Is The US Still A Nation Of Laws?

If so, Congress has no choice but to begin the impeachment process now.

Trump committed obstruction of justice – not just in private by ordering his underlings to fire Mueller – but in public by calling the investigation a witch hunt. He suborned perjury by stating that he would “take care of” those who refused to testify against him and by calling those who did “rats.” He has ignored the Constitution’s emoluments clause by using his Washington DC hotel to profit from foreign leaders, foreign citizens and lobbyists. And he obviously requested then accepted and benefited from property stolen by Russian hackers.

If those actions don’t rise to the level of “high crimes and misdemeanors,” it’s difficult to imagine what does.

Nixon resigned under threat of impeachment for ordering the break-in of the Democratic office and resorting to obstruction of justice in order to cover it up. Clinton was impeached for accepting oral sex from an intern and lying about it. Are those crimes worse than accepting property stolen from a political opponent by a hostile nation and obstructing justice by attempting to prevent an investigation into the matter?

Since Trump began his campaign to win the most powerful office in the world, we have seen him refuse to reveal his tax returns unlike most other presidential candidates since Nixon. We have heard him brag about sexual assault. We have discovered that he had an extramarital affair with a porn star and a centerfold model then illegally paid for their silence. We heard from more than a dozen women, including one who was underage, that Trump had sexually assaulted them. We learned that Trump had been a regular guest at Jeffrey Epstein’s parties before Epstein was convicted of trafficking underage girls for sex. And we learned that a tabloid managed by a Trump friend practiced “catch and kill” to bury unflattering stories about Trump.

Despite Trump’s claims that he had nothing to do with Russia, we heard his sons brag that the family business gets all the financing it needs from Russians. We learned that Trump’s lawyer had continued to negotiate a deal for Trump Tower Moscow even after the 2016 election. We learned that much of Trump’s income comes from real estate sales to Russian oligarchs – likely as a means of laundering money. We’ve seen Trump’s campaign manager, his personal attorney, his national security advisor and others associated with his campaign arrested and convicted. And we learned of more than 100 contacts between members of the Trump campaign and Russians.

We watched Trump settle a lawsuit that his Trump Foundation defrauded donors. We saw him settle claims that his Trump “university” defrauded students. We learned that he and his siblings engaged in tax fraud in order to avoid paying millions on their inheritance. And we learned that his name was mentioned in the Panama Papers – a leak of those involved in offshore tax havens – 3,540 times. (Not surprisingly, his good friend Vladimir Putin was also named.)

We have seen reports of millions in donations missing from the Trump Inaugural Committee. We have learned that the former owner of an illicit massage parlor in Florida is a regular at Mar-a-Lago and helped raise funds from Chinese nationals for Trump’s campaign – funds that weren’t reported and cannot be accounted for.

We have listened to thousands of lies told by Trump and his administration since he took office. (It has been documented that roughly 70 percent of the statements Trump makes are false!) We have seen him appoint the most corrupt and unqualified cabinet in history. We have watched him appoint dozens of unqualified and ideological judges to lifetime positions. We have watched the unraveling of environmental, financial and safety regulations. We have witnessed his racism and his apologies for violent white nationalists. We have watched as his administration ripped immigrant children from their parents and housed them in cages. We have seen his administration veto a UN resolution that would hold war criminals accountable and force a change in another UN resolution that will result in the denial of abortions to girls who have been raped as a military tactic. We have read his Tweets promoting violence against a black Muslim congresswoman. And we have seen Trump cozy up to some of the world’s worst dictators while, at the same time, turning a cold shoulder to our longest-standing and most loyal allies.

How many more crimes must Congress see before taking action? How many more despicable acts?

Does Trump really have to shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue, as he once bragged he could, to be held accountable for his actions? Would not any other resident of the US be charged and convicted for just one of the many crimes committed by Trump?

A woman in Texas is serving a 5-year prison sentence for not realizing that she was ineligible to vote. Yet Barr and the DOJ have let Trump and other members of his campaign off the hook for supposedly not knowing that it was against the law to undermine our electoral process by accepting help from a hostile nation. What happened to the long-standing legal principle that ignorance of the law is no excuse?

