Department of Justice

Sen. Mark Warner warns of the plot against Special Counsel Robert Mueller

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This week, Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, spoke on the floor of the U.S. Senate to warn of threats to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and to highlight the constitutional crisis that would likely ensue if the President were to interfere in the Mueller probe.

In recent weeks, a growing chorus of irresponsible voices in Congress, the conservative media entertainment complex, and the White House have begun pushing a coordinated narrative designed to undermine the credibility of the Special Counsel’s investigation, the FBI, and of the Department of Justice itself. Sen. Warner responded to these “troubling” signs that the President may be considering firing Mr. Mueller or top FBI/DOJ brass, pardoning potential witnesses, or otherwise obstructing the Special Counsel’s investigation.

Watch the video.

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Transcript of prepared remarks:

Mr. President –

I rise today concerned about threats to the Special Counsel’s critical investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Over the last several weeks, a growing chorus of irresponsible and reckless voices have called for President Trump to shut down Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation. At first, these calls came from the fringes of our political discourse – those who would refuse to put our country and our security before base political instincts. Earlier this year, many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle were right to push back on those misdirected calls and urge that the Special Counsel be allowed to do his job without interference.

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(Update) America’s descent into the darkness of ‘Trumpism,’ the new American fascism

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Republicans lavished praise on President Donald Trump at a White House event on Wednesday to celebrate the passage of their “tax cuts for corporations and plutocrats” bill through both the House and Senate. They later posed for their mug shot of who is responsble for this crime for future historical reference.

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Republicans lavish praise on Trump in marathon event to celebrate the passage of tax reform:

“Well, let me just say Mr. President, you made the case for the tax bill,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said. “But this has been a year of extraordinary accomplishment for the Trump administration.”

Um, this tax bill is the only legislative “achievement” of the GOP this year. The Septuagenarian Ninja Turtle included his own unconstitutional blockade of President Obama’s nomination for the Supreme Court last year so that the GOP could install conservative justice Neil Gorsuch this year, and the ongoing GOP court packing scheme with judges who are rated unqualified to serve on the bench. The withdrawal of Trump nominees Jeff Mateer, Brett Talley and Matthew Peterson this past week, considered too unqualified even by the GOP’s low standards, is just the latest assault on the judicial branch. Trump judicial nominee who struggled to answer basic questions pulls out. McConnell threw in repealing government regulations for good measure, a favorite GOP talisman, but most of those regulations are in the admininstrative review process and public comment phase, not repealed merely with Trump’s signature.

Next up was House Speaker Paul Ryan, who praised Trump’s “exquisite presidential leadership.”

“Something this big, something this generational, something this profound could not have been done without exquisite presidential leadership,” said Ryan, who has fought to overhaul the tax code for much of his near-two decades in Congress. “Mr. President, thank you for getting us over the finish line, thank you for getting us where we are.”

The GOP’s alleged boy genius took out The Big Book of Adjectives and “exquisite” is what he came up with? Has he been living in a cave this past year? “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

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The latest GOPropaganda ‘stunt’ to smear the Special Counsel’s investigation

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Last week, Mike Allen of Axios.com reported a Scoop: Mueller obtains “tens of thousands” of Trump transition emails:

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has obtained “many tens of thousands” of Trump transition emails, including emails of Jared Kushner, transition team sources tell Axios.

  • Trump officials discovered Mueller had the emails when his prosecutors used them as the basis for questions to witnesses, the sources said.
  • The emails include 12 accounts, one of which contains about 7,000 emails, the sources said.
  • The accounts include the team’s political leadership and the foreign-policy team, the sources said.

Why it matters: The transition emails are said to include sensitive exchanges on matters that include potential appointments, gossip about the views of particular senators involved in the confirmation process, speculation about vulnerabilities of Trump nominees, strategizing about press statements, and policy planning on everything from war to taxes.

  • “Mueller is using the emails to confirm things, and get new leads,” a transition source told me.

