I think it’s pretty obvious by President Donald Trump’s constant trashing of the FBI and the Mueller investigation that he colluded with the Russians to win the presidency last year. Whether or not the Justice Department’s special counsel Robert Mueller and his team will be able to prove it and/or related things before the court, or convince Congress of it enough to lead to impeachment, remains to be seen. But Trump’s constant disparagement of the FBI and Mueller’s investigation gives Trump away as being guilty of collusion.
To think that Trump is only disparaging the investigation to protect his ego–since he won the electoral college but not the popular vote–is nonsense. For that, he would not be risking the charge of obstruction of justice as he constantly is doing. Rather, as a patriotic American, and especially as the nation’s president, he would encourage government investigation into a foreign power–and one such as Russia, our nation’s prime enemy during the Cold War–meddling in our electoral process. Moreover, Trump has constantly asserted that this investigation–which is being conducted not only by Mueller’s team but three Congressional committees–is a “hoax” and a “witch hunt.” How does he know? I think it all gives him away as guilty of collusion.
But why is he risking obstruction of justice with such rhetoric, the firing of FBI Director James Comey, and other things? It is because he is trying to sway enough of the American public that it will apply pressure to members of Congress to prevent congressional impeachment of him.
And now, Trump and his legal team have concocted another strategy to go along with this bashing of Mueller’s investigation. It is his lawyer Ty Cobb’s repeated statements in recent weeks in which he asserts that Mueller will soon end his investigation and exonerate the president of any such collusion. What a crock!
How does Cobb know that? He doesn’t know any such thing! I think Cobb is doing that as a deception to get the American public, especially Republican members of Congress, to believe this. Then, as Mueller’s investigation drags on–which nearly all authorities say it will and likely extend beyond the entire 2018–this Cobb deception will help cause Americans, and especially Republican members of Congress, to lose patience in waiting on Mueller’s investigation to end. This angst will give Trump leverage to call for Mueller’s investigation to end, and when it doesn’t he’ll likely fire him.
That’s why Trump and his legal team are also saying Trump has no plans to fire special counsel Mueller. Trump is priming the pump, the American public. If Trump does fire Mueller, that will cause a constitutional crisis in Congress, similar to Watergate. But if Trump and his operatives have convinced enough Americans and Congress in advance that Mueller’s investigation has gone on too long, with enough believing it must indeed be a hoax and a witch hunt that should end, Congress will not have the votes to impeach President Trump.
So far, I think these Trump strategies are working, and it is very destructive to our democracy. But if Mueller can prove Trumpian collusion to the satisfaction of Congress, it will be a treason unlike the United States of America has ever seen.
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