Fair enough. November will be the test, should she decide to endorse a candidate.ex-khobar Andy wrote:... So no; Hillary should not shut up.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/10/politics ... index.htmlNY Times: Trump looking at adding impeachment lawyer to WH team
Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump met with a lawyer who represented then-President Bill Clinton during the impeachment process and is talking with him about a role at the White House, The New York Times reported Saturday.
The Times, citing four people familiar with the matter, said Trump met with lawyer Emmet T. Flood in the Oval Office about joining the team as Trump and his allies continue to deal with the special counsel investigation led by former FBI Director Robert Mueller.
Two of the sources told the paper that no final decision had been made, and the Times said Flood joining the team would not replace White House lawyer Ty Cobb.
The apparent signal that Trump is preparing for the investigation to continue through the immediate future comes as Mueller's investigation has produced multiple indictments and as the President has seen the departure of key White House personnel.
The Times' report said Cobb has told friends he does not expect to remain in his job for much longer.
Flood's corporate profile outlines his experience in several high-profile legal fights, including the Clinton impeachment process and former Vice President Dick Cheney in a civil suit from former CIA officer Valerie Plame. [So Trump may also want Flood's expertise for the Stormy Daniels suit.]
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/15/politics ... index.htmlMueller subpoenas Trump Organization documents in Russia probe
Washington (CNN)Special counsel Robert Mueller has subpoenaed the Trump Organization for business documents, a source familiar with the matter told CNN on Thursday.
The New York Times, which first reported the development, said the subpoena included documents related to Russia. The reports mark the first publicly known time that Mueller has demanded documents related to President Donald Trump's businesses.
The subpoena is a sign that the Mueller investigation continues to pick up steam, even as Trump decries remaining questions about potential coordination between his associates and Russia and denies any wrongdoing.
Trump has said he would view any investigation of his or his family's personal finances that didn't involve Russia as a "violation" by Mueller that crosses a red line.
The Times said special counsel witnesses had been asked recently about a potential real estate deal in Moscow, and that investigators have questioned witnesses about the flow of money from the United Arab Emirates to the United States.
CNN has reported that George Nader, a Middle East specialist tied to secret meetings between the UAE and Trump associates, is cooperating with Mueller.
The Times report said the subpoena is related to records prior to Trump's run for office. CNN reported in January that the Trump Organization had provided documents largely from the period after Trump announced his run up to his inauguration.
The problem is that Trump has no viable exit strategy.
He's not enjoying himself. But then, to be fair, neither is anyone else.
My sense of this badministration is like watching a five year-old seated at the controls of a 747, pretending he's flying. The problem is, the plane is already in the air.
Impeachment does not seem to be a possibility unless the Democrats reclaim the House in 230 days. And even then, they don't take office until January of 2019. Which gives Donnie-Doo-Doo a couple of months to throw all kinds of monkey wrenches into the machinery.
And even if the Democrats can bring a bill of impeachment, 38 Republican votes in the senate are enough to keep the asshole in the White House where, emboldened by the failure to remove him, we get two more years of an even more out-of-control badministration. If you can imagine such a thing.
Nixon had an exit strategy. He resigned. He kept his pension — and eventually President Ford pardoned him. Trump might or might not care about his pension, but resignation doesn't solve his primary problem — all the evidence of the various crimes he committed during the election and while living in the White House. He can still be charged, tried, and convicted.
Impeachment is an embarrassment, resignation — well, he can blame the Democrats for that — but either way, he's going to spend the rest of his life in courtrooms. And possibly even jail.
The only exit strategy for Trump that would satisfy his ego would be a flight to Russia, seeking political asylum from all his enemies. Putin would put him up in a lavish dacha somewhere and use him as a trophy.
Of course, in that situation, the Republican party would come apart at the seams for failing to protect the nation from a Russian agent. And in that situation, we would end up with a new cold war, with many western nations eyeing Russia with the same kind of suspicion we did in the fifties.
We are facing a Constitutional crisis, one without real precedent. Worse than Watergate. Because at least in Watergate, we had Nixon, who was competent enough to understand that he had finally run out of options. Trump is simply not smart enough to understand that he cannot bully his way out of this mess. And it is unlikely that he will listen to wiser counsel — assuming there will be any wiser counsel left in that particular bunker.
