THIS JUST IN...Special Counsel Appointed For Russiagate...

[Lord Jim]

BREAKING: Former FBI Director Robert Mueller appointed as special counsel to oversee Russia investigation, Deputy AG Rosenstein says.

https://twitter.com/ABC?ref_src=twsrc%5 ... r%5Eauthor

Looks like a really good pick...

[BoSoxGal]

I'm comforted by the choice. Glad the DOJ saw the need of it!

[Lord Jim]

Robert Mueller appointed special counsel

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller to serve as special counsel to oversee the previously confirmed investigation of Russian efforts to influential the 2016 Presidential election and related matters.

"I have determined that a Special Counsel is necessary in order for the American people to have full confidence in the outcome," Rosenstein said in a statement.

The appointment comes as numerous Democratic lawmakers have called for a special counsel, colloquially known as a special prosecutor. Such calls increased in recent days after Mr. Trump fired FBI Director James Comey. On Tuesday, it was revealed the Comey had written a memo alleging that Mr. Trump had asked him to back off from investigation former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

Special counsels are given broad investigatory power and conduct much of their work in secret.

Mueller was appointed FBI director in 2001 and served in the position until 2013. FBI directors are appointed to ten-year terms, but President Barack Obama added two years to his tenure.

A career prosecutor and veteran of the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, Mueller is a widely respected figure in Washington.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/doj-appoint ... elopments/

On the night of March 10, 2004, as Attorney General John D. Ashcroft lay ill in an intensive-care unit, his deputy, James B. Comey, received an urgent call.


White House Counsel Alberto R. Gonzales and President Bush's chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr., were on their way to the hospital to persuade Ashcroft to reauthorize Bush's domestic surveillance program, which the Justice Department had just determined was illegal.

In vivid testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday, Comey said he alerted FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III and raced, sirens blaring, to join Ashcroft in his hospital room, arriving minutes before Gonzales and Card. Ashcroft, summoning the strength to lift his head and speak, refused to sign the papers they had brought. Gonzales and Card, who had never acknowledged Comey's presence in the room, turned and left.

The sickbed visit was the start of a dramatic showdown between the White House and the Justice Department in early 2004 that, according to Comey, was resolved only when Bush overruled Gonzales and Card. But that was not before Ashcroft, Comey, Mueller and their aides prepared a mass resignation, Comey said. The domestic spying by the National Security Agency continued for several weeks without Justice approval, he said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 00864.html

Rod Rosenstein did a lot to redeem himself with this one; it's tough to imagine a more solid choice of unimpeachable (no pun intended) integrity than Mueller...(The revelations from Comey about Trump trying to get him to drop the Flynn investigation must have been the last straw for Rosenstein; as recently as last week he was saying that he didn't see the need to appoint a Special Counsel)

And Mueller's vast experience within the Bureau means he will be able to really hit the ground running...

Lord Dampnut's usual orange hue has probably changed to a rage filled crimson...

[BoSoxGal]

Now WashPo is breaking news of a recording from last spring/summer with GOP leadership speculating about candidate Trump being on Putin's payroll.

Only a joke, McCarthy's now saying.


Sure . . .

[Lord Jim]

Actually, I think that probably was a joke...

It was said the day after the Podesta emails started coming out, and Kevin McCarthy would have had absolutely no way of having any real knowledge of Trump's relationship with Putin.

McCarthy had no ties to Trump or the Trump campaign; he didn't even endorse him till after he had wrapped up the nomination...

Plus apparently McCarthy has a reputation for having a pretty sarcastic sense of humor...

This one looks like a non-story to me.

[ex-khobar Andy]

I am watching Anderson Cooper, Dana Bash, Jeffrey Toobin and Alan Dershowitz discussing this. Not sure this is what we really want. The overall point is that the special prosecutor/counsel function is to find evidence of illegality. In effect Trump's idiocies are, for the most part, not illegal. As an example, he may have given info to the Russians. Unwise, stupid, unthoughtful, incompetent, etc but not necessarily illegal. Per Dershowitz there can be only two outcomes: a prosecution or no prosecution. And it could take months or even years. If there is no recording of Trump's meeting with Comey (in which Trump allegedly tried to persuade Comey to drop the Flynn investigation) then it's Comey's word against Trump's. I know whom I would believe; but a prosecutor might not be convinced that a jury would see it that way and would not therefore seek an indictment. This could be a total damp squib.

