Tuesday, July 25, 2017

TRUMP FIGHTS BACK AGAINST MUELLER

TRUMP FIGHTS BACK AGAINST MUELLER

I take it as a given that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is part of the Democratic Party’s effort to destroy the Trump administration. This is evidenced by the fact that he has staffed his investigation with Democratic Party activist lawyers and contributors to the Hillary Clinton campaign, and by his expansion of his “investigation” beyond any reasonable interpretation of his charge.
This is what the order appointing Mueller says he is empowered to investigate:
The Special Counsel is authorized to conduct the investigation confirmed by then-FBI Director James B. Comey in testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on March 20, 2017, including:
(i) any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump; and
(ii) any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation; and
(iii) any other matters within the scope of 28 C.F.R. § 600.4(a).
Item (iii) authorizes the special counsel to look into efforts to obstruct his investigation, so Mueller’s mandate extends only to “links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump” and matters arising directly therefrom.
Mueller evidently hasn’t found any evidence linking the Trump campaign to whatever the Russians did during the 2016 campaign–no one else has either–so instead of giving up, he is broadening his investigation to include President Trump’s business dealings:
FBI investigators and others are looking at Russian purchases of apartments in Trump buildings, Trump’s involvement in a controversial SoHo development in New York with Russian associates, the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow and Trump’s sale of a Florida mansion to a Russian oligarch in 2008, the person said.
What on God’s green Earth do the 2013 Miss Universe pageant or Trump’s sale of a house in 2008 have to do with Russian interference in the 2016 election? Nothing. Some have tried to argue that the Miss Universe pageant is relevant, on the ground that Donald Trump, Jr. met Rob Goldstone, who years later introduced him to a Russian lawyer, there.
But so what? Mueller apparently doesn’t have any evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with Russians to spear phish the DNC’s email accounts, and no matter how much he investigates the Miss Universe pageant, or Trump’s 2008 sale of a house, he still won’t have any such evidence.
I conclude that Mueller is not discharging his office of special counsel in good faith, but rather is acting as an agent of those who are trying to destroy or impede the Trump administration, and should be fired. Of course, whether President Trump thinks firing Mueller is politically viable is a separate question.
In the meantime, it is good to see that Trump is at least pushing back against Mueller. It was reported this morning that Trump’s lawyers are investigating Mueller’s lawyers, with a focus on conflicts of interest. That is good, but only a beginning. Trump and others in his administration need to make clear that they consider Mueller’s investigation illegitimate; that he has gone far beyond the mandate he was given by the Acting Attorney General; that he has hired a partisan, biased staff; that he is serving as a tool of the Democratic Party; and that his investigation is a fraud. They should accord Mueller and his staff no credibility whatsoever.
Trump is in a war. The good thing is, I think he knows it.

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