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The GOP assault on the Special Counsel is appeasement of Russia

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The Washington Post today has an exclusive report about how our always insecure egomaniacal Twitter-troll-in-chief is leaving the U.S. vulnerable to continuing cyber war attacks from Russia because he does not want to believe the intelligence that Russia engaged in a cyber war against the U.S. in the 2016 election. Doubting the intelligence, Trump pursues Putin and leaves a Russian threat unchecked:

Nearly a year into his presidency, Trump continues to reject the evidence that Russia waged an assault on a pillar of American democracy and supported his run for the White House.

The result is without obvious parallel in U.S. history, a situation in which the personal insecurities of the president — and his refusal to accept what even many in his administration regard as objective reality — have impaired the government’s response to a national security threat. The repercussions radiate across the government.

Rather than search for ways to deter Kremlin attacks or safeguard U.S. elections, Trump has waged his own campaign to discredit the case that Russia poses any threat and he has resisted or attempted to roll back efforts to hold Moscow to account.

His administration has moved to undo at least some of the sanctions the previous administration imposed on Russia for its election interference, exploring the return of two Russian compounds in the United States that President Barack Obama had seized — the measure that had most galled Moscow. Months later, when Congress moved to impose additional penalties on Moscow, Trump opposed the measures fiercely.

Trump has never convened a Cabinet-level meeting on Russian interference or what to do about it, administration officials said.

This is the equivalent of ordering the U.S. military and intelligence agencies to “stand down” and to do nothing in response to the cyber war that is being waged against this country by Russia. This is not just appeasement, but it makes Trump a collaborator with Vladimir Putin in his war against the U.S. (like Vichy France). Some would dare call it treason.

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Donald Trump channels the spirit of Richard Nixon

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Donald J. Trump is channeling the spirit of Richard M. Nixon, who told David Frost in an April 1977 interview that “If the President does it, that means it’s not illegal.”

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Or perhaps Trump is going back to the original source and is channeling the spirit of Louis XIV of France, an adherent of the concept of the divine right of kings, which advocates the divine origin of monarchical rule, who believed in the theory of absolute monarchy and consciously fostered the myth of himself as the Sun King, the source of light for all of his people. During Louis XIV’s reign, his main goal was “One king, one law, one faith.” “I am the State.”

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President Trump’s bumbling lawyer John Dowd gave this exclusive interview to Mike Allen of Axios.com. Exclusive: Trump lawyer claims the “President cannot obstruct justice”:

John Dowd, President Trump’s outside lawyer, outlined to me a new and highly controversial defense/theory in the Russia probe: A president cannot be guilty of obstruction of justice.

The “President cannot obstruct justice because he is the chief law enforcement officer under [the Constitution’s Article II] and has every right to express his view of any case,” Dowd claims.

Dowd says he drafted this weekend’s Trump tweet that many thought strengthened the case for obstruction: The tweet suggested Trump knew Flynn had lied to the FBI when he was fired, raising new questions about the later firing of FBI Director James Comey.

Dowd: “The tweet did not admit obstruction. That is an ignorant and arrogant assertion.”

Why it matters: Trump’s legal team is clearly setting the stage to say the president cannot be charged with any of the core crimes discussed in the Russia probe: collusion and obstruction. Presumably, you wouldn’t preemptively make these arguments unless you felt there was a chance charges are coming.

Americans rejected the divine right of kings and absolute monarchy when we told George III of England to “go stuff it up your ass” with the American Revolution. The source of power is “WE the people” in a democratic republic. Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution requires the President to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” And if he fails to do so, Article 1, Section 2, Clause 5, provides for the impeachment of the president. The hallmark of American jurisprudence is that “No man is above the law.”

The first article of impeachment against both Richard M. Nixon and Bill Clinton were for obstruction of justice. The articles of impeachment against Andrew Johnson alleged high crimes and misdemeanors that today might be construed as obstruction of justice.

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