Posted on 06/18/2017 7:34:16 AM PDT by MaxistheBest
An attorney for President Trump was adamant on Sunday that the president is not under investigation, despite the presidents tweets this week referring to one as a "witch hunt."
Let me be clear here, said Jay Sekulow, a member of the presidents legal team, on NBC's Meet The Press. The president is not and has not been under investigation for obstruction."
On Friday morning, President Trump sent a tweet that seemed to confirm that he was under scrutiny, writing, I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt.
But Sekulow claimed the president wasnt referring to an actual investigation in the message, but instead a news report about one.
The tweet from the president was in response to the five anonymous sources purportedly leaking info to the Washington Post, he said, referring to the Posts report this week that Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russian interference in the election, now also includes a look at whether President Trump attempted to obstruct justice.
He's not afraid of the investigation there is no investigation, Sekulow said, adding, there is not an investigation of the President of the United States, period.
Sekulow on Sunday also acknowledged that the president was fully aware that if in fact he took this action, he would see a lengthening" of the amount of time it would take to get through the Russia investigation if James Comey was removed as FBI director, but still decided to move forward with firing Comey because he "thought it was in the best interest of the American people."
Also on Sunday's Meet The Press, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla, noted that one thing weve learned from the testimony of multiple people now is the president is pretty fired up about this" and doesn't believe that he did anything wrong. The president wants people to say that," he said.
Rubio is a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is doing its own probe into Russian election interference. He maintained that the presidents actions wont prevent any of the investigations from proceeding, and that getting to the bottom of what happened would benefit all involved, including President Trump.
This is is going to move forward, he said. We are going to get the full truth out there. I believe this is the thing that could happen for the president.
Yep. And when the cowardly GOP loses in Georgia on Tuesday, as they deserve to do, they’re going to blame it on Trump.
Quality Control would result in just another politically polished statement. The American people as a whole appreciate the “off the cuff” twitters of the president. He sounds like he would sound speaking to you directly, not through the politically correct filter we are so used to. Thepresident should NOT adhere to the demands of those who wish to shut him up unless he speaks from an approved script.
"When I decided to do it, I said to myself, 'this Russia Trump thing is a made up story, an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election'..." --
And here is the section from my blockquote at post 27
... when I decided to just do it, I said to myself -- I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story. It's an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election ...
I still don't understand your point. I don't know if you differ from the contention I made in post 27. I contend that the proposition that Trump, in the Holt interview, gave as a reason for firing Comey that he wanted "The Russian investigation" to end, is false).
I understand where you’re coming from, because that defiant attitude is what I probably appreciate about him best myself (although we haven’t seen much of it lately outside of Twitter). But just because he may need to reign that in slightly, people should understand it’s because his campaign, if not more, is being investigated by a special counsel, and what you say can hurt you if you’re not careful.
If he toned down his twitter some, or at least got the tweets to match what his lawyers said on TV, I wouldn’t jump to the conclusion he had permanently lost his steel marbles, I would just understand that there’s a witch hunt underway and he’s trying to keep it from getting any worse. Sometimes it’s best to fight something more with your brain, than with bombast.
Yes, of course he was thinking about "the Russia investigation." But a couple points, You haven't told us what you think "the Russia investigation" is. And without more, the fact that Trump is "thinking about it" is pointless. Of course he was thinking about it.
I've watched him for years now and I saw the interview this morning on Fox News Sunday.
Clearly he and Chris Wallace were not on the same wavelength for pretty much the entire interview. It was almost surreal watching Chris Wallace ask one question with one intent and Jay Sekulow answer a different question with the intent of setting the legal argument before him.
Whether Wallace didn't understand that Sekulow was separating the legal argument from the political implications, or Sekulow didn't clearly communicate (until the end) that he was differentiating the political and legal argguments I'm still somewhat unsure myself.
Like I said, it seemed somewhat surreal that they were both so far off page from each other.
That's how I see it anyway. I'll have to go back and watch it again.
All this corruption, deceit, collusion and even calls for his assassination coming in every direction, and you call for Trump to, “Tone it down”?
That’s very odd.
I did misread that you had included it, thanks for the correction. (facepalm)
I still don't understand your point...I contend that the proposition that Trump, in the Holt interview, gave as a reason for firing Comey that he wanted "The Russian investigation" to end, is false.
I agree he didn't directly say that he did it to make the investigation end, because he even said that he believed that firing Comey would drag the investigation out. But he did claim that "the Russia Trump thing" was at the forefront of his mind when he made the decision, which is what they've latched on to, and unfortunately his statement did tie Russia and Comey together, which he didn't need to do, nor should have.
>> Tell CNN that they will be banned
Tell AT&T you’re changing to Verizon because of its soon to be malevolent media property.
