You know, if there's one thing I hate, it's being indecisive. Fortunately, it doesn't happen to me that often. One of the perks of being an old fart is the ability to make snap decisions about things you know nothing about, and then defend them to the death. Our Toddler in Chief is the reigning champion in that category. But right now, I honestly don't know if his attorney, John M Dowd, has been spending too much time around The Inglorious basterd, or if he's just that stupid and incompetent.
Let's start with phase one of his statement, his own culpability in Trump's twitter madness. Dowd came out and asserted that he actually wrote the content of Trump's tweet about Trump being aware of Flynn lying to the FBI when he fired him, that being one of the reasons. There can only be two possible reasons for this. One, Dowd is falling on his sword to protect Trump because he's being paid a shitload of money, and he has no more ethics or morals than anybody else who spends more than five minutes around Trump. Or, one from column B, he's so manifestly incompetent that he couldn't pass an interview to be a public defender. No first year law student would advise a client to admit that he knew a person had lied to the FBI when he fired the FBI director for looking into the matter of Flynn lying to the FBI. There are no other options as far as I can see.
But then, John Dowd crossed the line between plain old incompetence and into the ranks of manifest legal malfeasance, when he flatly stated that "The President cannot be guilty of obstruction of justice because he is the nations top law enforcement officer. He is wrong on so many levels that it's hard to even know where to start.
For one thing, Trump is not "the nations top law enforcement officer." Trump is nothing of the sort. He is the President, and as such, he gets to appoint the Attorney General, and if applicable, the Director of the FBI. Let's not forget, Trump should not have had to appoint an FBI director, Comey's term was not up, Trump forced the issue by firing Comey in the first place. But Trump has nothing to do with ;law enforcement, the Justice Department is supposed to be out of bounds for political interference. Actually, the situation is exactly the opposite, Trump has spent his whole life circumventing every law he can find. Saying that Trump is running law enforcement in the US is like a city giving a gambling license to a three card monte dealer cuz he's running a clean game!
Ah, that felt good! Now, on to point two. Of course Trump can be charged with obstruction of justice in an impeachment proceeding, because that is not a legal case, impeachment is a purely political exercise. The House can impeach him, and the Senate can hold a "trial for anything they want, they can charge him for cruel and inhumane treatment of human rights for overworking the White House maid for not making his bed in the morning if they want to. And as for legal criminal aspects, if Robert Mueller so decided, if Trump isn't reelected in 2020, He can then indict and try him on criminal obstruction of justice charges if he so desired, the federal statute of limitations will not have run out on that crime.
And one more thing on that subject, while I'm on a roll. It is an open legal question as to whether or not a sitting President can be indicted. The nay sayers contend that he cannot, that this is what the impeachment process is for. I call bullshit. Impeachment was purposely created as a political remedy for situations that called for the removal of a federal officer for serious offenses that may not rise to criminal stature, but are still injurious to the nation. Our bedrock political principle is that "no man is above the law." If you go with the "no indictment" argument, then Trump literally could "walk out in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody" and not be charged for it, which is insane on the face of it. Personally, I believe that if the evidence warrants it, Mueller will indict Trump in a grand jury, and force the Supreme Court to rule on the issue once and for all.
This is what happens when you have a reputation as a piker. Donnie Jr seems to have fairly competent counsel advising him, and so does Jared Kushner. But when Deadbeat Donnie came a calling, all of a sudden, all of the high priced law firms with attorneys who actually knew their collective asses from a hole in the ground were suddenly much too swamped to take on any new clients. So, Numbnuts Sr ended up with the legal equivalent of getting your root canal done at a dental college, from the guy who was never going to pass his finals.
The old saying is "You get what you pay for." But Trump is coining a brand spanking new adage, "This is what you get when you don't pay for shit!" And it couldn't happen to nicer pond scum.
It’s here! The moment you’ve been dreading looking forward to. My new e-book President Evil. A common man looks at Trump and the 2016 primaries. You can get it now on Amazon.