[Big RR]

Except do you really think a guy like Trump thinks enough to cover his tracks? Somehow I doubt he does and the investigator may well find more evidence of wrongdoing. At the very least, his supposed political agenda will be significantly stalled pending the outcome of the investigation (no wall, no Obamacare repeal, no tax "reform")--and the republican reaction to anything the investigation uncovers could well have a significant effect on the midterm election. Kind of like Clinton with the investigations and ultimate impeachment; I'd bet few seriously thought he would be removed from office, but it pretty much stopped him in his agenda (to the extent he still had any) and tarred many deems with the same brush. It took Clinton more than 4 years to get to that point (same for Nixon); it took Trump 4 months--there's a record for you.

[Scooter]

If they really want to impeach him, just subpoena him to testify under oath. His abject inability to distinguish fiction from reality will cause him to perjure himself about something completely insignificant and yet easily disprovable, and there will be something to hang him on.

[Big RR]

Unfortunately, the point is not to find something to hang him on, the point is to find something serious enough that 2/3 of the senate will vote to remove him, including a significant number of senators from his own party. And right now that's highly unlikely.

[Scooter]

The desire to remove him will probably depend not so much on the seriousness of any offence, but on how much of an albatross they perceive him to be around their necks. Which makes the actual means of getting rid of him inconsequential.

[Lord Jim]

I am watching Anderson Cooper, Dana Bash, Jeffrey Toobin and Alan Dershowitz discussing this. Not sure this is what we really want.

I watched those folks yesterday, (and some others as well) and some seemed to be talking about the Mueller investigation as though it some how stops the other processes, and that's not how it works.

A number of times over the past 40 years, there have been Independent or Special Counsels doing their investigative work simultaneously with Congressional investigations. (They draw from a lot of the same evidence but they have different objectives.) It's never been an "either/or" proposition and it was made clear yesterday it wont be now:

Lawmakers’ Russia probes to continue despite appointment of special counsel

Congressional investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election will continue despite the Justice Department’s decision to appoint a special counsel to oversee a separate probe, lawmakers said late Wednesday.

Republicans and Democrats welcomed the decision to appoint Robert Mueller, a former prosecutor who served as FBI director from 2001 to 2013, but said their own investigations would proceed without delay.

“Our task hasn’t changed,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) told reporters.

“This is a good decision,” he said of Mueller’s appointment. “By having someone like Bob Mueller head whatever investigation assures the American people that there’s no undue influence — be it here or be it at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue or within the Justice Department or FBI.”

Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein will brief the full Senate Thursday on Trump’s firing of FBI Director James B. Comey — an event that triggered a wave of controversy for the White House starting last week.

Congressional Republicans had spent much of Wednesday increasing pressure on the administration to produce records related to the latest string of controversies involving Trump, amid flagging confidence in the White House and a growing sense that scandal is overtaking Trump’s presidency.

Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) said his priority is to ensure investigations “follow the facts wherever they may lead.”

“The addition of Robert Mueller as special counsel is consistent with this goal, and I welcome his role at the Department of Justice,” he said in a statement.

Attention on Capitol Hill is now expected to focus on when Comey might testify publicly before lawmakers.

In a nod to strong interest from lawmakers, Burr and ranking Democrat Mark Warner (Va.) asked Comey on Wednesday to testify in both open and closed sessions.

Comey, who was leading an investigation into Russia before Trump fired him last week, wrote in a memo that Trump had pressured him to drop an investigation against former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn earlier this year.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) also invited Comey to speak at a hearing next Wednesday.

Praising Mueller’s “impeccable credentials,” Chaffetz said his panel’s efforts to probe Trump will continue.

