Barking up the wrong tree

Update: evening May 20 2019

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-financial-subpoena-court-upholds-house-subpoena-president-trump-financial-records-live-updates-2019-05-20/



Link to Judge Mehta's opinion text
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/20/politics/mehta-opinion-trump-subpoena-case/index.html

The House demanding the Trump records from an accounting firm landed in court and the Trump argument that it was for political purposes was tossed out by the judge as he ruled against the White House.  This is important because it reaffirms the oversight function of Congress and its subpoena powers, implying that impeachment is not necessary for Congress to get subpoenas obeyed. The ruling was also very quick as such process goes and the Trump strategy to try to drag out the court process until after 2020 may not work. Chances are further court cases like this may meet the same fate. This is a victory for the rule of law and the oversight powers of Congress with or without having to begin impeachment. Trump hopes to keep away from voters any evidence of wrongdoing, piously saying leave it up to the voters in 2020. How can either voters or Congress make a decision if the facts are hidden from them?

A version of the following was published in the Sky Hi News, 5 22 2019
https://www.skyhinews.com/opinion/opinion-muftic-investigating-the-investigators/

The Special Counsel's report into Russian interference in the 2016 elections is continuing to dog President Trump in spite of proclamations by his cohorts in the Senate and himself that the case was closed. See, he says,  it was all a hoax and a witch hunt anyway.  This is in spite of five of Trump's campaign and White House associates, and three others pleading guilty of Mueller's findings, two of which are already sitting in jail.. The Trump administration's real feelings expressed in their actions suggest otherwise.  The Trump administration is diverting voters' attention away from the Mueller findings and instead is urging them to bark up another tree: investigate the investigators.

 So afraid of House hearings and talks of beginning the impeachment process, Trump and his Senate supporters are acting as if they fear the voters might get a more vivid picture of the report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller when witnesses testify before the House committees and the words they speak themselves are carried on national TV. The bulkiness of the  448 pages of the report makes it nearly impossible for the public to sort the most important trees from such a dense forest of words just by reading it.  In response, the Trump strategy is to keep as many key witnesses from responding to subpoenas to testify, using executive privilege and excuses politics are being played and to keep any underlying evidence or an unredacted report from seeing the light of day. Trump is now refusing to let the former White House Counsel, Don Mcgahn, appear, telling him to ignore the subpoena.  Barr is already facing contempt of Congress charges for refusing to release the full unredacted Mueller report.

 AG Bill Barr last week appointed a special prosecutor to determine if the investigators spied on the Administration or were politically motivated. The administration had already tried to argue that the appointment of  Mueller was illegal but that argument was shot down by a federal appeals court earlier in a case involving Roger Stone. This new special counsel investigation is a sideshow to the main event. It is obviously designed to divert voters' attention from the more consequential tree, the substance, and veracity of the Mueller Report, and discovery of more damning information not included in the redacted report itself.  The pressure to appoint this new counsel came from Trump supporters.  The Administration has not offered an effective counter-response to the detailed evidence, sworn testimony, and substance of the Mueller report.  Instead, the administration is trying to attack the whole report's credibility based on its origins and motivations of the investigators.

There was no hoax when it came to what the Russians did in 2016. The Russian witches were flying in full regalia on the broomstick of modern media throughout  Volume I of the Mueller report.  The Russians were not exonerated of their active measures to try to twist the minds of voters. In fact, their spies and GRU operatives were indicted.  That is a different finding when it came to the President, who was exonerated of conspiring, coordinating and plotting with the Russians. Trump was not exonerated of obstruction of justice but the Department of Justice rules kept him from being indicted. The Trump appointed Attorney General Bill Barr deceived the public when he asserted the President was exonerated by Mueller for "collusion".  In his redacted report, Mueller wrote he did not even investigate the President for "collusion"; he investigated the criminal charge of conspiring which requires evidence of intent and active coordination with the Russians. There was not enough evidence to prove a conspiracy. They may have welcomed Russian actions, provided polling data, and encouraged Russia to act ("Russia if you are listening, find Hillary's missing emails"), tried to establish back-channel communications, and met with Russian officials and operatives more than a hundred times,  and promoted Russian foreign policy regarding Ukraine and sanctions,  but that was not enough  evidence of  "conspiracy" as defined by criminal statutes.

