carter, Reagan, Clinton do not in any way relate to the current Administration, which is stacked with unqualified people and likely some traitorous individuals as well.
Meanwhile, Republicans in the House and Senate conspire to undermine faith in the Mueller investigation, the FBI, the free (not bought) press. They pass a tax cut for their rich billionaire patrons, deny Americans of healthcare, and act as though they have a mandate while in reality they maintain power by rule of the minority.
Mr. Mueller is the only Republican in Washington D.C. who is doing his job honorably.
1
If Trump isn’t worried for himself, he’s worried about his precious Ivanka husband, Jared. I have a feeling Jared is not a goody two shoes. And maybe Erik Jr. got himself in a bind as well. Trumps obstruction of justice on the other hand might be something ?
Never has a line from a Shakespearean play seem more appropriate every time Trump utters: " there's no collusion". Than, " methinks thou dost protest too much."
Someone? Anyone? At IRS or other who has access to Trump's info (tax returns). Please release. You would do our natiion a great service, even if they are ok.
I am not sure I care what happens to Trump, viz a viz the Mueller investigation; after all, Pence is waiting in the wings and he is more of a nut case in many ways than Trump. What does worry me is the number of shady characters, or what some call the swamp creatures, that surround Trump. Is this the norm with all politicians or does Trump, the con-man, have an extraordinary number of other con-men (and women) around him? Perhaps we need a perpetual special prosecutor to root out corruption and swamp critters from either political party in office.
“But it clearly bothers him that people are being prosecuted simply because they worked for his campaign.” Uh, no. They are being prosecuted because they lied to the FBI, illegally laundered tens of millions of dollars, and evaded millions in taxes. How sad that Republicans have no regard for the rule of law when it is enforced on "their guys."
Mr. Trump is correct in stating that this investigation is all about delegitimizing his presidency.
If the Praetorian guard can be made to see his rule as illegitimate, they are less likely to carry out an insane order to start WW3 and delay elections, or stop the seating of a new congress.
This investigation will be dragged out until a new Senate and House are seated.
Would a Democratic landslide unhinge Mr. Trump?
Trump's campaign and Trump's White House are filled with staff and appointees who have careers dealing with Russians, or providing lobbying services for Russia. Several have been indicted, and some have made guilty pleas. But all these illegal acts happened before they were part of Trump's campaign, or in Trump's White House staff, or so Trump says. I am sure, certain, absolutely positive, that all those people, who made millions working for Russia before they came to Trump, I am sure they gave it all up, and forgot all about Russia the day they started working for Trump. Sure. Certain. Absolutely positive. There's just no way being on Russia's payroll for years before joining Trump would carry over to their time with Trump. Trump says he has had no business with Russia, not even through the many shell companies run by Putin's Russian oligarchs friends, or the Russian oligarchs who paid Trump millions for real estate deals. I'm sure just because a Russian oligarch pays $90 million for a house, that Russian has no influence or persuasion with Trump. He just naturally likes Russia, likes Putin, and knows that Russia would *never* interfere with our elections, or try to influence American public opinion with fake Facebook accounts and posts, fake pro-Trump online groups, and fake internet comments. Putin says it didn't happen... Trump says he believes it. "Believe me." "No collusion." "No dealings with Russia" "Hack Hillary's emails." Oops, forget that one... never mind.
1
Why are journalists willing to so uncritically parrot the White House's "no collusion" narrative when we know:
1. "Mr. Manafort participated in a meeting in June 2016 along with Donald Trump Jr., the candidate’s son, and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, with a Russian lawyer on the promise of receiving incriminating information about Hillary Clinton on behalf of Russia’s government."
2. Kushner discussed with the Russian government setting up communication channels that U.S. intelligence agencies could not monitor.
If these actions are not collusion then what, exactly, is collusion?
1
Mueller is following the money. It is a long and winding road, but is there any doubt the tRump is up to his neck in ill gotten gains? The Republican Party owns this crook, and they will all pay a serious price at the polls. Only 9 months to redemption day for the good old USA!
If Trump isn't guilty, why is he so defensive? Why not release those tax returns? He certainly behaves as if he has lots to hide.
“I give great credit to the president for his extraordinary cooperation with the special counsel,” Mr. Dowd said."
He means that he is amazed that Trump hasn't fired Mueller yet. What is that? The hard bigotry of Republican audacity?
I kind of doubt Manafort will suffer the rest of this investigation. He’s a flight risk ( now he wants to go to NYC to bury his father) and I read that he’d scared his daughter at one point alluding to suicide. He may be too hot a witness to be allowed to ever testify, either protected or neutralized by Trump supporters of some stripe. Maybe I’ve read too many thrillers, seen too many movies.
