Donald Trump Presidency-Day One

[Stavros]

The Report is so damaging one wonders why the President has not resigned. Instead, he is already plotting his revenge-

“Statements are made about me by certain people in the Crazy Mueller Report, in itself written by 18 Angry Democrat Trump Haters, which are fabricated & totally untrue,” he said.
“It was not necessary for me to respond to statements made in the “Report” about me, some of which are total bullshit & only given to make the other person look good (or me to look bad). This was an Illegally Started Hoax that never should have happened.”
“It is now finally time to turn the tables and bring justice to some very sick and dangerous people who have committed very serious crimes, perhaps even spying or treason. This should never happen again!”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-a8878761.html

If Collusion is obscure in law it paid to claim the whole of the report hinged on proof of 'collusion' whereas the Report proves that the Campaign when it became aware of Russian involvement, did not peform its moral and legal obligation to inform the FBI, but sat back and let it happen, except for the Republican Candidate's public appeal to a foreign government to help his campaign -in itself a violation of the law- and which they did hours after the appeal. With over 160 references to the Russians in the Report, the prima facie case that the people involved in the Republican campaign committed treason is now stronger than ever, while the 11 instances of obstruction of justice prove what has been known since 2016- the man concerned has absolutely no respect for the law, be it the law of the United States or international law, because he is the law, just as William Barr, having lied to Congress can now only be identified as the President's lawyer, his only job to protect and serve the President.

Just as Mitchell McConnell has abdicated any authority he has as Senate Majority Leader to ignore the Mueller report, so the US not longer has a Department of Justice that serves the Constituion, the the US has only one branch of government -the Presidency- for the 'Supreme' Court will not intervene in any legal proceedings against the President who can indeed, shoot to death anyone he likes, anytime, because the President is above the law, while in the lower echelons of the judicial system tame Republican judges will do the will of the President.

The House can Impeach if it wants to, if it feels it must, but at the moment, it is irrelevant, because Congress is irrelevant. Whatever it decides the President will veto it, and the Senate bend its knee to the will of its idol.

Rupert Murdoch will act at the hatchet man for the President, selecting young women as the sacrificial lambs for the altar of the President's campaign to destroy American government, with Ilhan Omar and AOC the prizes, women who will be pilloried, abused, insulted, and humiliated in public with the full approval of the Republican Party.

Far from settling any conflct between the President and Congress, the war has only just begun, a war constructed from lies, and conducted with the now regular use by the President of swear words that not only confirm that he is an imbeclie unfit for public office, but that he is cursing in public deliberately to undermine the authority of the Presidency. From now on, the Presidency must stink, it must make the American public bear the shame its incumbent does not, just as Sarah Huckabee Sanders, having conceded to the Mueller Enquiry she made stuff up abut James Comey and the FBI, now repeats her lies, because the truth is worthless, because the key objective, the sole objetive is to bring every branch of government into disrepute, to convince the people that there is one thing they do not need in their lives: government.

[broncofan]

There are precedents for people being convicted of obstruction of justice even they they were not found guilty of an underlying crime, eg Martha Stewart. Nixon was not forced to resign because he was involved in the Watergate burglary, but because he obstructed justice by trying to cover it up. https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-m...-be-obstructi/

If you look at the federal statute on obstruction, you can see why there should not have to be proof of an underlying crime for one to be guilty of obstruction. In its essence, it occurs when someone interferes with law enforcement objectives and does so not for some good faith reason but because they are afraid of what the process will yield. In a case such as this, where the legal issues are very complex and it's unclear what the process will yield, a person who thinks they are "fucked" and that their "presidency is over" shows the perfect mental state to obstruct.

What probably made Mueller's job on this difficult is that he knows that even if he can indict Trump, there isn't going to be a formal trial while he is President. At trial, a jury is trying to discover whether the facts as they determine them to be meet the legal burden for commission of the crime. But it should at least reach the threshold that it is an issue of triable fact. If all of the facts are as Mueller ascertained them to be, could Trump be guilty of obstruction? Yes. I also don't think there is some magic standard of proof that needs to be met because Trump is President and has abused official duties. I think he committed multiple acts of obstruction, but the bar is so low that without proof he was an active part of a conspiracy to assist Russia while it engaged in espionage, it fits within the new norms he and his party have established.

[broncofan]

I believe in the report, stated the Mueller said he would respect DOJ guidelines, to not indict a sitting president. Knowing the Congress, would be the one to try any case against the president, he ultimately decided to hand off to Congress, and let them decide. .

This is a good point. And I haven't researched what the practical effect is of indicting a President if you are unable to have a criminal trial to obtain a conviction. The impeachment process takes place in the Congress in stages and it's not clear how it is meant to be synchronized with our normal criminal procedures, so it's not easy to determine what part of Mueller's failure to pursue an indictment is simply restraint.

Before the quote by filghy above, the Report stated, "Because we determined not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment, we did not draw conclusions about the President's conduct. The evidence we obtained about the President's actions and intent present difficult issues that would need to be resolved if we were making a traditional prosecutorial judgment."