Throughout our nation’s history, we have operated according to the principle that no one is above the law. So far, that has not applied to the Teflon Don and his crime family.

The Barr Effect.

Contrary to Attorney General William Barr’s 4-page “summary” of the Mueller Report or his misleading press conference, Trump and his campaign were not cleared of collusion. And he most certainly was not exonerated. In his report, Mueller simply said that there was not enough evidence to indict Trump and his campaign for conspiring with the Russians to interfere with the 2016 election – largely because the Mueller team could not interview the Russian hackers and Russian intelligence officials to confirm that they conspired with the campaign. In addition, the Mueller Report notes that many of the campaign’s communications had been encrypted and much of the evidence had been destroyed.

Nevertheless, the report does detail many examples of cooperation with the Russians who interfered with our democratic process. It also details numerous instances during which the Trump campaign accepted material and information stolen from its political opponents.

By any definition, that is collusion!

As for obstruction, the Mueller Report outlines at least 10 incidents in which Trump tried to obstruct the investigation, including numerous occasions when he ordered underlings to fire the Special Counsel. That means that Trump clearly committed obstruction of justice even though members of his administration refused to follow his orders. (An act of obstruction does not have to be successful in order for it to qualify as an indictable offense.) But, as a result of the DOJ’s unsupported ruling that a sitting president cannot be indicted, Mueller deferred the responsibility of determining guilt to Congress. In doing so, Mueller clearly stated that his investigation DID NOT exonerate the president. And the Mueller Report does not even consider Trump’s corrupt business practices, his tax evasion, his racism, his sexual improprieties, and his obvious violations of the Constitution’s emoluments clause.

Yet, despite abundant evidence to the contrary, the GOP and some of the media continue to repeat the falsehoods made by Barr in his memo and press conference that the investigation “cleared Trump of all charges.” In other words, for the time being, Barr’s cover-up has worked. He has succeeded in providing a false narrative in order to protect his boss.

None of this is surprising. After auditioning for the position of Trump’s Attorney General by writing an 18-page memo proclaiming the unlimited powers of the president, the skeptics among us saw this coming. Barr’s intentions should have also been clear to anyone with an understanding of history. After all, Barr had participated in presidential cover-ups before following the capture of the sitting president of a foreign nation and the pardons of all the criminals in the Reagan administration who participated in the Iran-Contra scandal.

Indeed, it should be abundantly clear to everyone that Barr is not the Attorney General for the United States. He has merely replaced Michael Cohen as Trump’s fixer and consigliore.

Clearly, Trump is operating outside the law. And both he and Barr are operating contrary to ethical and moral standards. As a result, I believe that both should be impeached. Our nation was built on the concepts of reason, justice and the rule of law. Though it’s likely true that doing so may further divide the nation. But it’s also true that not doing so could set precedents for future presidents and attorneys general which could allow them to commit even more heinous acts. Worse, it puts the entire foundation of our nation at risk!

What Would A Russian Operative Do If He Ran For President Of The United States?