Ruddy tells us that “but it clearly bothers him that people are being prosecuted simply because they worked for his campaign.” The "simply" part is wrong--they committed crimes, and lots of crimes.
1
This op-ed is an analysis of the news from a liberally biased perspective which has no basis in reality. It is only an interpretation of events by the left wing to satisfy their wishes that President Trump will go away. Well, that's fine. Remove Donald J. Trump from office and swear Mike Pence into office. From what I have read about Vice President Pence, the left will wish that Trump was still in office because Pence's vision of America is a Cromwellian theocracy, in which all the precious achievements of the left, especially in women's reproductive rights, marriage equality, and transgender recognition will be eliminated. In short, be careful what you wish for, Thank you.
2
It is doubtful that Paul Manafort could harm Donald Trump by testifying about the Trump Tower meeting he attended with Donald Trump Jr., Eric Kushner and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. They have all testified about the meeting, which was also attended by an American lobbyist and a translator. So, his testimony would be one against five. It now appears Veselnitskaya got the documents purported to incriminate the Clinton campaign from Fusion GPS, the same firm the Clinton campaign hired to produce the Russian dossier. Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson testified he had dinner with Veselnitskaya the night before, the night of, and the night after the Trump Tower meeting. Veselnitskaya had hired Fusion GPS to conduct research on behalf of her clients, U.S.-Russian corporations she was defending in federal district court.
Mr. Mueller is a decent human being. Mr. Trump is not, so I think Mr. Mueller must be given the opportunity to complete his investigation and release his report.
Trump may say he's not worried, but we must remember that he rarely tells the truth.
We should be praying that he doesn't "worry"!
Whatever happened is in the past and will be presumably uncovered. When Trump worries he tweets, he bloviates, he causes chaos. We should hope that he is sedate(d) and not able to blow anything up until the special counsel is finished.
Like a mushroom, please keep Trump in the dark. He believes what his handlers are telling him. Truth, honesty, integrity are foreign to him. Mr. Mueller's team are airtight and we don't know what he and his talented team know. Truth will prevail and will end to this long, long nightmare, I hope.
As long Trump has the power to fire Mueller, Rosentein and Sessions and pardon family and friend he has nothing to worry about.
As long as Paul Ryan is Speaker and Mitch McConnell is majority leader Trump has nothing to fear.
As long as Trump can hide his personal and family income tax returns and business records from the American people then he can relax.
As long as Vladimir Putin is smiling and smirking as his foes end up in prisons, mental institutions, hospitals, urns and coffins then Trump can sleep well.
1
"And Manafort knows how that all came together."
If Mueller cuts a plea-bargain deal with Manafort, I'll be impressed. Such a deal could only mean that Mueller thinks Manafort has something of great value to offer on someone even higher up -- Trump. Trump says Manafort doesn't know anything bad -- which, of course, doesn't make that statement true. But Mueller needs to come up with SOMETHING. Several commenters have actually argued that Mueller's utter silence about Trump is proof of Trump's guilt. Please! Enough! If Trump colluded with the Russian government, is Putin's lap dog -- etc., etc., etc. -- I and most Americans agree that Trump should leave office immediately if not sooner.
But just saying something doesn't make it so, no matter how much you wish that it were. We need to see some actual evidence. If there is some, let's hear it. Enough "hide the ball."
Has anyone actually read the Mueller report? If I remember correctly, it stated that the main goal of Russian interference in our presidential election was to sow discourse in the political process. They certainly have done that. The demo memo also had a footnote that basically confirmed some of what the republic memo said. Why doesn't cnn or MSNBC make mention of either of these facts? Why don't they mention that almost 5 million people got raises and or bonuses because of tax plan? I'm not supporting Trump, but the omissions by these news outlets does lend credence to the fake news accusations. I have watched both Fox news and the other news channels, and while both are slanted towards their own ideologies, I find Fox to be more fair on the whole...they do provide opposite views which I have never seen on CNN or MSNBC.
2
Four of his campaign people were under surveillance by security services during his run for the Presidency, should he be worried...yes.
Is it me or does it seem like Robert Mueller and several teenagers from Parkland, FL the only things holding this country together right now?
1
"But it clearly bothers him that people are being prosecuted simply because they worked for his campaign."
...
They're being prosecuted because they were caught committing crimes!
Gaining steam.
No.
After one year, if you are not at full steam, you are losing steam.
He is reduced to stopping at way stations.
Charging Russians playing around on the internet.
Really.
He would do a real service if he went after the Nigerian pirates on the internet.
The irony is that the Nigerian pirates are really Eastern Europeans, probably Russian.