Let me go off on a tangent here. Many years ago, a doctor named Eric Berne put forth a school of psychology called Transactional Analysis. [...to continue along Gerrold's tangent, and his eventual return to the subject of the end of Trump's pResidency, go here.]
Dowd resigns as Trump's lawyer amid disagreements on strategy
Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump's lead lawyer, John Dowd, has resigned from the President's personal legal team handling the response to the Russia investigation.
"I love the President and wish him well," Dowd said in a statement to CNN.
Dowd, who has urged the President to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller's probe and resist attacking him publicly (how'd that work out for ya?), resigned as his disagreements with Trump intensified and the President stepped up his attacks on the special counsel. His departure raises questions about the direction of Trump's legal strategy and could signal a more aggressive posture on Trump's part.
Just days before his resignation, Dowd said in a statement the investigation should end, initially claiming he was speaking for the President before saying he was only speaking for himself. Two sources familiar with the matter said Trump had encouraged Dowd to speak out. But the statement only drew unwanted headlines and stoked turmoil within the President's legal team, according to multiple sources.
One source familiar with the decision described Dowd's resignation as a "mutual decision."
Despite public claims that he was happy with him, Trump complained privately in recent days that he thought Dowd was falling short of his duties, a source familiar with his thinking said. He questioned whether he had the energy or capacity to continue on in his role as the lead lawyer for the special counsel's investigation. (could an army of lawyers muster the energy and capacity to keep ahead of the myriad ways that Trump finds to shoot himself in the foot in this investigation?)
It was not immediately clear who would take over as the President's lead personal attorney, but Trump earlier this week hired another veteran Washington attorney, Joseph diGenova, to join his legal team. DiGenova was expected to play a forward-facing role on the legal team, filling what Trump felt was a lack of voices publicly defending him and challenging the special counsel.
DiGenova had publicly argued that Trump had been "framed" by FBI and Justice Department officials. (sure - Page, Pappadopoulos, Flynn, Sessions, Kushner, Don Jr. et al were working on someone else's behalf while playing footsie with the
Russians)
Dowd's departure also raises questions about the fate of negotiations between the President's attorneys and the special counsel's team over a potential interview with the President as Dowd has been the main point of contact with the special counsel's team throughout the investigation. One source said there is concern about the void Dowd will leave in his wake, particularly as Trump has had trouble finding top-flight lawyers to join his legal team. (translation - no lawyer worth the name wants to tank his/her future career signing on to this dumpster fire)
Jay Sekulow, one of Trump's private attorneys, called Dowd a "friend" and said he "has been a valuable member of our legal team."
"We will continue our ongoing representation of the President and our cooperation with the Office of Special Counsel," Sekulow said in a statement.
The New York Times and The Washington Post first reported Dowd's resignation.
As the investigation seems to be intensifying, the President, according to multiple sources, is convinced he needs to take the reins of his own legal strategy (oh yeah, that sounds like a winning formula) and Trump has recently pushed to bring new attorneys onto his team.
The shift distressed some of his lawyers, namely Dowd, who felt blindsided and insulted by the President's hire of diGenova and other shifts, privately threatening to quit before ultimately resigning on Thursday, two sources said.
Trump had also continued to speak regularly with Marc Kasowitz, his longtime lawyer who stepped back from leading the team months ago but still remained involved.
Kasowitz had long recommended that Trump take a more aggressive posture toward the Mueller investigation. That strategy was on the backburner as Dowd and Ty Cobb, the White House's special counsel on the matter, worked with Mueller and urged the President to refrain from appearing to publicly undermine the Mueller investigation. Now that has all changed, as the President has reverted to his initial strategy to attack. An experienced cable news commentator, diGenova shares the President's view that the FBI and the Justice Department have waged a corrupt battle against him.
Dowd also faced criticism over his handling of the response to the guilty plea of Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who became the first Trump administration official to face charges in Mueller's investigation.
Dowd landed himself and the President in hot water after a tweet he says he authored suggested Trump knew Flynn lied to the FBI in January, reviving questions of whether Trump committed obstruction of justice when he allegedly asked then-FBI Director James Comey to drop the Flynn investigation.
"I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies," the tweet on Trump's account said.