He would appoint a pro-Russian lobbyist as his campaign manager.
He would change the platform of his political party to make it more friendly toward Russia.
He would invite the Russian ambassador to his party’s national convention.
He would request and accept Russian help with his election campaign.
He would have his campaign manager provide polling data to his Russian handlers so that Russia could more accurately target US voters with its disinformation campaign.
He would have members of his campaign staff and transition committee try to open secret back channels with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
He would accept millions in donations from pro-Russian Ukrainians for his inauguration.
He would appoint a retired general who was acting as a foreign agent as Director of National Security.
He would appoint unqualified sycophants to key positions in his administration with the express purpose of dismantling the agencies they control.
He would refuse to fully staff most government departments, especially those in leadership positions.
He would refuse to fully staff the State Department.
He would refuse to appoint ambassadors to many US allies.
He would try to undermine American’s trust in all government institutions.
He would encourage and sign a bill to cut taxes that would result in unprecedented national debt.
He would fire the leadership of the FBI and diminish its standing among millions of his supporters.
He would dismiss the findings of all five US intelligence agencies and accept the word of Vladimir Putin, instead.
He would repeatedly deny that he received election help from Russian interference. “No collusion!”
He would try to block and derail any investigations into his connections with Russia.
He would constantly attack the opposing party with the intent of dividing our nation as never before.
He would promote and pursue racist policies to further divide our nation.
He would lie so often that citizens would have difficulty telling falsehoods from the truth.
He would call the media “enemies of the people” and blame our problems on them.
He would undermine the relationships and standing with America’s closest and most loyal allies.
He would undermine NATO.
He would attempt to delay and block economic sanctions on Russia that were passed by Congress.
He would welcome Russian diplomats into the Oval Office and provide them classified information obtained by a US ally. He would allow only Russian media to attend the meeting.
He would create chaos with the nation’s trading partners by imposing unwarranted tariffs that would cause damage to many of our key industries.
He would have secret meetings with his handlers and destroy any record of them.
He would suddenly, with no military reason, announce the withdrawal of US troops from Syria relinquishing control of the region to a dictator and Russia.
He would attempt to rewrite history by promoting Vladimir Putin’s version of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
He would shutdown the US government on a whim and refuse to negotiate in good faith to reopen it.

As you can see, it doesn’t matter if Donald J. Trump was actually recruited to be a Russian spy. He is acting as one.

Democrats’ Dilemmas.

Now that Democrats have overcome the Republican’s extreme gerrymandering and voter suppression to take control of the US House of Representatives, they face a serious dilemma. If they reach across the aisle and cooperate with the president to pass legislation on behalf those who elected them, Trump will take credit for it. (No one is better at claiming credit for others’ efforts.)

On the other hand, if Democrats obstruct Trump’s sinister agenda, Republicans will call them obstructionists and use their propaganda networks to undermine the Democrats’ chances of re-election. (Seemingly, only Republicans are able to obstruct without paying a price.)

And, as of today, Democrats are faced with an even more serious challenge following the forced resignation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions. By passing over Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to install one of his compliant lackeys, Trump is clearly obstructing justice by taking responsibility for the Robert Mueller investigation away from Rosenstein. As the new Acting Attorney General, Matthew Whitaker will not have to recuse himself. Moreover, he will be able to block any further indictments or, worse, prevent the Special Counsel’s report from becoming public. Of course, this comes on the heels of the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court likely based on Kavanaugh’s belief in the supremacy of the presidency – that the president is above the law.

The result is a constitutional crisis most Americans have been wanting to avoid – the modern equivalent of Watergate’s Saturday Night Massacre which ultimately led to Nixon’s resignation.

Lest you dismiss Trump’s actions as mere politics as usual, you should consider the fact that the Trump campaign’s conspiracy involving Wikileaks and Russia is actually far worse than Watergate. Both consisted of interference in a presidential election. Both were break-ins – one into an office, the other into computers. Both involved the theft and use of Democratic documents. Both involved dirty tricks. And both led to indictments and convictions of the presidents’ campaign operatives. The difference is that Watergate did not involve a foreign government hostile to the United States.

All of this means that the new, Democratic-controlled House will be forced to take measures to ensure that the Mueller investigation continues unimpeded until we get to the bottom of the Trump campaign’s conspiracy. And to determine, once and for all, whether or not the president was directly involved and aware of the conspiracy.

How Democrats go about these tasks may determine the outcome of the 2020 elections. If they do not protect Mueller and do not let the investigation continue to its conclusion, they will be punished at the polls by Democratic voters who will be understandably infuriated at their failure to hold Trump accountable. But, if their actions seem too partisan, and if they ignore the many other serious issues facing this nation, they will be punished by independents and swing voters.

Democrats will be walking a tightrope. It will take much thought, foresight and balance to attain their goals. Let’s all hope they are up to the task.