1
The White House should be quite worried. Mr. Mueller is stealth. Satisfaction will come to those who are patient.
Well, if I were Donald Trump I would be worried. And you know it is bad when you realize that my wife, pretty much oblivious to all matters political, changes the channel when Trump comes on the air. "I can't listen to him...he says nothing." And I smile. I am not sure how this whole nightmare trainwreck will end, but on a brighter note, soon winter will be over. We have to deal with Mud Season first, but this to shall pass.
This is a case without precedent. History will be made and at the center of that history stands Mr. Mueller. Does anyone seriously doubt that he knows his personal legacy and integrity is at stake? That his case and conduct will be scrutinized? Knowing this, does anyone seriously doubt that his conduct and skill in performing his duties will be of the highest order? Trump knows this and is behaving accordingly.
The end of all this will either be a charge of treason or, if the Republicans retain power in the fall of 2018, then Mr. Trump will survive.
The Congress is either silent (with some exceptions like Tim Ryan of Ohio) or attempting to obstruct Mr. Mueller and lay the ground work for an end to the investigation. Why? Because they all fear Trump's retribution if he survives this and the Republicans retain congress.
And is there anyone who is surprised by the Republican party attack on Mueller? This is the party built not on the alleged conservatism of Adam Smith or Fredrick Hayek or Ludwig von Mises. Not a one of them have actually read these thinkers. Instead the Republican party is built on the sophistry of William Buckley, the second rate mind and priestess of self-interest Ayn Rand, and most of all the venom and casuistry spewed by paid propagandists like Hannity, Coulter and Limbaugh.
Trump could really demonstrate to the country and the world that he has nothing to hide and is the upstanding citizen he claims by simply releasing his tax returns.
Let's be perfectly clear about why Trump's "associates" are being prosecuted. They are charged (or plead guilrty) to a long list of serious crimes that question their loyalty as citizen of the US. Those crimes have nothing to do with their association with Trump or his campaign, or do they.
Ultimately it will require Republicans to remove Trump from office, either through impeachment, or by putting enough pressure on him to resign. The question is for us, the public, is how high must the bar be for Mueller’s results to get Republicans to support removing Trump from office? In my opinion, only clear violations of the law will be enough - such as money laundering, tax fraud, etc. Collusion will not be enough.
Let’s hope Mueller can deliver results before Fall of 2018.
The Mueller investigation and indictments underscore that there was a lot of irregular activity amongst members of the Trump campaign team, activity of the type not common to domestic presidential campaigns.
As the Mueller investigation picks up steam and more information is released to fill the public record (e.g., the recently released Democratic response to the Nunes Memo), it begs the question of how -- and why -- so many members of the Trump campaign team were interested in interacting with the Russians. What did they hope to gain?
Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury" makes clear that Trump did not expect to win the election; therefore, no activity was out of bounds.
But, given Trump's proclivity for trying to make business deals in Russia and his unwavering belief that he is a "winner," it becomes more conceivable by the day that Trump authorized his campaign team members to contact and interact with Russians, to gain whatever assistance they could in return for sanctions being lifted -- if Trump became president.
Should Trump be worried? The answer is yes. It now can be viewed as axiomatic that Trump will fall, whether it is for money laundering, election/campaign law violations or obstruction of justice -- he will fall.
The left just wants Trump gone. There is no real Russian involvement in the election rage. The hope is to find something, anything that could send Trump packing. This is all politics.
If HRC was president all we will hear from the left is how all the billions of dollars pouring into the Clinton Foundation has no influence on the Whitehouse. Bill would be flying all over the world taking in money. The corruption would be open and the left would be not only fine with it ,but praising it as they have always praised the foundation. Foreign governments dont contribute for favors. They contribute because it’s a great foundation is what we would hear from the left.
Then why aren’t they contributing now? Just say it. The Clinton Foundation is nothing without the Clintons having power.
Why does the press go along with the false narrative that collusion has not yet been shown?
The Trump Tower meeting was, on its face, the essence of collusion, as Trump announced that he was going to reveal new information just days after the meeting was set up but before it took place--showing that he knew about the meeting and was expecting it to produce a bombshell. That is obvious.
"Russia, if you are you listening . . ." and the subsequent admitted Wikileaks/Roger Stone working connection is the essence of collusion.
Donald Trump's obsequiousness in regard to everything Putin and his well-known ties and indebtedness to Russian interests, large numbers of condos and other property sold to Russians (going back to money laundering by the Russian mob at Trump Taj Mahal in AC) and the obvious quid pro quo refusal in response to enforce sanctions passed 95-5 is the essence of collusion.