What is at stake in the House investigations is more than just educating the public, embarrassing the President,  and impacting public opinion for 2020 presidential elections. It is about recommending changes to the Special Counsel legislation and shaping and funding elections to be protected from foreign interference in the future. The legislation is already in the works to limit the President's power to dangle pardons to influence testifiers and giving greater access to tax returns.

 Yet to be discovered by the House is whatever happened to the counterintelligence investigation that was launched July 31, 2016,  and to learn if the Russians had evidence that they could hold over the President to force him to act in Russia's interest.  These findings were not included in the Mueller report and they still need to be pursued.  The House is hoping Trump's tax reports release could shed light on to whom he owed money and the Administration is fighting that release of tax reports tooth and nail.

Also at issue is even more than just a power struggle between two branches of government. It is getting at the truth by seeing the entire unredacted version of the Mueller report, its underlying evidence, and the grand jury findings.  Some of this cannot be discovered unless formal impeachment proceedings are begun, a process that empowers Congress greater ability to access the information. In the meantime, the action or slow action moves to the courts, which Trump hopes will draw out any decisions until after 2020. Congress can only fine (and unlikely imprison) those who refuse to honor subpoenas.  Charging contempt of Congress carries no real penalties other than to expose to the public bad behavior by officials.

 The only branch with any power to force the Administration to abide by the subpoenas is the Courts, which is where the real fight will now take place. The Courts do have power to jail and fine for contempt of their orders. The argument the Administration gives for stonewalling Congressional subpoenas is that Congress wants the information for political reasons only.   If case law coming from the Nixon impeachment era stand,  those arguments will not hold water. Two articles of impeachment charged against Nixon were stonewalling subpoenas from Congress and by endeavoring to obstruct justice. Similar charges could be at play in any Trump impeachment process.




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https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/06/01/spying-treason-and-politics-trump-raises-stakes-russia-investigation/3769752002/?csp=chromepush

https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/396307-Did-FBI-get-bamboozled-by-multiple-versions-of-Trump-dossier%3F

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/21/donald-trump-distraction-technique-media

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/special-counsel-robert-muellers-appointm

http://time.com/5585946/william-barr-contempt-congress-consequences/

https://www.justsecurity.org/63838/guide-to-the-mueller-reports-findings-on-collusion/

Trump goes coup coup

A version of this was published in the Sky Hi Daily News May 1, 2019
https://www.skyhinews.com/opinion/opinion-muftic-trump-goes-coup-coup-over-the-mueller-report/

After shouting to the world that the Mueller report exonerated  (cleared) him of both conspiracy with the Russians to tilt the 2016 election his way and of obstruction of justice, Donald Trump must have had a sobering moment when he realized that Mueller had not cleared him of obstruction of justice laid out at least ten instances of obstruction of justice committed by Donald Trump and his associates. Mueller then suggested  in  a footnote the remedy was either impeachment by Congress or indictment after he left office.

In his report, Mueller specifically wrote in plain English that Trump was not exonerated of obstruction of justice.  Trump must have hoped his followers had the same lack of reading comprehension skills he had, and they had not read the report themselves, either. In response, Trump played the victim card to explain to his core followers that the Mueller report and the FBI were engineering a coup d’état against him and now Congress wants to engineer another coup, too, by holding hearings that could lead to impeachment. For a prototype wannabe dictator that he is, a coup fits Trump’s view of government that exists for the purpose of putting him in power and keeping him there and a disdain for the rule of law, any investigations into his suspected wrongdoing, and the remedies holding him accountable that are written into our Constitution.  

The writers of our Constitution had a firm grasp of both English and world history and knew when tyranny reigned to the point of being unbearable or the king went off the rails into the land of incompetence, regime change was by a coup and sometimes a bloody one of palace intrigue and military force or civil war. The Game of Thrones is not all fiction.  Usually a coup d’état in modern times, especially in the recent past in South America, Turkey and Egypt, means the military steps in and ousts the person on the throne or presidential office. To avoid such bloody regime changes and to give the people’s representatives a voice in a democracy, our founders devised the impeachment process that is the law that rules.  The House would indict (impeach) and the Senate would convict. They laid out the rules and process, that would remove the president and others before the next election was held. Later the Constitution was amended to provide for removal with consent of cabinet members and much more. The FBI and the Office of Legal Counsel also had rules that prevented indicting a sitting president of a crime and Special Counsel Robert Mueller also followed that rule.  Trump’s appointed Attorney General Bill Barr was of a controversial and not widely accepted opinion that a president could not be convicted of obstructing justice since he was the head of justice and had the right to fire whomever he pleased. Those who disagree say a president could not get away with that that if he had a “corrupt” intent such as keeping himself in power.