“We’re still moving full steam ahead,” Chaffetz he told The Washington Post. “We will still want to see the memos and I’m still waiting to hear from director and confirm his appearance at the hearing.”

In an interview prior to the Mueller announcement, Chaffetz said Republicans had texted to thank him Tuesday night after he requested Comey’s notes from the FBI.

The appointment took place against the backdrop of mounting controversy for the Trump White House. The president and his aides are now grappling with the repercussions of Comey’s firing, as well as the revelation Trump disclosed highly classified information to Russian officials and pressured Comey to drop the Flynn investigation.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had broken his silence on the Comey affair Wednesday to say that lawmakers “need to hear from him as soon as possible.”

“I think we need to hear from him about whatever he has to say about the events of recent days, as soon as possible, before the Senate Intelligence Committee, in public,” McConnell said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

Meanwhile, leaders of the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary committees asked the FBI to hand over Comey’s notes about his communications with the White House and senior Justice Department officials related to the Russia investigation.

Judiciary Committee leaders also asked the White House to provide any records of interactions between Trump officials and Comey.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpos ... 9765cdf50f

There was already a strong FBI investigation going on along with the Congressional investigations before Comey was fired, and now with the appointment of Mueller as Special Counsel, that investigation is going to grow even more robust.

Additionally this appointment will also greatly raise the public focus of all of this, and if anything create even more pressure for Congress to vigorously pursue its own investigations.

There's a three-way synergy that gets built up in these kinds of situations, and it's already clearly in play here. It's a synergy between Congressional investigations and the Criminal investigations as they pursue their different missions,(evidence gathered has already been flowing from the FBI to the Congressional investigations and vice versa; nothing about the Mueller appointment is going to impede this; in fact it may accelerate.) and investigative journalists pursuing their jobs. (This is also a very important element, and it has played an essential role here, and will continue to do so.)

All of Trump's efforts to impede, obstruct and derail these investigations are ending in tears. Everything he has done has had the exact opposite effect of the one he intended.

He got Devin Nunes involved in some stupid Kabuki dance to try to to derail the House Intel Committee investigation, and the result was that Nunes is now out as Chair of that investigation and and the House inquiry is becoming re-invorated, (Joining the Senate Intel Committee, which already appears to be doing its job on a proper, bipartisan basis)

He fires Comey, and winds up with a Special Counsel. (And not just any Special Counsel; Bob Mueller, the most qualified and independent minded person one could possibly imagine for the job)

Despite all of Trump's efforts to undermine and subvert the institutions of our Constitutional democracy and the pursuit of justice, our system is showing itself to be stronger than he is.

That is really good news for the country, and really bad news for Donald Trump...

[Lord Jim]

If they really want to impeach him, just subpoena him to testify under oath.

I thought about that, (and personally I would love to see it) but it seems to me that compelling a President to testify under oath before a Congressional committee could raise serious separation of powers issues. If they tried that and he fought it, I could see a strong argument to be made on that basis, and I think he would have a very good chance of prevailing in the courts.

On the other hand, there is nothing to prevent a President from testifying under oath voluntarily before a Congressional committee. (Gerald Ford did exactly that, testifying under oath before the House Judiciary Committee under oath after he pardoned Nixon. In fact, Ford wasn't even asked; he requested to do so)

Obviously the chances of Trump volunteering to testify under oath are extremely remote.

(But maybe they can taunt him into doing it, like Peter Stone did to the Trump-inspired character Frank Linden on this week's episode of Chicago Justice... )

[Lord Jim]

Well now, this is a shocking development...

After a measured and subdued statement that was released on his behalf last night, this morning Il Boobce is back to his old tweetin' ways:

Trump Calls Himself the Victim of a ‘Witch Hunt’

WASHINGTON — President Trump lashed out Thursday, saying he was the target of an unprecedented witch hunt, a day after the Justice Department appointed a special counsel to investigate ties between his presidential campaign and Russian officials.