Inviting Russian spies and Russian media into the Oval Office while denying all access to our own media, and then sharing classified information with those spies is not only the essence of collusion, it is patent TREASON.
The man has been colluding since day one in plain sight.
The last sentence of the column: “The basic contours of the puzzle is that he’s constructed his actions in a way that we don’t know where it’s leading,” he said, “and that’s on purpose.”
One might reasonably infer that Mueller is not simply issuing indictments for their own sake, but is building the foundation to discover the truth about what motivated the many involved to lie initially to the investigators and likely to conspire, not just collude to influence the election. The most likely motivation was and continues to be Russian money and support for the house of cards that is the "Trump organization." It is also reasonable to infer that Mr. Putin wants to keep Trump in his corner, as has been blindingly clear from Trump's failure to protect and defend our country from Russian election meddling and more recently, Trump's complete failure to address the fact that Russian mercenaries, with the apparent approval of the Kremlin, attacked and killed American soldiers on the ground in Syria. The latter is plainly an act of war against America and our "tough" commander in chief stands silent, or is perhaps frozen with cowardice to soundly counter the "little green men" from Russia. What else can explain the President's failure to condemn the Russians for election meddling and the recent attack on American soldiers?
Finally, I expect a coordinated action by the NY Attorney General and Federal prosecutors to indict Mr. Kushner for money laundering.
Trump should worry and prepare to pay his due for all his ills.
We the American people should worry for effect of his actions for years to come.
Given:
1. Causal agent
2. Receptive and susceptible host
3. Plenty of vectors between agent and host
Result:
The disease triangle completed, on our land. The capture of democracy by alien powers. Trump himself the alienist down the escalator, from down the gilded tower. Spreading his brand of disease to tear, plunder and further fragment the land.
You don't hear a lot about the cost of Mueller's investigation to the American taxpayer. How many lawyers are on his staff, and at what expense? For that matter how much is Mueller's compensation? What is the total size of his staff? I'm guessing there's no way it's not into the tens of millions of dollars, maybe $100 million. Don't we already have law enforcement agencies and personnel to enforce the laws Mueller has sought to enforce so far? No evidence thus far of "collusion" by Trump with the Russians to improperly impact the elections process. Isn't that what Mueller is really supposed to be doing?
Let Donald Trump's legal advisers and close friends believe that Trump faces no legal jeopardy, because when the links are demonstrated, Trump's fall will be that much sweeter for his opponents. The Greeks believed in a concept of hubris-nemesis, pride cometh before the fall, which effectively describes Trump's political and professional life. Trump's arrogance will contribute to his downfall. For years, Trump skirted illegality in order to enhance his personal wealth. Even more problematic, Trump has intimidated his opponents and has played to our lowest base instincts either in the New York media market or nationally via his TV show. Now, he faces someone he cannot buy and still the hits keep coming. Trump, if he is innocent as he and his followers claim, why has he not placed sanctions on Russia as authorized by Congress? Why hasn't Trump warned the Russians about using Russian mercenaries to attack American troops in Syria? This begs the question, what do the Russians have on him? Is he the Kremlin's man in the White House as the Steele Dossier implies? What other conclusions can any sensible person plausibly draw in light of the mounting evidence? All we have to do is to connect the dots and have Bob Muelller fill in the blanks then Donald J Trump may hear the public cry, "lock him up, lock him up."
1
The key question is why did Trump have so many people working for him who each had firm ties to Russia? Yes, I think he should be worried. There’s too much “there” there.
There continues to be a web of lies and diversions around Donald Trump. He may, in fact, be unaware of what others have done. He may just be a pawn in their own individual schemes. Even if this is the worst thing about Trump, he is just not fit to be president if he can't find honest and competent people to work for him. That being said, there are just too much evidence of reprehensible personal behaviors on Trump's part for anyone top ignore. He can't continue to rely on fear mongering about threats to the 2nd Amendment and blaming everything on the Democrats, Hilary Clinton or Barack Obama. Someday soon, more people will get tired of his inability to take real responsibility and do anything positive.
Trump is correct that nothing produced publicly by Mr. Mueller to date has claimed any wrongdoing by the president nor any illegal collaboration with the Russians seeking to influence the 2016 election.
The operative word in the above sentence is "publicly", and despite all his defensive tweets, Trump knows it, and is why he continues to sweat.
1
LIke so many readers commenting in these spaces for the past two years or so, I had long ago come to the conclusion of collusion between Trump, his family, his campaign operatives, and the Russians. The constant lying through campaign speeches and the tweets that only a deranged mind could compose told anyone with air their lungs that this was a dangerous situation. Who could protect one of our declared enemies with such zeal? And why?
