Bill Of Impeachment: Article I, Obstruction Of Justice

[Big RR]

Always has been.

[ex-khobar Andy]

Trump's attorney, Rudy Giuliani, attempted to walk back the tweet early Wednesday afternoon, telling CNN's Dana Bash that Trump was "expressing his opinion on his favored medium for asserting his First Amendment right of free speech. He said 'should' not 'must' and no Presidential order was issued or will be."

And we all know that should = shouldn't. I'm OK with that.

[Econoline]

From Wonkette:

• ...one of the stranger idiosyncracies of this story, from reporting over the course of the last year, is that while the explanations and excuses and lies about the Trump Tower meeting have been constantly shifting, many have sort of accepted the framing from TrumpWorld that, regardless of how this meeting came into being or what it was about, it was entirely unproductive. Junior said this to Congress. May we suggest that, considering how they've been lying about every detail about this meeting from the very beginning, the claim that the meeting was a big nothingburger is probably also a gigantic lie?
  
  What if it was far more central to the conspiracy than we ever knew? And what other times did people from the Trump campaign meet with Russians about the stealing and dissemination of Hillary Clinton's emails? And who paid for it?
  
  WHAT DID THEY KNOW AND WHEN DID THEY KNOW IT?

[Bicycle Bill]

On the subject of impeachment:

• ► Two American presidents HAVE been impeached — Andrew Johnson and William Clinton.  Both were acquitted; Johnson by only one vote, Clinton by many.
  ► Richard Nixon was NOT impeached.  He resigned, because he knew that if he WERE impeached he would most likely have been removed from office.
  ► One Supreme Court justice, Samuel Chase, was impeached but not removed.  The accusation against him was that he was making partisan rulings; but ultimately the Senate decided that it was best to not impeach judges for the content of their rulings.  This decision is now known as the "Chase Rule".
  ► Lower-ranking judges have also been impeached, and thus far nine Federal Court judges have been removed by this process, all of them for things like bribery.
  ► One of those judges, Alcee Hastings, was impeached and removed for bribery and perjury.  Despite this record, he was elected to Congress by Florida voters in 1993, a seat he still holds today.

-"BB"-

[Lord Jim]

Trump is determined to keep Bob Mueller a busy boy; abuse of power anyone?:

Trump connects revoking Brennan's security clearance to Russia investigation

Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump drew a connection in a new interview between his decision to revoke former CIA Director John Brennan's security clearance with his involvement in the investigation into Russian election interference.

The comments, published in an interview in The Wall Street Journal Wednesday night, are in contrast to the White House's claim earlier in the day that the decision was not politically motivated but based on a view that Brennan, a harsh Trump critic, posed a security risk. Trump's remarks also raise the question of whether he is retaliating against those who investigated whether his campaign colluded with Moscow during the 2016 election, [Nah, of course not, how could anyone even think such a thing?] something he has repeatedly denied.

"I call it the rigged witch hunt, (it) is a sham. And these people led it!" Trump said in the interview, a full transcript of which was not immediately published by the newspaper. "So I think it's something that had to be done."

Trump cited Brennan as one of several national security officials he holds responsible for special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference. Brennan, who served under President Barack Obama, was one of the intelligence chiefs who signed off on the intelligence community's January 2017 assessment that Russia interfered with the intent to help Trump and to hurt Hillary Clinton.

Trump has cast doubt on the US intelligence community's assessment and whether Russia was behind the election meddling.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/16/politics ... index.html

Trump appears to be trying to "normalize" the idea of a President obstructing justice to protect himself by repeatedly engaging in it publicly and confessing to it publicly...

Either that, or he just can't help himself....

ETA:

It sounds like it would be a crazy thing to do, but I wouldn't put it past Trump, (since he always brings at least seven different kinds of crazy) to try to derail the Russiagate investigation by revoking Mueller's security clearance, and/or those of his staff investigators...

Because of the nature of what is being investigated, this would be an impossible investigation to conduct without high level security clearances...

[Big RR]

it sounds like he found Nixon's Watergate investigation response playbook and is following it to the letter; I hope no one tips him off to the ending before he reaches it.

[Sue U]

it sounds like he found Nixon's Watergate investigation response playbook and is following it to the letter; I hope no one tips him off to the ending before he reaches it.

Will Don McGahn play the role of John Dean? And who's going to play Martha Mitchell?

[Big RR]

Mitchell? Sarah Huckabee Sanders is due for a breakdown soon, so whe would be my bet.

Dean? McGahn could be; but I wouldn't rule out Sessions or even Pence (I'd include Carson, but he's too busy buying furniture to keep up with what's going on).

[Lord Jim]

Will Don McGahn play the role of John Dean?

NYT: White House counsel McGahn cooperated 'extensively' with special counsel probe

Washington (CNN)White House counsel Don McGahn has cooperated extensively with special counsel Robert Mueller's probe, participating in several interviews spanning 30 hours over the last nine months, The New York Times reported Saturday.

McGahn has provided "detailed accounts about the episodes at the heart of the inquiry into whether President Trump obstructed justice," including providing information that the Mueller team otherwise would not have learned about, the Times reported, citing a dozen current and former White House officials and other individuals briefed on the matter.

A source familiar with McGahn's thinking told CNN on Saturday that McGahn and Mueller's team had "several, several" hours discussions on at least three occasions. CNN previously reported there had been three interviews between McGahn and Mueller's team.

The Times reported that McGahn's decision to cooperate was partly due to the fact that the President's initial legal team had decided to fully cooperate with Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, believing their client had nothing to hide and they could bring a quick end to the probe. [But of course their client did and they couldn't, so that didn't work out so good...]

