Showdown

May 3, 2018

We are rapidly approaching the moment that we have all been dreading since the day Trump raised the stubby fingers of his right hand and falsely swore an oath of fealty to our Constitution.  On Monday, The New York Times revealed a list of 49 questions that Mueller was poised to ask Trump in the event that an interview took place (Source:  “Mueller Has Dozens of Inquiries for Trump in Broad Quest on Russia Ties,” by Michael S. Schmidt, The New York Times, 4/30/18).  The list was actually released by Trump’s lawyers, in a wrongheaded effort to discredit Mueller for purportedly exceeding the scope of his mandate.  Since Trump’s lawyers are venal and incompetent, a cursory review of the questions revealed them to be keenly focused on obstruction of justice and collusion with Russia, the precise issues that Mueller was appointed to investigate.The very next day, Rod Rosenstein, in a defiant appearance at the Newseum, pushed back hard against the efforts of Trump’s minions in the Congressional “Freedom” Caucus to intimidate him with threats of impeachment.  Rosenstein contrasted the leaks and threats from Congress with the rigorous process that those in the Justice Department follow when they are accusing someone of wrongdoing — pointing out that federal prosecutors must swear out affidavits and sign their names to allegations — unable to hide behind the cowardly cloak of anonymity.  With a faint smile, Rosenstein flatly stated that “the Justice Department is not going to be extorted,” (Source:  “Rod Rosenstein:   Justice Department is ‘not going to be extorted,’” by Jeremy Herb and Laura Jarrett, CNNPolitics.com, 5/1/18).

Predictably, a truculent Trump responded by firing off a series of tweets threatening to interfere with the Justice Department if it does not provide the Freedom Caucus members with documents relating to the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s e-mails. Trump and his supporters are desperate to change the subject from the steady stream of damaging revelations from the Special Counsel’s investigation.  The inescapable conclusion is that Mueller has evidence of both obstruction and collusion and is willing to subpoena Trump to force him to either go on the record or plead the Fifth (Source:  “Muller floated possible subpoena of Trump:  Reports,” AP/CBSNews.com, 5/2/18).It is clear that Trump’s response to being between a rock and a hard place is to double down. The replacement of avuncular, bumbling Ty Cobb, who consistently counseled cooperation, with Clinton impeachment attorney, Emmet Flood, is telegraphing this new approach (Source:  “Ty Cobb Out:  Trump plans to replace White House lawyer with Bill Clinton’s attorney to take on Mueller,” by Sonam Sheth, BusinessInsider.com,  5/2/18).  Trump brought on viterupative, combative Rudy Giuliani, who promptly went on Hannity and blandly admitted that Trump had reimbursed Michael Cohen for the $130,000 Stormy Daniels payment.  To add insult to injury, Giuliani trashed James Comey (who he hired in the U.S. Attorney’s Office) as a liar and derided FBI agents as stormtroopers.  This unhinged rant seems like malpractice, but is in fact, a warning shot across the bow.

Every action and utterance from Trump and his team is designed to sow confusion, cast doubt on the honesty and good faith of career law enforcement personnel and generally burn our institutions to the ground.  Trump’s high stakes gamble is that the only way to evade criminal liability is to claim that he is above the law.  Every one of us needs to be ready, because the showdown is imminent.

#Ruleoflaw

#Nooneisabovethelaw