Posted on 05/04/2018 3:32:54 PM PDT by Kaslin
Charges against Trump are to be brought, this is the arena, this is the forum, where the battle should be fought and the fate and future of the Trump presidency decided.
The goal of Mueller's prosecutors is to take down Trump on the cheap. If they can get him behind closed doors and make him respond in detail to questions -- to which they already know the answers -- any misstep by Trump could be converted into a perjury charge.
Trump has to score 100 on a test to which Mueller's team has all the answers in advance while Trump must rely upon memory.
Why take this risk?
By now, witnesses have testified in ways that contradict what Trump has said. This, plus Trump's impulsiveness, propensity to exaggerate, and often rash responses to hostile questions, would make him easy prey for the perjury traps prosecutors set up when they cannot convict their targets on the evidence.
Mueller and his team are the ones who need this interrogation.
For, after almost two years, their Russiagate investigation has produced no conclusive proof of the foundational charge -- that Trump's team colluded with Vladimir Putin's Russia to hack and thieve the emails of the Clinton campaign and DNC.
Having failed, Mueller & Co. now seek to prove that, even if Trump did not collude with the Russians, he interfered with their investigation.
How did Trump obstruct justice?
Did he suggest that fired NSC Advisor Gen. Mike Flynn might get a pardon? What was his motive in firing FBI Director James Comey? Did Trump edit the Air Force One explanation of the meeting in June 2016 between his campaign officials and Russians? Did he pressure Attorney General Jeff Sessions to fire Mueller?
Mueller's problem: These questions and more have all been aired and argued endlessly in the public square. Yet no national consensus has formed that Trump committed an offense to justify his removal. Even Democrats are backing away from talk of impeachment.
Trump's lawyers should tell Mueller to wrap up his work, as Trump will not be testifying, no matter what subpoena he draws up, or what the courts say he must do. And if Congress threatens impeachment for defying a court order, Trump should tell them: Impeach me and be damned.
Will a new Congress impeach and convict an elected president?
An impeachment battle would become a titanic struggle between a capital that detests Trump and a vast slice of Middle America that voted to repudiate that capital's elite, trusts Trump, and will stand by him to the end.
And in any impeachment debate before Congress and the cameras of the world, not one but two narratives will be heard.
The first is that Trump colluded with the Russians to defeat Hillary Clinton and then sought to obstruct an investigation of his collusion.
The second is the story of how an FBI cabal went into the tank on an investigation of Clinton to save her campaign. Then it used the product of a Clinton-DNC dirt-diving operation, created by a British spy with Russian contacts, to attempt to destroy the Trump candidacy. Now, failing that, it's looking to overthrow the elected president of the United States.
In short, the second narrative is that the "deep state" and its media auxiliaries are colluding to overturn the results of the 2016 election.
Unlike Watergate, with Russiagate, the investigators will be on trial as well.
Trump needs to shift the struggle out of the legal arena, where Mueller and his men have superior weapons, and into the political arena, where he can bring his populous forces to bear in the decision as to his fate.
This is the terrain on which Trump can win -- an us-vs-them fight, before Congress and country, where not only the alleged crimes of Trump are aired but also the actual crimes committed to destroy him and to overturn his victory.
Trump is a nationalist who puts America first both in trade and securing her frontiers against an historic invasion from the South. If he is overthrown, and the agenda for which America voted is trashed as well, it may be Middle America in the streets this time.
“Trump’s lawyers should tell Mueller to wrap up his work, as Trump will not be testifying, no matter what subpoena he draws up, or what the courts say he must do. And if Congress threatens impeachment for defying a court order, Trump should tell them: Impeach me and be damned. “
That’s PRECISELY what I have been saying on this forum for over two weeks.
Once there was no Russian collusion the idea of Muller creating this perjury trap becomes pretty outrageous.
I’ve even toyed with the idea that trump should demand articles of impeachment right now so every Democrat has to go on record voting for or against that would enrage their base if they vote against and they will still lose elections with the American people if they vote for.
JUST FIRE HIM ALREADY!
Who will care, except the usual suspects? And they hate him already!
His base will cheer.
“JUST FIRE HIM ALREADY!”
No need to fire him.
Just cut him off from any further communication and pretend he does not exist.
If he gets that court order, ignore it.
Actually, this President would be entirely in his rights to do a whole lot more to Mueller than simply defy him.
I’ll leave it at that.
Trump should make a very public appointment to meet Mueller and his team
Then don’t show up.
Claim afterwards he got a call from the mayor of Hopscotch ND which he had to take instead.
I really fear that Trump will meet with Mueller. Why? Who knows? everything else Trump has done so far leads me to think he will do it.
I think Trump is strong enough now to call their bluff. Fire Sessions, Rosenstein, and Mueller, bing bang bong.
Giuliani can take over for all three of them.
