Don McGahn was barely on speaking terms with President Donald Trump when he left the White House last fall. But special counsel Robert Mueller’s report reveals the president may owe his former top lawyer a debt of gratitude.Let's be clear about this: It was Trump's intent to commit the crime of obstruction of justice. That he was unsuccessful was due to the work of his aides who refused to carry out Trump's unlawful commands.
McGahn, who sat with Mueller for about 30 hours of interviews, emerged as a central character in Mueller’s painstaking investigation into whether Trump obstructed justice and impeded the years-long Russia investigation. In one striking scene , Mueller recounts how Trump called McGahn twice at home and directed him to set Mueller’s firing in motion. McGahn recoiled and threatened to resign instead.
Mueller concluded that McGahn and others effectively halted Trump’s efforts to influence the investigation, prompting some White House officials and outside observers to call him an unsung hero in the effort to protect the president.
On the Russian conspiracy thing, it is clear that the Russians and the Trump Campaign were acting in parallel. The Trump Campaign, right up to his older sons, if not Trump himself, clearly were interested in getting information from the Russians. That they only did so through Wikileaks meant that Assange was operating not as the journalist that his supports claim he is, but as a cutout for both the Russians and for Trump. To the extent that was deliberate, Trump can credit the FSB and the GRU for saving his neck. Nobody on Team Trump was that smart.
Clearly, though, Trump thought he was guilty. His initial reaction when Sessions told him that Mueller was appointed as a special counsel reveals that: "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked." That's not the reaction of an innocent man, folks.
Where do we go from here? Expect Trump's conduct to become more outrageous and unlawful. He got away with this, in his mind, he's another Teflon Don. Trump is not going to engage in any self-reflection and realize that he just dodged a bullet and he needs to take it down. No, he's going to go the other way. Because he knows that William Barr will use the DoJ to protect him and that Mitch McConnell will do the same.
Buckle in, folks.
Schadenfreude - so delicious.
ReplyDeleteYour hatred is unprecedented, unwarranted, and if continued, will divide this country more than anything.
Not personal, this pertains to all lefties.
I seem to recollect that the last "Teflon Don" ended up dying in a maximum security prison. So there's that.
ReplyDeleteYours crankily,
The New York Crank
Jim in Monroe - Your blindness to Trump's being corrupt and being not fit to being fitness will divide this country.
ReplyDeleteSo supporting a candidate who actively worked to use Russian assistance to gain office is “American”, and identifying this and decrying it is “in-American”. The next thing that McConnell will do is state that black is white and get run over at a zebra crossing.
ReplyDeleteProps to Mitt Romney for actually saying the right thing...too bad he isn't walking the walk and demanding action.
ReplyDeleteWelp, we know what the Trump 2020 campaign slogan will be: "Four more years, or at least past 2022 when the statute of limitations on obstruction of justice runs out."
ReplyDelete-Doug in Oakland
Jim, look back on what your side did during the Obama presidency. At every possible moment, your side did what it could to delegitimize his presidency. The whole birther thing, which was spearheaded by Trump. The demands to see Obama's college transcripts, made by Trump, among others. The claims that Obama was a secret Muslim.
ReplyDelete(As an aside, Trump has buried his own college transcripts as deeply as possible.)
You guys on the Right have called this tune. Now, you damn well are going to pay the band.
Doug, there is an argument to be made that if a defendant is beyond the reach of prosecution, that the statute of limitations is tolled for that period. I'm not saying that argument would work in this case, but it's a thought.
ReplyDeleteAmong all the new laws we will need to prevent this from ever happening again, one to officially suspend the statute of limitations for both the President and the Vice-President while in office will be required. Unless, of course, the *policy* that a sitting President cannot be indicted and prosecuted gets overturned. Perhaps SDNY will send a test case to the Supremes on this.
ReplyDeleteThe policy is being adhered to in this case because Mueller's investigation was a part of DOJ and he felt that the OLC memo should apply, and that a normal presidency would be unacceptably impeded from its constitutional duties by a prosecution of the chief executive.
ReplyDeleteAnd out of a sense of fairness he made no criminal accusations, as the lack of ability to prosecute as dictated by the OLC memo cuts both ways, not only can no charges be brought, but the accused would also lack access to the same court for the purpose of defending themselves and clearing their name.
In other words he's being infuriatingly evenhanded about it, just like we knew he would, and probably as it should be.
The report, though, reads like a highly detailed instruction manual for prosecuting him post-presidency, and several federal prosecutors have stated that they have obtained obstruction of justice convictions on a fraction of the evidence presented in the redacted report.
-Doug in Oakland
From my perspective, we have this buffoon for 20-1/2 more months. I hope that, by then, the Democrats or Republicans will have put forth a candidate with morals, dignity, ethics, and a sense of decency that gets elected to the office. Then we can begin to repair the damage to the country both here and abroad.
ReplyDeleteDale
It looks like it would have been obstruction of injustice.
ReplyDeletewe know the What question, russia helped tRUmp.
ReplyDeleteWHY?????
what do they get out of it?
that to me is the big question not being asked, why, and have they received it?