Trump declares political war – but Russia isn’t the main reason or his biggest worry
Mike Allen has the most succinct analysis of Trump’s belligerent behavior and appointment of billionaire spin doctor Anthony Scaramucci in the last several days:
The President is building a wartime Cabinet, for political and legal war. One longtime ally who’s likely to have a more visible, frequent role: Newt Gingrich, husband of Callista Gingrich, Trump’s choice for ambassador to the Vatican.
Trump relishes fights, and creates plenty of them. But now he’s in a real one, with special counsel Bob Mueller signaling that he plans an expansive, exhaustive investigation aimed at Trump, his relatives, and current and former political lieutenants.
One West Wing confidant says Trump really might dismiss Mueller. So POTUS needs “a group that can fight through what could end up being something quite amazing.”
“We’re going to see out-and-out political warfare, and not over … Medicaid,” the confidant said. … As Matt Miller, the MSNBC contributor and former Obama Justice Department official, tweeted after the revelation that Trump was digging dirt on Mueller and contemplating pardons: “Takeaway from the Post & NYT pieces is we are headed for certain crisis. Trump just will not, cannot allow this investigation to go forward.”
It’s instructive to put Trump’s unhinged Saturday morning tweets in the context of this war mentality.
A new INTELLIGENCE LEAK from the Amazon Washington Post,this time against A.G. Jeff Sessions.These illegal leaks, like Comey’s, must stop!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 22, 2017
Analysis: In siege mentality, attack so-called “lying press” and “insidious leaks,” specifically one harmful to AG Sessions, whom Trump attacked in the Thursday NY Times interview and whose absence might benefit Trump in his quest to rid himself of that meddling crusader Bob Mueller. Naturally, the White House denies leaking, so it would not surprise me if it came from one of their allies – say, Devin Nunes.
While all agree the U. S. President has the complete power to pardon, why think of that when only crime so far is LEAKS against us.FAKE NEWS
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 22, 2017
Analysis: Lie outright about “all agree[ing]” re. presidential pardon power. Nixon’s lawyers didn’t, but that’s not to say it won’t stop Donald from trying.
So many people are asking why isn’t the A.G. or Special Council looking at the many Hillary Clinton or Comey crimes. 33,000 e-mails deleted?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 22, 2017
Analysis: It’s “Counsel,” Donald, not “Council.” And it’s only true if, by “so many,” you mean your staff, Breitbart, WingNutDaily, National Enquirer, every other propaganda source propping up your palaver, and, of course, your easily-fooled deplorables. Plus, there’s that matter about the deletion of the 33000 e-mails not being a crime. Sad!
…What about all of the Clinton ties to Russia, including Podesta Company, Uranium deal, Russian Reset, big dollar speeches etc.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 22, 2017
Anaysis: What about legitimate diplomatic ties, the debunked “uranuim deal” scandal (see also this), and a handful of business deals dwarfed by your alleged money-laundering scheme? I swear, some tweets should come with a laugh track.
Trump’s Twitter feed is a telling distraction, because there’s more going on than Russiagate and his continued obsession with James Comey and Hillary Clinton. In fact, Trump’s motive for Oval Office self-preservation has less to do with Russia and more to do with money:
He handpicked his daughter and son-in-law as leading advisers, is the only modern-day president to have never released his tax returns, and continues to profit from multi-national businesses bearing his name.
His Washington hotel has become a destination for some foreign government spending, and then there’s the question of how the Trump family’s business ties affect foreign policies.
One tenet of his tax outline is a pass-through tax that would benefit him tremendously on a personal level. Sometimes it’s even pretty small potatoes: Remember when U.S. embassies around the world briefly promoted Mar-A-Lago?
All of this has opened Trump and his family up to the criticism that they’re misusing his presidency for personal gain.
And keep this in mind:
[G]overnments focused on the well being of government officials rather than citizens — on any scale — are particularly harmful to the poorest in society. In these places, “infant mortality and dropout rates are especially high, partly due to less spending on health and education. Reduced investment in these areas tends to hurt poor people the most, and contributes to higher inequality,” the IMF says.
The Federal Reserve’s Community Advisory Committee recently released a report … [that] says “corrupt officials are less likely to invest in things that promote inclusive growth and benefit society—like health and education services. Instead, they may choose wasteful construction projects for their GDP.”
Trump’s primary goal is to preserve his new, corrupt kleptocracy. Neutering or eliminating justified probes into collusion with an enemy power endangers his looting of the Treasury for himself and his American oligarch cronies.
Which is, of course, why Trump doesn’t want Mueller digging around his businesses – especially in light of a newly uncovered legal memo you can be certain that Mueller and his team are carefully reviewing:
A newfound memo from Kenneth W. Starr’s independent counsel investigation into President Bill Clinton sheds fresh light on a constitutional puzzle that is taking on mounting significance amid the Trump-Russia inquiry: Can a sitting president be indicted?
The 56-page memo, locked in the National Archives for nearly two decades and obtained by The New York Times under the Freedom of Information Act, amounts to the most thorough government-commissioned analysis rejecting a generally held view that presidents are immune from prosecution while in office. [NOTE: Law geeks can find the full memo here.]
“It is proper, constitutional, and legal for a federal grand jury to indict a sitting president for serious criminal acts that are not part of, and are contrary to, the president’s official duties,” the Starr office memo concludes. “In this country, no one, even President Clinton, is above the law.”
Mr. Starr assigned Ronald Rotunda, a prominent conservative professor of constitutional law and ethics whom Mr. Starr hired as a consultant on his legal team, to write the memo in spring 1998 after deputies advised him that they had gathered enough evidence to ask a grand jury to indict Mr. Clinton, the memo shows.
Other prosecutors working for Mr. Starr developed a draft indictment of Mr. Clinton, which The Times has also requested be made public. The National Archives has not processed that file to determine whether it is exempt from disclosure under grand-jury secrecy rules.
In 1974, the Watergate special counsel, Leon Jaworski, had also received a memo from his staff saying he could indict the president, in that instance Richard M. Nixon, while he was in office, and later made that case in a court brief. Those documents, however, explore the topic significantly less extensively than the Starr office memo.
And everyone knows that an indictment could well put a complete end not only to all that looting but to Trump’s ownership of assets eligible for seizure. Remember, Mueller is not the only top cop investigating Trump – New York State Attorney general Eric Schneiderman is doing the same, and Trump has no pardon power over charges brought at the state level.
Bet your bottom dollar that Donald Trump is kicking himself in the butt for even thinking of making a presidential run now that he is in legal trouble that could destroy him and drag down his family.