The tweet led Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, to note that the committee is investigating obstruction of justice and said: "What we're beginning to see is the putting together of a case of obstruction of justice."
In a testy exchange with CNN, Dowd said he authored the tweet, but then suggested it was incorrect, claiming that "at the time of the firing no one including Justice had accused Flynn of lying."
He declined to answer additional questions, saying: "Enough already ... I don't feed the haters."
The response was characteristic of Dowd's hard-charging style, which initially endeared him to the President and made him the lead attorney on the President's legal team after Kasowitz was asked to step back in July.
The latest shake-up now leaves questions about whether Trump's legal team will pursue the strategy that Dowd laid out in the wake of Flynn's guilty plea, when Dowd claimed that Trump could not be prosecuted for obstruction of justice because he is the US President and therefore its "chief law enforcement officer."
Dowd's claim signaled the President's legal team plans to rely on an untested theory that is heavily disputed by legal scholars: whether a sitting President can be charged with obstruction of justice or indicted at all.
Impeachment is an embarrassment, resignation — well, he can blame the Democrats for that — but either way, he's going to spend the rest of his life in courtrooms. And possibly even jail.
Why can't he do the honorable thing and resign? Oh, wait, he's not honorable.
Lookout Kelly on the bridge of SS Trump: Sir! Captain, Sir!
Trump: What is it?
Kelly: It's the rats, Sir! The rats!
Trump: Dammit, Smelly Kelly, what about the rats?
Kelly: My God, Sir! THEY'RE ABANDONING SHIP! THE RATS ARE LEAVING THE SHIP!
Trump: ...
Kelly: ...
Trump: Ha hah! I win again!
Kelly: Um, I don't think that's correct.
Trump: Full speed ahead!
<meanwhile, below decks>
Communications Officer Sarah Huckabee Sanders prepares a press release: No other Captain in history has cleared a ship of rats like Donald Trump! It's smooth sailin' now...
The peal of a klaxon interrupts her: Aroooogah! Arooogah! All hands, batten down the hatches! There's a storm on the horizon. I repeat, it's going to get a little ... Stormy. Arooogah!
<To be continued...>
GOVERNMENT
John Dowd Resigns. And Now We’ll See The Power Of This Fully Armed And Operational Battle Twitter.
Trump's lead defense lawyer against the Mueller investigation is out. God help us all.
By Elie Mystal
Mar 22, 2018 at 12:03 PM
John Dowd has not covered himself in glory conducting Donald Trump’s defense against allegations that he colluded with Russian operatives and obstructed justice. He’s been seen on television making patently ridiculous legal arguments, and he’s been generally unable to control his client or prevent him from influencing an ongoing investigation. He gave reporters the finger (pictured).
In Dowd’s defense, we don’t know how many crazy tweets or despotic acts Dowd has been able to stop. But we’re about to find out. The New York Times reports that he is stepping down.
The scuttlebutt is that Dowd is stepping down over Trump’s increasingly aggressive tweets about the Mueller investigation. This tweet here seems to have been some kind of “red line” for Dowd:
Attacking the special counsel undermines the entire investigative process. But it’s also terrible legal strategy. As I’ve said before, the overriding goal of Trump’s legal team should be to keep him out of the witness box in front of a grand jury.17 Mar
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
The Fake News is beside themselves that McCabe was caught, called out and fired. How many hundreds of thousands of dollars was given to wife’s campaign by Crooked H friend, Terry M, who was also under investigation? How many lies? How many leaks? Comey knew it all, and much more!
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
The Mueller probe should never have been started in that there was no collusion and there was no crime. It was based on fraudulent activities and a Fake Dossier paid for by Crooked Hillary and the DNC, and improperly used in FISA COURT for surveillance of my campaign. WITCH HUNT!
8:12 PM - Mar 17, 2018
Cooperation is a key component of that process. If he gets in the box it is game over — Trump is simply not capable of telling the truth under intense questioning for hours on end.
Trump clearly wants to testify. Some will say that Dowd leaving only clears the way for that happening. And anybody who is excited about the prospects of the President of the United States perjuring himself might be momentarily happy that Dowd is gone. As a bonus, Ty Cobb — the singular voice of reason on Trump’s legal team — was brought in specifically by Dowd. With Dowd gone, Cobb cannot be long for this world.
