The of us who follow this site are aware that NY State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is one of the good guys when it comes to issues we care about. With Trump’s business headquartered in NY there are state laws that he can use to hold Trump & family to account. He’s been aggressive enough and a solid enough dude that no less than Robert Mueller has been coordinating with him. In part it’s to make sure charges are brought in the jurisdiction (NY State? Or Federal Courts?) to bring about the best chances for a successful prosecution and/or greatest penalties upon convictions. Just as importantly and perhaps even more so, looping in Schneiderman gives Mueller some level of backup should Trump and the GOP (because we know damn well they would let him get away with it) do whatever he has to in order to have Mueller fired. And purge the FBI of anyone who would do any real investigating of Trump/Russia. Even though Schneiderman may not have as many potential charges to bring, the good news is that since the campaign, like Trump’s businesses (and “charities”) was headquartered in New York. So even if violations of Federal Election Law are off the table it’s still possible some of the campaign stuff (anything to do with money laundering or attempts to do so) are still on the table.
And Trump can’t do a thing about it because his powers to pardon are limited to federal crimes.
That brings me to the news that just broke that the FBI has been investigating links between Russian money and the NRA that may well have been funneled into the Trump campaign.
www.mcclatchydc.com/...
That’s a big violation of Federal Election Law that Mueller has probably been working on since long before us regular folks learned the NRA was being investigated. Mueller and his people are being typically opaque but journalists have long had good FBI contacts so the news the FBI itself long ago started looking into this is credible. It’s not a stretch to assume that given all the matters that were part of the FBI’s counter-intelligence investigation that led to Comey’s firing and were subsequently taken over by Mueller that this matter isn’t at least being monitored by Mueller, both on money laundering and election law (it’s illegal to use foreign money in an American political campaign) which are covered under federal law. But maybe, and even probably there are actions that took place (again, laundering money) to set up all those contributions the Russians made to the Trump campaign through the NRA that are covered in the Virginia criminal code. Virginia you say? Yep. Back in the 1990s they moved their Headquarters from downtown DC to northern Virginia — Fairfax to be precise.
Enter Mark Herring, Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
en.wikipedia.org/...
Herring isn’t the quasi national figure Schneiderman has become. But he won a close race for AG in 2013 and was easily re-elected this past November. More importantly, he has some progressive credentials having refused to enforce attempts by the Virginia GOP to prevent gay marriage. He also appears to be a strong supporter of things like net neutrality, consumer protections and other progressive issues. Here’s a link to actions his Office has taken: oag.state.va.us/… I moved out of Virginia in 2003 so I’m not as familiar with the major players in the state’s politics as I once was so perhaps some who live there can speak up on just how progressive (or not) Herring actually is and whether he has the intensity that Schneiderman does.
If so, perhaps he’s been quietly working with Mueller or is starting to. And if it’s public that he has in fact been working cooperatively with Mueller and I somehow missed it I’m sure someone will tell me. It wouldn’t be the first time I wrote something that left me with egg on my face. But either way I hope that folks will mount a steady (and public) drumbeat for Herring to take up this matter. Perhaps that’s even something that will help keep up the Democratic enthusiasm momentum we saw in Virginia last November.