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.
Hillary once bragged that she, alone, was brought into Putin's inner sanctum
where she assured Putin she was worried about wildlife like he was.
Putin whispered to Hilary that they were BFF.
Secy Hillary and Obama were eager to please Russia w/ the friendly reset button.
Hillary later said the reset gambit was Obama's and her idea "to strengthen Russia."
==============================================
Ex-Pres Clinton is s-o-o-o-o friendly he traveled to Russia to clinch the uranium giveaway deal.
And to pocket a $500,000 dollar speaking fee from a Moscow bank plus a sizeable commission.
Billyboo even laid his "Hot Damn Hokey Hillbilly Act" on Putin.
“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.”
Yes!!
Or he could just take the 5th,and say it’s because Mueller already has prosecuted a guy - Flynn - for lying to the FBI, even though the FBI said he did not lie.
He called their bulls*t.
Apparently called them liars in open court.
Maybe the tide is starting to slowing turn in Trump's favor.
I don't understand why these deadlines to produce an already existing document are so long.
Two weeks to produce 10,000 documents, maybe. But two weeks to produce one single document? Unreal.
The impeachment threat is from Republicans, not Democrats.
The Democrats are just useful idiots for Ryan (Romney) and McConnell (Bush).
Two weeks to produce is ridiculous. How about, Produce it by COB today or this case is dismissed with prejudice!
The president of the United States is not answerable to that schmuck.
Mueller effectively gave up any chance he had of interviewing Trump when the FBI raided the office of Trump's lawyer in New York.
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.
The bold item above is critical here. If Mueller's prosecutors already know the answers to the questions they want to ask Trump, then they don't need to question him in the first place.
This is why I suspect there would be no legal grounds to issue a subpoena in the first place.
I do like Pat Buchanan but, as with everyone who attempts to steer Donald Trump “for his own good” or for the Good of America, it is chasing after wisps and in the wrong direction. Donald Trump is on top of all of it. The truth is that if he can’t win then no one on America’s side can win and Utopia will be upon us within a year after his fall. We have necessarily put all of America’s eggs in that one Trump basket. We have to ride with it to its denouement. If he is shattered then get your weapons to hand. There will be a lot of use for them. We cannot add to his tactics except by our support. If we try to advise him what to do or try to steer him from what we fear he might do then we admit there was no good choice last November and He buys us only four years, not the quarter century Reagan got us. I thought there was no hope after Reagan left office because I thought there could be only one Reagan in a century or maybe a millennium and we had used up our ration for thrice that time because he had three at the same time, RR, Maggie and JPII, but then there is Trump.
Yup, damn the court and shame on them if they interfere in what amounts to a political argument.
I know we’re getting closer and closer to the weasel Rosenstein being fired and perhaps the weasel Sessions being fired sometime later.
All this will happen when the investigation is closed or at least closed in the eye of the public. It’s time to show them what happens when you take pot shots at the President.
Yes, ‘Let Trump be Trump’.
That slogan was posted in his campaign office.
” trump should demand articles of impeachment . . . “
I argued the same point here a week ago and my post/suggestion got pulled.
Trump should tell them to put up or shut up.
If I were Trump I’d go right up to Rosenstein’s desk and demand to see the Scope notes that started this investigation travesty.
Every defendant has the right to know what he is being accused of.
Trump can demand to see it, declassify it, and reveal it to the public.
Or he can have Giulani go to Rosenstein or Sessions and demand its release.
Be a shame if Mueller had an accident.
I haven't figured out yet whether Trump is playing Nd chess or isn't fully aware of the awesome executive powers at his disposal to get the DoJ and FBI to immediately declassify, unredact, and deliver all documents requested by the Congress and Judiciary.
“Be a shame if Mueller had an accident.”
Yeah, send him Pheasant hunting with former VP, Dick Cheney. Only this time load the shotgun with 00 Buck!
“I don’t understand why these deadlines to produce an already existing document are so long.”
Well, I refer you to a “vote” in the US Senate. Something that should take 5 minutes, tops with 100 buttons, takes an hour and a half ( if you’re lucky) while these worthless pr!cks socialize in the Senate Chamber playing “after you, no after you” to have their votes recorded.
I would be tempted to hire the very best ex-spooks to find all the dirt on Mueller and Weissmann and simply go public with it: no implicit or explicit blackmail, just scorched earth without warning. These two have many bodies buried.
I am not saying it would be the best thing to do. I am saying that I would be tempted if I were a billionaire who was being abused like this under the color of law.
Sadly we will never prosecute and convict these criminal bastards, and they will be back again with a vengeance in 7 years or so
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