But you have to play the tape through to the end. I imagine that Alan Dershowitz is checking his phone right now, waiting for a call up to the big leagues. But as of right now, the lawyer-in-charge would seem to be Joseph diGenova.
Folks, Joseph diGenova is a conspiracy theorist who believes that Trump is being framed by the FBI, Clinton supporters, and the “Deep State.”
If you like the “rule of law” or the “proper administration of justice,” diGenova is not the guy you want playing a leading role. Why would this guy allow Trump to testify in front of a grand jury he believes is a set-up? We can expect a full attack on the integrity of the special counsel, coming from all angles of TrumpWorld. We can expect full crazy.
And the tweets. Dear God, the tweets. It’s going to be every day now. Every day will be “witch hunt” this and “NO COLLUSION” that. Every day will be a call for Mueller to be fired. Every day will be the suggestion that the special counsel is sinister and can’t be trusted.
I know some of you think that we’ve been living in that world already, but we haven’t. It’s going to get so, so much worse now.
There’s still Jeff Sessions. The Confederate Attorney General remains as a bulwark against Trump prematurely ending the Mueller probe. Who knows how long he can hold out on that island? Even Vicksburg was eventually taken.
Our time of troubles continues.
John Dowd Resigns as Trump’s Lead Lawyer in Special Counsel Inquiry [New York Times]
FTFYTrump is simply not capable of telling the truth under intense questioning for hours on end
I agree re state charges, and they could be a considerable annoyance to him, but somehow people with money eventually make them go away (especially after they are out of the public eye). As for Pence choosing not to pardon him, that is possible, but I have seen no evidence of him having that sort of integrity. He certainly has to realize that, like Christie and many others, he has already sabotaged his career by hitching his star to Trump; thus, the only thing that could have any relevance to him is to be president for a couple of years to push his agenda. As for other republicans, most would welcome getting this off the front page and curtailing an investigation that might encompass some of them and their staffers; I think they would quietly cheer a pardon (some dems would do so as well, they way they (very) quietly cheered the Nixon pardon; once inquiries begin a lot more can be looked at and many have very unclean hands). this would put Pence in about the best position he could have for a couple of years.Econoline wrote:Because there would still be enough state charges and civil suits (which Pence could do nothing about) to keep Trump busy for the rest of his life and/or for the rest of his money, so resignation (as noted above) would not be a viable exit strategy. Also too, there might be more, and more serious, federal charges against against Trump than there ever were against Nixon so Pence might not get away with it (or, more importantly, he might not want to try getting away with it) without provoking some serious political and legal backlash. Pence, after all, has nowhere near the goodwill and support and likability that Gerald Ford enjoyed (from both parties) when he replaced Agnew.
https://www.politicususa.com/2018/03/26 ... bigly.htmlTrump Is Losing The Russia Investigation PR War Bigly
Trump was supposed to be a salesman, but with polls showing that the American people overwhelmingly support Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the Russia probe, the president is losing the sale on killing the investigation.
The latest Marist Poll provided the most concrete evidence that Trump is failing to turn the perception of the investigation in his favor.
According to the poll, “Nearly half of Americans (48%) perceive Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election to be fair. 26% think the probe is unfair, and 27% are unsure. Earlier this month, 51% reported the investigation was fair, 26% said it was not, and 23% were unsure. Nearly seven in ten Americans (69%) also think Mueller should be allowed to finish his investigation, similar to the 70% who had this opinion in early February. 12% think he should be fired, down from 16% previously. 19% are unsure. Regardless of demographic group, including Republicans, at least a majority believe Mueller should be allowed to conclude his investigation.”
Trump has spent his entire time in office undermining and obstructing FBI and Congressional investigations into the Russia scandal. After Mueller was appointed Special Counsel, Trump has continued to attack the FBI, but recently added Mueller’s investigation to his attacks. The president and his White House have a belief in what they see as the nearly mythical powers of Trump’s Twitter account, but the president’s attacking Robert Mueller isn’t changing the view that Mueller and the investigation must continue.
There is a message in this poll for congressional Republicans who have been helping Trump cover up the scandal. These accessories in Congress are not helping themselves or their political futures by killing or obstructing investigations and attacking the Special Counsel.
Trump is losing ground with each tweet, as the man who promised so much winning as a candidate can’t stop losing as president.