The source familiar with McGahn's thinking told CNN that the strategy of the President's legal team surprised those close to McGahn, who thought Trump's lawyers would have placed limits on an interview, or, if they refused to allow the interview outright, would have entered into a subpoena fight. There was a feeling that the President's legal team "opened the cupboard door" to everything, the source said.

McGahn became concerned that the President planned to set him up to be held responsible for any potential illegal incidents of obstruction, [Gee, that sounds familiar] the Times reported, citing to people close to him. So the White House counsel and his attorney came up with a strategy to cooperate as extensively as possible with the special counsel in order to prove that there was no wrongdoing by McGahn, the newspaper reported.

Two things we know for a fact regarding this:

1.It's a dead cert that Trump, a guy who thinks the Attorney General of the United States is supposed to be his personal defense lawyer, has no clue that the White House Counsel represents the office of the Presidency and not him. Therefore he would not realize that attorney-client privilege doesn't apply, and he would feel free to speak openly with McGahn, even if what he said could have criminal and/or Impeachable implications.

2.McGahn ain't taking a bullet for The Donald. He's already threatened to resign several times rather than take the fall doing Trump's dirty work, including refusing to fire Mueller...

[Lord Jim]

This is hilarious...

Can you spot which of these two tweets from Trump's account , on the same subject 13 hours apart, was actually written by the Orange One?

Donald J. Trump
‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump
13h13 hours ago

I allowed White House Counsel Don McGahn, and all other requested members of the White House Staff, to fully cooperate with the Special Counsel. In addition we readily gave over one million pages of documents. Most transparent in history. No Collusion, No Obstruction. Witch Hunt!

Donald J. Trump
‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump
15m15 minutes ago

The failing @nytimes wrote a Fake piece today implying that because White House Councel Don McGahn was giving hours of testimony to the Special Councel, he must be a John Dean type “RAT.” But I allowed him and all others to testify - I didn’t have to. I have nothing to hide......

Big Hint: The post from this morning misspells the word "Counsel"

The first post looks like it was written by somebody else, (maybe Rudy, or one of the real lawyers) who added Trump's stupid and dishonest "No Collusion, No Obstruction. Witch Hunt! " mantra at the end in order to make it appear that it was written by Dumbo...

The second post is pure Trump...

[ex-khobar Andy]

I came here to comment on 'Councel' (hadn't seen LJ's post)- he has a few times previously used Council when he means Counsel and been chided for it. It looks as if he has now made up an all purpose word to suit both occasions. Smart, that. Bigly smart.

[Lord Jim]

Lest anyone think that the misspelling was just a typo, he did it again in another tweet an hour later:

Donald J. Trump
‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump
4h4 hours ago

The Failing New York Times wrote a story that made it seem like the White House Councel had TURNED on the President, when in fact it is just the opposite - & the two Fake reporters knew this. This is why the Fake News Media has become the Enemy of the People. So bad for America!

Not what one would hope for ideally from a very stable genius who knows the best words...

Of course I'm sure there are Trumpanzees who will insist that's they way "counsel" is supposed to be spelled, and claims to the contrary are fake news...

[ex-khobar Andy]

The failing @nytimes wrote a Fake piece today implying that because White House Councel Don McGahn was giving hours of testimony to the Special Councel, he must be a John Dean type “RAT.” But I allowed him and all others to testify - I didn’t have to. I have nothing to hide......

Calling John Dean a RAT after all this time probably isn't that smart, either. Dean told the truth, despite having no promise of immunity. (And yes, I'm aware it's a longer story than that, but that's the gist.)

[Bicycle Bill]

I came here to comment on 'Councel' (hadn't seen LJ's post)- he has a few times previously used Council when he means Counsel and been chided for it. It looks as if he has now made up an all purpose word to suit both occasions. Smart, that. Bigly smart.

He's just following the lead of other Twatters.  Make up a word (like "bae" or "fleek"), or assign an existing word (like "woke") an entirely new meaning .... and then try to convince others to accept it.

-"BB"-

[Sue U]

Donald J. Trump
‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump
15m15 minutes ago

The failing @nytimes wrote a Fake piece today implying that because White House Councel Don McGahn was giving hours of testimony to the Special Councel, he must be a John Dean type “RAT.” But I allowed him and all others to testify - I didn’t have to. I have nothing to hide......

It is telling that Trump calls Dean -- the man who told the truth about Watergate, resulting in the loss of both his career and his liberty -- a "rat." Only criminals use such terms when referring to people who expose their crimes by telling the truth. Which is obviously why Trump and his lackeys are frantically trying to convince the public that "what you're seeing isn't happening" and "truth isn't truth." The shameless lying and gas-lighting by the Trump cabal is not only revolting, it is doing tremendous damage to the societal norms by which this country operates. At this point, the GOP leadership in Congress bears just as much of the blame as Trump himself.

[RayThom]

WOKE? I use it often... especially around my daughter's friends.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/woke

[Econoline]

From Wonkette:

• WHAT DID THEY KNOW AND WHEN DID THEY KNOW IT?

And yet another acid flashback...

[Econoline]

Yup. That's an excellent point.

[Burning Petard]

So the Trump Team says it's all 'he said, she said'; a perjury trap because Mueller will say Trump lies when they have contrary statements from somebody else. What kind of 'trap' is it when the story is 'Trump said, but Trump said'?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... eb6af88bfb

But of course everybody knows if it is in the Washington Post, it is automatically fake news, particularly when they are quoting POTUS.

snailgate.

[Guinevere]

WSJ reporting today that David Pecker, the publisher of the National Enquirer - and a friend of the so-called president and Attorney Cohen - has been granted immunity and will be cooperating with federal prosecutors.

I'm betting there are emails and/or texts directing Cohen and Pecker to pay off the ladies, covering up the affairs, for the purposes of winning the election.

I can't tell you how much I hope there are emails. Many many emails.