Or as Jessica Levinson said in this article, if this were a case regarding Mr. Trump rather than President Trump we'd be talking about an indictment for obstruction. https://www.vox.com/2019/4/18/184847...-legal-experts

[Stavros]

Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives in December 1998 on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. The obstruction charge said he committed witness tampering by trying to “corruptly influence” the potential testimony of his secretary Betty Currie, and urged the former White House intern Monica Lewinsky to submit a false affidavit in a lawsuit against him.

Clinton was acquitted by the Senate. But 14 current Republican senators, some of whom were then serving in the House, voted either to impeach or convict Clinton on the obstruction charge. Some specifically cited his actions toward the witnesses when explaining their votes.

And here they are, but will they do in 2019 what they did in 1999?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...on-republicans

[broncofan]

Clinton was acquitted by the Senate. But 14 current Republican senators, some of whom were then serving in the House, voted either to impeach or convict Clinton on the obstruction charge. Some specifically cited his actions toward the witnesses when explaining their votes.

And here they are, but will they do in 2019 what they did in 1999?

When I was reading about our founders deciding to make impeachment take place in the legislature rather than the judiciary, this sort of thing came to mind as a major flaw in the system. A Judiciary issues very formal opinions which means as a body their reasoning has to be made very clear. It also means they have to reconcile the opinion with other similar legal issues and fact patterns they've ruled upon. It provides a sort of rigor that the legislature may try to emulate, but we've seen they have no issue doing things for nakedly partisan reasons and not even making clear in a unified way what their real reasons are.

One thing to keep in mind when comparing this to the Clinton impeachment is what the underlying investigation each person was accused of interfering with. While Trump may not have been connected to Russia's actions in ways that are impeachable, he engaged in all sorts of self-serving hijinks to thwart a process that was about the illegal interference with our democratic processes and even our national security. Obstruction is a serious matter even if the case is trivial as it was for Bill Clinton, but it shows a much graver disrespect for his official duties that he would place his own interests over the integrity of our electoral process.

[buttslinger]

When I was reading about our founders deciding to make impeachment take place in the legislature rather than the judiciary, this sort of thing came to mind as a major flaw in the system

If the USA started screening Presidential candidates in Elementary School, like Israel starts grooming it's jet pilots from an early age, we'd have more of a President like Obama, who majored in Constitutional Law. But we'd still have Mitch McConnell, the cancer of the Senate, pulling anything he can get away with. God only knows what is talked about when Trump, Kellyanne, Huckabee, Stephen Miller and Mick Mulvaney get in a room together. While they entertain the WWF/Monster Truck crowd, McConnell is filling Judicial seats, and stealing Supreme Court Justices.

In Art, you concentrate on a spot of the canvas until that spot starts dictating actions. In Religion, you concentrate on God until God start dictating actions. In the Constitution, you concentrate on the lowest common denominator, the American Citizen, and let him dictate actions.
Just like Mueller spelled it out, the ball is in the Democrat's court now, and they have to decide on what the best course of action is.



Nothing would go further in the Political Health of the United States more than a Book of Revelations in October 2020 announcing the 14 slam-dunk Criminal cases that Trump is facing when he leaves office. Throw in all those juicy tidbits Fatboy Barr edited out of the Mueller Report. Mitch McConnell is more guilty of obstruction than Trump, and a lot better at it. If the Democrats can get it together enough to expose the Trump Party (formerly known as the Republican Party) that their God is a fraud and a Criminal, maybe for one second the entire Country would understand that racism is a weakness, not a strength. Then we could go about healing the true weaknesses in the USA, and there are plenty of them.

[buttslinger]

384+ former Federal Prosecutors have gone on record saying they'd bring charges against President Trump if he weren't a sitting President. I can't wait to see how Fox News spins this.
Trump's response is that he needs 2 more years added on to his term to outrun the statute of limitations. Loyalty + Newspaper Headlines = Gullibility, every day makes Trump's base dumber and hickier.

[buttslinger]

Trump once said he could shoot somebody on the street in broad daylight and his base would still back him. Now the entire Republican Congress would look the other way. They say in politics, if you're digging yourself in a hole, STOP DIGGING....unless of course 500 former DAs have said they'd bring 10 counts of Obstruction of Justice when you come out.
I'm getting the feeling that the actions are now getting trampled by the consequences, the Journalists on the News Networks aren't tiptoeing around it anymore, sorry Mitch McConnell, every day is going to be Groundhog Day for the next 18 months.

[buttslinger]

I guess this is what the World looks like when WWIII is not an option. I don't see any other possible description in the history books except for pathetic. Nothing matters now except for the 2020 election, and the by the book oversight of the Trump Carnival. Meanwhile... Trumps approval rating just rose to the highest it's ever been- 46% It's like a four four with a six eight on top of it...

[buttslinger]

Maybe Trump's 2020 Election mantra will go from "Make America Great Again" to "Please keep me out of Jail"
If this keeps up Republicans are going to get a bad name.
As bad as this all looks, in reality it's worse. If Trump doesn't answer for his crimes, we might as well put Bill Barr's face on the $20 bill.