And dare congress to do its worst.
I don’t always agree with Pat but this is an excellent article.
Remember that our Government sent Martha Stewart to the pen for a “process crime” with no underlying offense.
Here is the biggest thing that people miss. If they ask Trump about his meeting with Comey and in the interview Trump tells the truth but the truth disagrees with one of the Comey memos, Mueller will indict Trump and let the courts and impeachment sort it out. He has a sworn memo from when Comey was FBI director prior to the firing, why should he not let the court be the finder-of-fact as to who told the truth. He will issue an indictment just because he can — he won’t look for the truth. All the media will say he did a good job.
No one could be “smart enough” to survive such an interview. It is already a fix.
Order RR to release the memo, UNREDACTED, and immediately, first.
When people like you make so much sense I wish this forum were read by everyone.
You have been ahead of the curve.
Keep at it.
Trump should demand a real investigation of Russian collusion.
Fusion was simultaneously contracted to Russia and DNC. And they are tied at the hip with DOJ.
The famous “Russian lawyer” was Fusion, and brought into the country by Preet Bharara, who was DOJ til Trump fired him. She was there officially to work with Fusion, and she met Fusion immediately before and after her meeting with Trump, same day.
If we believe the official story, the infamous “dossier” came from Russian sources, though I doubt that.
The $12 million that was supposedly paid for the dossier... where did that money go? This was product of an afternoon’s work. This smells a lot like money laundering to me.
The Clintons’ brain and fixer, John Podesta, was contracted to Russia, and he was a shareholder in a company owned by Putin.
And of course the Clintons have received major cash from Russia, both directly and through their foundation.
In return for which they steered the uranium sale, which was investigated by Mueller and blessed with his silent acquiescence.
I always wonder: the Clintons collected supposedly some $140 million for facilitating the uranium sale. But in the end, it required Obama’s permission. So did some of this get laundered back to him, or did he get his own pot of money?
” ... it may be Middle America in the streets this time.”
The swamprats don’t want that. They may not realize it yet but they don’t want that.
Time is long overdue for Trump to give it to Mueller straight and direct. New York style.
"Fish or cut bait." "Sh*t or get off the pot." "Put up or shut up." Or my personal favorite in-your-face-taunt, "Time for talkin' is over. Time to show what ya' got."
Trump needs to defy Mueller like Buchanan advises. But he also needs to give Rosenstein and Mueller some marching orders.
Ya' got two weeks to wrap this extended vacation up and submit your final report to the DOJ and Congress. Otherwise, you'll suffer the consequences.
If they don't do it, fire them. It's over with anyway.
“it may be Middle America in the streets this time”
I believe AB! is already on top of this...
Obama and Hillary’s major flopola----the much-mocked “Russian reset button”----- established the tone for Obama and the Clintons’ coziness with the Kremlin.
BACKSTORY On March 6, 2009, during a trip to Geneva, she presented Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov a small, red button. Halfrican Obama, and Secy Hillary thought it was emblazoned with the Russian word for “reset.” The button actually read “overload.” Nonetheless, Clinton and Lavrov jointly pressed the symbolic button. A new era in US–Russian relations had begun.
THE OBAMA/HILLARY RUSSIAN LOVE AFFAIR---While visiting Moscow on March 24, 2010, Secy Hillary explained the Reset Button’s purpose: “Our goal (meaning Obama and the State Dept) is to help strengthen Russia.”
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No need to ask Obama and Clinton about their Russian connections-----the paper trail is long and wide.
HILLARY'S STATE DEPT----AND THE OBAMA YEARS---UNRELENTING SCANDAL / By Ari Lieberman
EXCERPT The taxpayer financed-Skolkovo Scandal – While serving as secretary of state, Clinton oversaw a program meant to “reset” relations with Moscow and improve ties. The program centered around the Russian city of Skolkovo near Moscow with the stated aim of “identifying areas of cooperation and pursuing joi nt projects and actions that strengthen strategic stability, international security, economic well-being, and the development of ties between the American and Russian people.”
Hillary's State Dept program transformed Skolkovo into a technology hub akin to a Silicon Valley. Sensitive American technology was transferred to the Russians, substantially enhancing their military and cyber capabilities. The US Army and the FBI concluded that Russia had exploited the program for military applications. The FBI warned American technology companies doing business in Skolkovo that the Skolkovo project was a means by which the Russians would acquire dual use technologies and apply them for military ends. According to investigative author Peter Schweizer, Russian and American companies and individuals involved in the Skolkovo fiasco “had major financial ties to the Clintons.”
Moreover, during the Russian reset period, those entities provided the Clintons with “tens of millions of dollars” in the form of “contributions to the Clinton Foundation, paid for speeches by Bill Clinton, or investments in small start-up companies with deep Clinton ties.” (hat tip frontpagemagazine.com)
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