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How Trump Could Derail the Special Counsel Investigation
Slate ^ | DEC. 18 2017 4:47 PM | Asha Rangappa

Posted on 12/18/2017 5:32:33 PM PST by Golden Eagle

All eyes are on what Donald Trump will do, as the oracles on Twitter and the Hill have predicted that the president may fire special counsel Robert S. Mueller around the holidays. Trump’s lawyers have denied that he is considering such a move, and Trump himself has not directly criticized Mueller. However, Trump has recently expressed dissatisfaction with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, calling him “weak” and a threat. Along with those comments, the Washington Post reports that “Trump appeared to be contemplating changes in the Justice Department’s leadership.” In short, there’s a good chance that the guillotine is poised for Rosenstein, not for Mueller....

Removing Rosenstein and replacing him with a DAG who is at the very least more sympathetic to Trump could have drastic repercussions for the investigation. The new DAG could burden the special counsel with a requirement to provide an explanation for every move he makes and then decide that they aren’t necessary or appropriate. A new DAG would even have the ultimate, er, trump card: She could decide at some point that the investigation should not even continue at all...

Since Rosenstein is his own political appointee, Trump has great discretion in deciding whether to remove him, and he can do it quickly and directly. And by removing Rosenstein but not touching Mueller, Trump can claim that he is in fact not trying to interfere with the Russia investigation at all: Indeed, it could be very hard to prove otherwise, which insulates him significantly from further obstruction charges.

(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: mueller; muellerinvestigation; rodentstein; rosenstein; trump
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To: Alberta's Child

Their lack of recent legal experience appears to be no barrier to judgeships, Supreme Court nominations or DoJ employment if the entire Obama administration is used as an example.

And I don’t agree that Ann would be completely snubbed. The RINO front in the Senate confirmed Lynch, which they still have to answer for. If they could even consider Lynch and Holder, (the AA candidate and the Black Panther candidate), they sure as hell could give a “media personality” a reasonable consideration.

http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/239878-senate-votes-to-confirm-lynch-as-attorney-general

On the basis of intellect alone, the lapsed practice attornies could outdo the previous occupants of the AG position, to say nothing of a flunkie position like DAG.


41 posted on 12/18/2017 6:37:44 PM PST by Regulator
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To: Golden Eagle

Ah

So the backtracking and obfuscation begins

“I didn’t really mean what I said, you just thought I said what I mean’t”

Pretty obvious the whole thing’s a frame, isn’t it?


42 posted on 12/18/2017 6:39:52 PM PST by Regulator
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To: Golden Eagle
There are sound legal reasons to make a statement like that. Sessions added his own letter/memorandum to what Rosenstein posted.

The whole thing was probably done just to support a decision that had already been made before Donald Trump was even inaugurated.

43 posted on 12/18/2017 6:40:36 PM PST by Alberta's Child ("Tell them to stand!" -- President Trump, 9/23/2017)
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To: Golden Eagle

If you have any evidence of the Uranium One angle playing into the motivations of these characters today (Rosenstein, Mueller, Comey, etc.), I’d love to see it. I’ve seen plenty of wild speculation about this, but nobody has ever posted anything concrete at all.


44 posted on 12/18/2017 6:43:43 PM PST by Alberta's Child ("Tell them to stand!" -- President Trump, 9/23/2017)
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To: Regulator
I've yet to see an article or quote that leads me to believe Trump and Rosenstein have anything but disdain for one another.
45 posted on 12/18/2017 6:45:05 PM PST by Golden Eagle (Trump: "What the FBI has done is really, really disgraceful, and a lot of people are very angry.")
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To: Balding_Eagle

FR is one of their best outlets.


46 posted on 12/18/2017 6:46:37 PM PST by aspasia
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To: Alberta's Child

http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/355749-fbi-uncovered-russian-bribery-plot-before-obama-administration

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.

The investigation was ultimately supervised by then-U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein, an Obama appointee who now serves as President Trump’s deputy attorney general, and then-Assistant FBI Director Andrew McCabe, now the deputy FBI director under Trump, Justice Department documents show.

Both men now play a key role in the current investigation into possible, but still unproven, collusion between Russia and Donald Trump’s campaign during the 2016 election cycle. McCabe is under congressional and Justice Department inspector general investigation in connection with money his wife’s Virginia state Senate campaign accepted in 2015 from now-Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe at a time when McAuliffe was reportedly under investigation by the FBI. The probe is not focused on McAuliffe’s conduct but rather on whether McCabe’s attendance violated the Hatch Act or other FBI conflict rules.

The connections to the current Russia case are many. The Mikerin probe began in 2009 when Robert Mueller, now the special counsel in charge of the Trump case, was still FBI director.

The final court case also made no mention of any connection to the influence peddling conversations the FBI undercover informant witnessed about the Russian nuclear officials trying to ingratiate themselves with the Clintons even though agents had gathered documents showing the transmission of millions of dollars from Russia’s nuclear industry to an American entity that had provided assistance to Bill Clinton’s foundation, sources confirmed to The Hill.

The lack of fanfare left many key players in Washington with no inkling that a major Russian nuclear corruption scheme with serious national security implications had been uncovered.


47 posted on 12/18/2017 6:53:42 PM PST by Golden Eagle (Trump: "What the FBI has done is really, really disgraceful, and a lot of people are very angry.")
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To: Golden Eagle
The investigation was ultimately supervised by then-U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein, an Obama appointee who now serves as President Trump’s deputy attorney general ...