Two days ago, Rasmussen had President Trump sitting at 50% approval. That would mean in the last few weeks, President Trump's approval ratings have gone from the mid 30's to 50%.
Lends credence to your theory. The longer this goes on, the more Trump appears to be right and the public appears to be opening its eyes based on Rasmussen Polling (which has been historically pretty damn' accurate.)
No matter how Trump approaches his obstacles, somebody is going to opine that Trump's approach is wrong-headed; and others are going to say it's genius. The truth is somewhere in between, most of the time.
Only on twitter, where he comes off poorly at times, in my opinion, for a variety of reasons. If you go back and look at my posts from the last few days, you'll see where I have been calling for him to make more public appearances, and to be more forceful in them, where he has been PC of late.
What really set me off the other day was the speech he gave after the Republican Congressmen were shot. He was too PC, on MSNBC they were even saying it sounded just like what Obama would have said. I vented on here quite a bit that day about where was the old Trump, especially at a time like this?
So I'm calling for him to ramp it up, in person, and give more press conferences like those first few he gave, and stick to the issues. But on Twitter, town it down, and quit making disjointed and cryptic comments about the investigation that others have to try explain for you later.
No, you’re wrong. Trump don’t need to tone anything down in this endless cross fire of lies, corruption and collision...That is exactly what the leftist would love for him to do.
Not going to happen.
I don't agree with this, other than this is what his Twitter account is beginning to turn into. In person, he is typically very excellent, so he should be using the bully pulpit more than twitter, unless he can start coming off a little less driven by emotion when he uses it.
Maybe you should be supporting a more traditional career D.C. politician, like what we’ve had shoved down our throats for the past several decades.
I reject your "unfortunately." I know you hear and process things differently from the way I do, and I do agree that what Trump says can and will be twisted and misinterpreted in such a way that it can and will be used against him.
The way I take your remark, any connection in Trump's mind, between Comey and Russia, is bad. I submit that you are ascribing meaning to "Russia" there, without coming right and telling us the meaning that one should apply.
I submit that the meaning Trump has in mind is that Comey knows there is zero connection between Trump, personally, and Russia; and Comey refuses to make that known to the public, despite being asked to do so on numerous occasions. In fact Comey goes out of his way to stoke suspicion, rather than tamp it down. In other words, Comey is coyly insinuating to the public, using innuendo, that Trump might be dirty vis-a-vis Russia, even though Comey knows that is false.
If that is what Trump has in mind in associating "Russia" with "Comey," it is not unfortunate at all. The Holt interview, taken as a whole, paints the picture I summarized in my own words. At least it does to me.
We’ll see. On twitter he looks a little emotional if not unhinged at times, rather than the deep thinker he appears to be in person, which he should be showing us more. He needs to look like he has a plan, like he used to, rather than just lashing out in frustration.
Are you kidding me?
Maybe you don't get how twitter works. Its to put out short condensed comments to get a point across. It's certainly not a vehicle for lengthy on-going legal explanations and detailed diatribes.
I’ve been a supporter of Trump for many years, and am very glad he finally ran, and won the Presidency. He just needs to find his footing again, which has been thrown off by this witch hunt. Lashing out on twitter while giving PC speeches is a disconnect to me. FOX is just reporting he’s going to Iowa on Wednesday now for a rally, which is what he should be doing more of, getting back to his message, and showing himself in person, not just frantic text, which looks defensive, and emotional.
Jay Sekulow may be an attorney who is working for Donald Trump, but he's not functioning as his attorney when he appears on a TV show and makes arguments to a TV audience. It's a TV show, not a courtroom. If he's confident enough to say there's no investigation, then I'm willing to take his word for it.
That's not what I said at all, I said you were making the assumption that they were above reproach, and following DoJ protocol correctly, in order to further assume there is no investigation.
I know how lawyers work. Even if I didn't trust Rosenstein and Mueller, I'd tend to believe that they'd conduct himself within the limits of their professional responsibilities in a case like this. Donald Trump gets more popular with every pile of mud that is slung at him, so it doesn't do them any good to throw mud without any evidence behind it.
Rosenstein's statement was completely nondescript with regard to the context.
It had to be completely nondescript with regard to its context. The U.S. Department of Justice is not permitted to make public statements about its investigations. That not only means meets it can't leak information to the media about its own investigations, but it can't confirm or deny the accuracy of information that is being reported in the media.
The only reason the DOJ would ever issue a press release like the one you saw the other day is that it knows damn well that a bunch of lies have been reported in the media, but it can't come right out and say this. The general "don't believe everything you hear" message is the best they can do without breaching their own legal responsibilities.
I'm afraid the matter isn't completely settled.
In that case, you might want to turn off the TV, the radio and the internet for the rest of your life -- because you're always going to be seeing crap that isn't true but is put out there simply to cause you to live in a constant state of alarm.
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