Frankly, the pieces of this complex puzzle have always been locked together. Only the picture composed by those pieces was missing — until the Mueller investigation began issuing indictments for Flynn, Papadopolous, Manafort and Gates.
We have known of the Trump family's borrowing of at least tens of millions of dollars from Russian oligarchs. The people around Trump, and Trump himself, have been caught lying about their contacts with Putin and his Kremlin operatives. The stories of Trump's infidelities behind Melania's back have more than reasonable credibility.
As the indictments against Manafort and Gates gather momentum, one must wonder what brought so many con artists together? Did Manafort and Gates act as "loan officers" to arrange those loans from oligarchs? Did those oligarchs become silent partners in Trump's real estate projects?
Mr. Mueller has, apparently, extracted plea deals from Flynn, Papadopolous and Gates in order to bring the puzzle's picture into focus. Someone will "flip" Manafort and Trump to avoid prison.
Trump isn't just worried. He's apoplectic. His lawyers are tasked with keeping him from exploding before the Nov. elections. If he fires Mueller before then the Republicans will lose heavily. But Mueller must already be examining Trump's past real-estate dealings, which are relevant because they may constitute the main Russian hold on Trump, and incidentally may involve illegal transactions or fraudulent representations. He could erupt at any time. This could be a "close run" thing.
I am not worried about Mueller and whether he has something. Trump seems to protest too much thus tipping his hand and admitting what we all suspect. What’s most worrisome is the rest of the GOP sticking with Trump. It would be reassuring to hear even vague pronouncements about the Constitution and Duty from some of them now and then. But their silence tells us that plus or minus Trump our democracy is in peril.
"..[Congress during the Watergate crisis] was a generation that understood that there is a difference between virtual and reality."--Steve Fankuchen, Oakland
Most worrisome to me is that the current Congress understands the difference perfectly well.
1
This is not "analysis." It is a collection of quotes amid a word salad. Very good reporters. Finding particular meaning in what they find- not so much.
One can judge Trump's level of concern by the volume and ferocity of his tweets and speeches against FBI; if he wasn't worried he'd amuse himself with something else. His past suggestion that he might pardon everyone including himself, was tantamount to an admission of guilt.
Similarly, one can judge the concern of leading Republicans by their effort to discredit FBI and DOJ, including a grossly misleading memo of late.
The pattern of the investigation and charges is of a noose closing slowly; bottom feeders first, mid-level associates next, and only getting to Trump & kids once enough people have rolled over on them. Comments about 'no connection to Trump' or the like, are naïve in believing that we know much about the evidence FBI has already has and continues to gather. As with any investigation, there is much which is not disclosed... yet. The increase in charges and interviews of higher level people in the last few weeks, suggests that the noose is tightening.
It is almost impossible to believe that Donald Trump did not collude with the Russian Government, Russian oligarchs and its proxies. His public urging of the Russians to hack into Hillary Clinton's servers, his refusal to release his tax returns, his fury at and attacks against AG Jeff Sessions for recusing himself, his firing of Jim Comey, the attacks against all seventeen US intelligence agencies and the FBI, his ongoing campaign to undermine the Robert Mueller's investigation and finally, his own public behavior that suggests he is wearing a sandwich board that screams "I COLLUDED".
This may not be evidence in a court of law but is quite convincing in the court of public opinion.
1
“I don’t think the president is worried about the investigation himself,” he (Christopher Ruddy, the chief executive of Newsmax and a friend of Mr. Trump) added, “but it clearly bothers him that people are being prosecuted simply because they worked for his campaign.”
Wrong.
They are being prosecuted for not telling the truth to the FBI and more. And we need to understand why they lied.
If Mueller indicts the president and his operatives for conspiracy and obstruction and money laundering and tax evasion, Donald will do what he always does: He will deny it and wait until the weekend tweet storm to change the headlines.
Remember, in Donald's world, a denial and a payoff can fix every problem.
Ms. Haberman, that was like reading a script for "All the President's Men 2." I can't wait to see the ending.
trump IS NOT concerned: he and the GOP have flooded the court systems with “loyal” judges and other positioned attorneys. Whom will carry forward Mr. Mueller’s case?
It’ll be appealed and kicked UP the legal ladder to trump loyalists!
trump is doing in two years more to undermine our democratic systems with complete complicity by the GOP and Citizen’s United.
The simple truth is Mr. Mueller is building a case for himself, and that case in the end will be that there was no collusion between Donald Trump and the Russians. Mr. Mueller is demonstrating to the media and democrat party worshipers, that he is giving it the “old college” try, to preserve his reputation and to set himself up for future political opportunities.