Sunday, December 2, 2018

GateHouse: The president’s tweets tell a story

Matthew T. Mangino
GateHouse Media
November 30, 2018
President Donald Trump took to Twitter to criticize Special Counsel Robert Mueller as the U.S. Senate was voting down legislation to prevent Trump from firing Mueller.
Trump: “When will this illegal Joseph McCarthy style Witch Hunt, one that has shattered so many innocent lives, ever end-or will it just go on forever?”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, justified the senate vote by saying, “This is a solution in search of a problem. The president is not going to fire Robert Mueller. We have a lot of things to do to finish up this year without taking votes on things that are completely irrelevant to outcomes.”
Trump wants Mueller silenced and for good reason. As the walls begin to close in the president’s vitriol toward the special counsel and the rule of law intensifies.
Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen recently pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about a Trump company real estate negotiation. Cohen is cooperating with Mueller, who is investigating Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election in Trump’s favor by hacking Democrat emails and promoting fake news about his opponent Hillary Clinton.
Trump: “He (Mueller) is doing TREMENDOUS damage to our Criminal Justice System, where he is only looking at one side and not the other.”
Last week, President Trump’s attorneys submitted his written answers to a series of questions from Mueller about Trump’s knowledge of the Russian government’s efforts to assist his 2016 bid for the White House.
The inquiries include only a portion of the questions that Mueller has sought to pose to Trump for nearly a year, when he first requested an interview with the president, reported the Washington Post. The topics cover activities during the campaign and do not delve into questions about whether Trump has sought to obstruct the probe into Russian interference.
Trump: “The now $30,000,000 Witch Hunt continues and they’ve got nothing but ruined lives.”
Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone’s late-night telephone calls to Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign have come under increasing scrutiny. Mueller seems to be very interested in whether Stone served as the conduit between Trump and WikiLeaks as the group was publishing hacked Democrat emails.
Conspiracy theorist, and Stone friend, Jerome Corsi, who recently turned down a plea offer, released excerpts to Newsweek of a forthcoming book in which he alleged Stone asked him to tell WikiLeaks to hold off on releasing some of the hacked emails in order to distract from the release of the Access Hollywood tape.
Trump: “Mueller is a conflicted prosecutor gone rogue....”
Mueller’s keen interest in the Stone-Trump relationship was revealed this week in a draft court document in which prosecutors drew a direct line between the two men - referring to Stone as someone understood to be in regular contact with senior Trump campaign officials, “including with then-candidate Donald J. Trump.”
According to the Washington Post, the inclusion of the president by name in the draft filing rattled his legal team and indicated how closely the special counsel is scrutinizing what Trump may have learned from Stone about WikiLeaks’ hacked emails.
Trump: “Angry Mueller Gang of Dems is viciously telling witnesses to lie about facts & they will get relief.”
As though things were not bad enough for Trump and his associates, the special counsel revealed Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman-turned-cooperating-witness, violated his plea agreement by lying to the special counsel.
This seems to indicate Mueller no longer needs what many observers believed would be his key witness. He got everything he could out of Manafort. Using that information, Mueller has connected the dots with other key players and now the investigation is moving forward fast and furious.
Manafort must face a judge with a conviction at trial of serious criminal offenses and now a breached plea agreement - the result of lying to the special counsel.
Things do not look bright for the former campaign manager and may be a harbinger of things to come.
Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly & George P.C. His book The Executioner’s Toll, 2010 was released by McFarland Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and follow him on Twitter @MatthewTMangino.
To visit the column CLICK HERE

No comments:

Post a Comment