Mueller’s endgame begins
Well, now we know why petulant Uncle Dotard has been so tweet-colicky for the last few weeks:
The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has subpoenaed the Trump Organization to turn over documents, including some related to Russia, according to two people briefed on the matter. The order is the first known instance of the special counsel demanding records directly related to President Trump’s businesses, bringing the investigation closer to the president.
The breadth of the subpoena was not clear, nor was it clear why Mr. Mueller issued it instead of simply asking for the documents from the company, an umbrella organization that oversees Mr. Trump’s business ventures. In the subpoena, delivered in recent weeks, Mr. Mueller ordered the Trump Organization to hand over all records related to Russia and other topics he is investigating, the people said.
The subpoena is the latest indication that the investigation, which Mr. Trump’s lawyers once regularly assured him would be completed by now, will drag on for at least several more months. Word of the subpoena comes as Mr. Mueller appears to be broadening his investigation to examine the role foreign money may have played in funding Mr. Trump’s political activities. In recent weeks, Mr. Mueller’s investigators have questioned witnesses, including an adviser to the United Arab Emirates, about the flow of Emirati money into the United States.
The Trump Organization claims that they are fully cooperating with Mueller’s investigation (we’ll know sometime in the future whether or not that is true from Team Mueller) and that the matter is old news (oh, nuh-uh, it isn’t).
The news comes as numerous news outlets report that the former game show host in the West Wing plans further shake-ups to his staff and cabinet — including the possible replacement of Attorney General Jeff Sessions with someone who would, based on multiple sources and a pattern of previous reports, be “loyal” to Trump (as opposed to the Constitution).
Naturally, there are many who fret that a new AG would order Rod Rosenstein to fire Mueller. But rewind a little, and let Twitter’s @GregOlear explain why firing Sessions would be a genuinely idiotic move on Trump’s part:
Let’s talk about what happens if Trump tries to fire Mueller.
First, Trump can’t fire Mueller directly. He has to first fire Sessions and replace him with a willing accomplice to the obstruction-of-justice crime.
Pruitt is the name we’re hearing. And that guy thinks he’s doing God’s will by raping the earth…seriously, future generations will wonder why he didn’t drop him into an active volcano for crimes against the planet…so what’s the big deal to axe Mr. Magoo?
The minute Sessions is fired, Mueller’s contingency plan goes into effect. He’s known since literally Day One that Trump wanted to fire him. One of the obstruction charges is ABOUT Trump wanting to fire him. Do you really think Bobby Three Sticks isn’t ready?
Mueller will have time. Because it presumably takes SOME time between Sessions being fired and Pruitt stepping in and then firing him. In that little window, all hell will break loose. Fire and fury will be more than the title of a lurid but ultimately dull book.
There will be indictments ready to roll out, en masse. There will be news stories ready to leak, one a day or more, every day. Maybe we’ll even hear audio of Trump colluding.
Meanwhile the mass demonstrations will be epic. It will be the opposite of Trump’s inauguration crowd size. So many people in the streets.
Congress maybe, just maybe, will be forced to act by the popular protest, and protect Mueller and re-instate him. They have time to do it.
Meanwhile, the indictments don’t just vanish even IF Mueller is gone. Trump thinks this is what will happen, and he’s a f*cking idiot, and he’s wrong.
Bottom line: firing Sessions to fire Mueller is Trump pulling the pin out of the very large grenade he’s holding in his very small hands. It will only accelerate his demise.
BOOM.
PS. I haven’t even mentioned Schneiderman yet — the AG of my state, New York. He has indictments ready to roll, too — state ones, that Trump cannot pardon.
PPS: If you appreciate the thread, please consider supporting @TheWeeklings and check out the #ResistDirtyRubles project.
See also this terrific thread from Italian journalist @aliasvaughn. Al small taste:
Last night, @maddow reported that a person that asked not to be named gave her team more specifics on this. Source said that there are “troubling inconsistencies” between what was stated publicly and what HPSCI heard from witnesses.
The subpoenas targeting the Trump Organization suggest that Mueller has a trainload of evidence against Trump’s business interests already — and that a failure of the company to turn over anything and everything having to do with cooperation with Russian, money laundering, tax avoidance, and anythign else Mueller may or may not be investigation will only strengthen an obstruction of justice case against Trump.