In a pair of early morning Twitter posts, Mr. Trump cited, without evidence, what he called the “illegal acts” committed by the administration of his predecessor, Barack Obama, and the campaign of his former opponent, Hillary Clinton — and said they never led to the appointment of a special counsel. He misspelled the word counsel as councel.

“With all of the illegal acts that took place in the Clinton campaign & Obama Administration, there was never a special councel appointed,” Mr. Trump said.

Moments later, Mr. Trump added, “This is the greatest single witch hunt of a politician in American history!”

The posts, shortly before 8 a.m., were a stark contrast to his muted reaction to the announcement on Wednesday evening that Robert S. Mueller III, a former F.B.I. director, had been named to investigate ties between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.

In a statement released by the White House, the president said, “As I have stated many times, a thorough investigation will confirm what we already know — there was no collusion between my campaign and any foreign entity. I look forward to this matter concluding quickly.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/18/us/p ... -hunt.html

[Big RR]

Well, perhaps he's possessed by the ghost of Nixon? Nah, he's even more paranoid.

[Joe Guy]

[RayThom]

Here's Putin's submission to the State Department of the Trump/Russian Oval Orifice transcripts:

[MajGenl.Meade]

Oh now, Joe... wesw wanted me to speak to the other side of your brain with this message from Da Trumpfofdewill: "Mandola only became a politician after he was released from St. Helena. Before that, he was a herd-boy, student, lawyer, revolutionary and caught in the (planning) act. But he's a great man... a great man... a man much like myself and I'm only saying what other folks are saying there. Lincum ... another great man, such as me am ... Linconl supports Mandola and so do I. Making Argentina great again! But... you know... as President there in Quito, Mandoola did pretty well... very comfortable and famous all over Asia."

[Lord Jim]

Once again, Captain Queeg does his bit to help strengthen the case for The 25th Amendment Option:

Trump: Special counsel appointment 'hurts the country'

President Trump on Thursday slammed the appointment of a special counsel to probe his campaign’s alleged ties to Russia as something that “hurts the country.”

“I believe it hurts the country terribly, because it shows we’re a divided, mixed-up, not-unified country,” [psst...Donald...it's not the country that's "mixed up"...] the president said during a luncheon with television news anchors at the White House, according to a transcript of the meeting.

It's the second time that Trump has ripped the decision since Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced he was making former FBI Director Robert Mueller a special counsel for the investigation.

On Thursday morning, Trump proclaimed it was a "witch hunt."

Lawmakers in both parties have praised the decision to appoint a special counsel and have been unanimous in their approval of Mueller's appointment.

But Trump sought to paint the entire investigation as a politically motivated tool his opponents are using to undermine his victory in the presidential election.

“It also happens to be a pure excuse for the Democrats having lost an election that they should have easily won because of the Electoral College being slanted so much in their way,” he said. “That’s all this is.”[ So Rod Rosenstein, the Deputy AG that Trump himself appointed, who was so widely respected that even in this political environment he was confirmed by the Senate 94-6, and who just a week ago Trump was praising for his "intelligence and integrity" is somehow facilitating a "witch hunt" at the behest of Democrats sore at about losing the election... ]

The president lamented that the Russia probe is sucking up oxygen in Washington, preventing his agenda from moving forward.

“We have very important things to be doing right now, whether it’s trade deals, whether it’s military, whether it’s stopping nuclear — all of the things that we discussed today,” he said. “And I think it shows a divided country.”

He expressed hope the investigation “can go quickly” so that he can shift back to working on his campaign promises.

“We have to show unity if we’re going to do great things with respect to the rest of the world,” he said.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... he-country

[MajGenl.Meade]

“It also happens to be a pure excuse for the Democrats having lost an election that they should have easily won because of the Electoral College being slanted so much in their way,”

er.... Dumald.... you won the election because the Electoral College favoured er.... you.

The only slanted thing about this is the Dumpster's reversal of truth at which, one must concede, he excels

[Big RR]

Indeed, twice in recent history the republicans won the electoral vote despite losing the popular vote; but why would facts like that matter? Donald knows so much more than ....