If this article can't even get simple facts straight then it has no credibility at all.

Rod Rosenstein was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Maryland District by George W. Bush in 2005.

48 posted on 12/18/2017 7:15:29 PM PST by Alberta's Child ("Tell them to stand!" -- President Trump, 9/23/2017)
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To: Golden Eagle

Slate tells how Trump can get mueller off the hook?

They all underestimated him

Hillary’s telling her flying monkeys how to put this thing to a screeching halt and wrap Trump up in the mess finally

They think hes stupid


49 posted on 12/18/2017 7:26:22 PM PST by stanne
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To: Golden Eagle

There has been a sea change in the political landscape. I’m not sure how many of them would survive such an obvious coup attempt.


50 posted on 12/18/2017 7:28:26 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (<img src="http://i.imgur.com/WukZwJP.gif" width=800>)
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To: Alberta's Child

John Soloman is arguably the best investigative reporter in the country right now, which you should be aware of, whether he made a mistake there or not.

But that is not material to the question you asked, which the rest of the article addresses. What specifically do you dispute, or do you believe that Mueller and McCabe and Rosenstein all supposedly running this investigation that ultimately led to uranium transfers to Russia if not Iran was all above board?


51 posted on 12/18/2017 7:28:30 PM PST by Golden Eagle (Trump: "What the FBI has done is really, really disgraceful, and a lot of people are very angry.")
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To: Golden Eagle
I see no evidence there about Rosenstein's involvement at all.

It's an article by a guy who you call the "best investigative reporter in the country." It references "Justice Department documents" but doesn't have any links to them or titles for them.

And if he can't get the simplest, most easily verifiable fact about Rosenstein correct, then what exactly makes you think anything else there is accurate?

I'm looking for something that would stand up as evidence -- not an article with vague references to unnamed documents. Even if everything he has said here is true, there is nothing here that is any more credible than an "unnamed source."

52 posted on 12/18/2017 7:45:17 PM PST by Alberta's Child ("Tell them to stand!" -- President Trump, 9/23/2017)
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To: Alberta's Child

The public story isn’t that far developed, as the FBI informant still hasn’t testified that we know of. But we do know that Mueller, McCabe and Rosenstein were responsible for the investigation, and the uranium sale still went through, which is reason enough to question why they are now given the ultimate responsibilty to investigate the President. At least for most people here, although we do have our share still defending them for some reason.


53 posted on 12/18/2017 7:56:41 PM PST by Golden Eagle (Trump: "What the FBI has done is really, really disgraceful, and a lot of people are very angry.")
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To: Golden Eagle
Your first sentence captures it perfectly. I don't think we've seen enough to make any solid determinations about this at all.

What I DO know is that Rosenstein was appointed by President Trump long after everything related to the Uranium One case took place. He hasn't been fired yet, and if he does get fired it will surely be for a damn good reason.

54 posted on 12/18/2017 8:02:39 PM PST by Alberta's Child ("Tell them to stand!" -- President Trump, 9/23/2017)
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To: Alberta's Child
My suggestion remains we try to get a new special counsel to investigate the DOJ, since they can't be trusted to investigate themselves.

That would result in both Mueller and Rosenstein having to resign in order to tend to that matter, and therefore remove most indications of bias and conflicts of interest in the investigation of Trump.

Baring that, Rosenstein and Mueller should not be allowed to continue unchecked.

55 posted on 12/18/2017 8:09:12 PM PST by Golden Eagle (Trump: "What the FBI has done is really, really disgraceful, and a lot of people are very angry.")
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To: Golden Eagle
Forget about another special counsel. Any investigation of the DOJ should come from a team of former prosecutors who work on Donald Trump's dime and report directly to him.

Rudy Giuliani has been conspicuously quiet since Election Day, hasn't he?

56 posted on 12/18/2017 8:14:43 PM PST by Alberta's Child ("Tell them to stand!" -- President Trump, 9/23/2017)
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To: bigbob

Closer to idle speculation than fake news.


57 posted on 12/18/2017 8:17:58 PM PST by dangus
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To: Alberta's Child
If that's legal, I'm all for it, but I'm pretty sure that's not the way the law works. But Rosenstein’s instant appointment of a deeply conflicted SC is abominable.

Hopefully an independent investigative special counsel will be assigned as soon as the IG report is out, but Mueller is likely a cornered snake ready to strike again soon, and it could be Trump's family next time, which could unleash a lot of new unexpected variables.

There's also a chance that Mueller folds his tent, as Trump is suggesting, but if he has skin in the uranium game etc he may be stuck playing to the last hand. The future of the country is on the table.

58 posted on 12/18/2017 8:39:42 PM PST by Golden Eagle (Trump: "What the FBI has done is really, really disgraceful, and a lot of people are very angry.")
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To: Golden Eagle

Trump just has to tell everyone who Mueller and company are.


59 posted on 12/18/2017 8:59:12 PM PST by minnesota_bound
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To: Golden Eagle
It doesn't matter how the law works. The intent of this approach wouldn't be to prosecute anyone, but to expose them and undermine them.

We may have reached the point where the only credible course of action is to dismantle the FBI entirely.

60 posted on 12/19/2017 1:55:22 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("Tell them to stand!" -- President Trump, 9/23/2017)
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