To find evidence that could lead to prosecution or evidence of wrongdoing, a special prosecutor was appointed per federal statutes to conduct the investigation. Congress was also granted by the Constitution the power and duty to conduct their own investigations and issue subpoenas, just as they were empowered to impeach (indict) for “high crimes and misdemeanors” however they defined it and whatever the burden of proof they required.  The Supreme Court is cut out of the entire process except for chairing the Senate conviction proceedings.  Currently, Trump is stonewalling any subpoena and a Constitutional crisis is about to happen, with Trump claiming House hearings are conducting another coup attempt.  After the experience with the impeachment process of both Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, changes were made to the process so that the special counsel had to report to the Attorney General. That process has been followed.  Trump loves to claim the whole investigation was illegal, but the letter of the federal law has been followed.

Donald Trump constantly claims even to today that the Russians did not help him get elected.  Mueller lays out in detail in over a hundred pages in his report and in earlier indictment court filings exactly how the Russians operated their propaganda targeting and methods of social media and spies on the US ground. It was not a matter of a few commercials, either. His conclusion: ““The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion.”      Last week, Maria Butina was sentenced to 18 months in prison for being a Russian spy who had made her way into the very top halls of the NRA to help with the Russian interference in the 2016 election.

  Whatever happened to the counterintelligence investigation? It was not included in the Mueller report. Also left out of the Mueller report because Mueller did not investigate it, was whether Donald Trump was beholden to the Russians because of financial entanglements or that there were tapes that would prove an embarrassment to him. It is still a mystery why Trump fawns over Russian president Putin prefers to take Putin’s word over our own intelligence services. Why does Trump  sync his foreign policy with Putin’s desire to make Russia great again, lifting sanctions against Russian incursions into Crimea and eastern Ukraine, and weakening NATO’s mutual defense agreement to stop those Russian  threatened  land grabs into NATO  member territory from Montenegro in the Balkans in the south to the Baltics in the north.

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 To confuse his followers throughout the Mueller investigation, Trump had claimed there was no collusion, but Robert Mueller stated in his report that they never investigated whether there was collusion because that was not a term in the criminal statutes.  They investigated whether there was a conspiracy, a term in the criminal law meaning the participants got together and planned to commit a crime.  Mueller ruled no evidence of a conspiracy was found.  In a strange twist, Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer in this matter in a public comment asked in so many words, so what is wrong with collusion, benefiting by evidence or measures, supplied by a foreign government and in a sense justifying the commission of collusion and tacit implying collusion happened.

So long as the law enforcers  were “on his side”, they were seen by Donald Trump as  loyal members of his team, but if they investigated and found some damning evidence, they were a deep state out to get him and conduct a coup to oust him from the White House.  The FBI inadvertently helped him get elected when their then director James Comey twice announced publicly in the late summer and  again Trump ten days before the election than Hillary Clinton was under criminal investigation for alleged misuse of emails and a server (and later said in both instances, there was no evidence found).  At the same time in July 2016 a counterintelligence investigation was underway by the FBI and other intelligence agencies motivated by suspicion that Donald Trump and his campaign associates and his pro-Putin foreign policy had many unexplained contacts with Russian operatives. The FBI kept that investigation secret.   The Mueller report owed the opening of the counterintelligence investigation to a Trump campaign associates’ drunken conversation with an Australian diplomat, who then tipped off the FBI. The  counterintelligence investigation was folded into the Mueller investigation.  In short, the deep state helped Trump win, cleared him of conspiracy with the Russians, and yet did not clear him of obstruction of the investigation into the Russian connection.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/04/25/napolitano_why_was_president_trump_not_charged_with_obstruction_of_justice_is_the_president_above_the_law.html