By Karen Rubin, News & Photo Features
There were scores of headlines after the Mueller hearings that went like Dan Balz’ in the Washington Post: “Democrats are now left with one option to end Trump’s presidency: The 2020 Election”. Also, that the “Lack of electricity in Mueller testimony short-circuited impeachment.”
But there were many bombshells delivered by Special Counsel Robert Mueller albeit in his restrained fashion: Trump lied in his sworn written testimony to Mueller (after refusing for a year to sit for a personal interview); told witnesses to lie and destroy documents; dangled pardons while intimidating and threatening others, amounting to witness tampering and obstruction of justice, even before you get to firing the FBI Director and ordering Don McGahn to fire the Special Counsel. Just one of these – lying – was enough for Republicans to impeach President Bill Clinton.
But for the Office of Legal Counsel’s policy that a sitting president cannot be indicted, anyone committing such offenses would be prosecuted; as it is, Trump can be prosecuted once he leaves office, leaving the only remedy to hold a president accountable, impeachment by Congress, as provided in the Constitution. Mueller refused to say the dreaded “I” word.
The bigger bombshell, though, came during the House Intelligence Committee, where Mueller was absolutely clear that Russia intervened in our elections in a sweeping and systematic fashion, and they did so to help elect Donald Trump; that Trump and his campaign welcomed and encouraged that “assistance” and despite being warned by the FBI, did not report the solicitations from Russia, but instead encouraged a hostile foreign power’s help, encouraged it, built a campaign around it, then lied repeatedly to cover it up. Moreover, Russia (and others) are continuing to intervene; and that without consequences, there is a danger of normalizing foreign intervention which would otherwise be a crime.
“My concern is, have we established a new normal from this past campaign that is going to apply to future campaigns, so that if any one of us running for the U.S. House, any candidate for the U.S. Senate, and candidacy for the presidency of the United States, aware that if hostile foreign powers trying to influence an election has no duty to report that to the FBI or their authorities,” Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vt) declared.
“I hope this is not the new normal, but I fear it is,” Mueller replied.
Not only is the most sacred franchise of a free people jeopardized – the free and fair election or even trust in an election result – but such illicit activities become a national security threat by opening up a president and his aides to blackmail or extortion.
“Trading political secrets for money with a foreign adversary can corrupt and it can leave you open to blackmail and it certainly represents the betrayal of the values underpinning our democracy,” said Congressman Andre Carson (D-IN)
“One thing is clear,” Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said, “the Russians massively intervened in 2016, and they are prepared to do so again in voting that is set to begin a mere eight months from now.
“The president seems to welcome the help again. And so, we must make all efforts to harden our election’s infrastructure to ensure there is a paper trail for all voting, to deter the Russians from meddling, to discover it when they do, to disrupt it, and to make them pay.
“Protecting the sanctity of our elections begins, however, with the recognition that accepting foreign help is disloyal to our country, unethical, and wrong. We cannot control what the Russians do, not completely, but we can decide what we do and that the centuries old experiment we call American democracy is worth cherishing.”
This is the greatest impeachable offense of all: violating the oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution from enemies foreign and domestic.
Indeed, the day after Mueller gave his warning, the Senate Intelligence Committee released its own report documenting the massive attack on the US election system in 2016 – that they struck all 50 states (and why is Reality Winner, the NSA contractor who blew the whistle on Russian interference in 20 states, in prison?) – and the enormous vulnerabilities that remain.
It isn’t just Russia, but China, North Korea, Israel, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Iran and Trump’s own Cambridge Analytica (owned by Robert Mercer, Trump’s biggest donor in 2016, which installed Brad Parscale, now Trump 2020 campaign manager, as head of Trump’s social media campaign where he boasted in 2016 of suppressing votes by women, liberals and blacks) that are chomping at the bit to re-create American government to their own advantage. The New York Times just reported that Iran created 7,000 fictitious accounts to do a Russian-style disinformation campaign.
Anyone who has been paying attention realizes that Trump, who has already issued an open invitation for foreign “help”, will pull out the stops to steal the 2020 election, doubling down on the techniques applied to steal 2016. And he has even more incentive, as Mueller stated: he can be indicted for the felonies committed once he is no longer the “sitting president” – assuming it is within the statute of limitations.
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked four Election Protection bills that passed out of the Democratic-controlled House.
But at this stage, Republicans believe vulnerabilities in the election system – foreign and domestic - is a tool that they can use. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has basically said, “Give me some of that,” (the newly unsanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg V. Deripaska, invested $200 million in McConnell’s state of Kentucky) – by blocking votes on four House-passed Election Security.
Other offenses: lying about business dealings with Russia throughout the campaign (still not known what other financial interests might be at the heart of Trump’s erratic foreign policy decisions) – the knowledge of which could be used to extort, blackmail Trump who has demonstrated his eagerness to do Putin’s bidding (NATO, European Union, Iran). Indeed, the Mueller hearings reminded everyone of the counter-intelligence investigation into kompromat measures – whatever happened to those findings? - which gave the underlying motivation to the 125 contacts with Russians, including Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort sharing internal polling data, with Konstantin Kilimnik, who had ties to Russian intel agencies and discussing campaign strategy in four battleground states, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, coincidentally the ones which gave Trump the 77,000 votes to snatch the Electoral College.
What is it about Russia’s Internet Research Agency spending $1.25 million a month on social media –producing 80,000 posts on Facebook that were seen by 126 million people, 3800 Twitter accounts that produced 175,000 tweets reaching 1.4 million, Trump’s repeated call-outs to Wikileaks releasing dirt on the Clinton campaign, 125 contacts between Trump aides and Russians (Kushner meeting with head of sanctioned Russian bank; Flynn meeting with Russian Ambassador to set up a secret back channel, the infamous Trump Tower meeting to “get dirt” on Hillary, Erik Prince meeting), and sharing internal polling data and strategy targeting the four battleground states that misses the mark of “criminal conspiracy”?
“Manafort’s contacts with Russians close to Vladimir Putin and his efforts to exchange private information on Americans for money left him vulnerable to blackmail by the Russians” Carson stated. Mueller agreed.
Indeed, that secrecy was the basis for FBI Sally Yates’ warning about National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who had lied about a secret meeting with the Russian Ambassador (later learned he also had secret business deals going on with Turkey) which led to Flynn’s “resignation” that led to Trump firing James Comey as FBI Director, as Trump said, to put an end to the Russia thing that set into motion the Mueller investigation.
Mueller’s investigation was confined to Russia’s intervention into the 2016 Election and Trump’s subsequent cover-up. He didn’t go into possible money-laundering of Russians into his businesses, tax fraud, and other compromising situations (re: Steele Dossier) that could result in Russia blackmailing or extorting Trump. While the Constitution gives Congress the responsibility of oversight, Trump has obstructed investigations, defied subpoenas, refused to provide his tax returns, filed suits against any agency, bank or firm that has his financial documents.
But that was only the tip of the iceberg of Trump’s impeachable “high crimes and misdemeanors.” These would include other violations of the oath to “protect and defend the Constitution from enemies foreign and domestic,” of failing to follow the laws and treaties, of human rights violations and policies that have resulted in the deaths of a dozen migrants, child abuse and kidnapping and trauma of separating children as young as infants from their family, of the torture inflicted on migrants in detention camps. Abusing the power of his office to declare a national emergency, even shutting down government, in order to circumvent Congress’ Article 1 power of the purse; defying subpoenas and instructing his aides to defy Congress’ oversight power. And then there are all the violations of the Emoluments Clause, the policies made for his own enrichment and ego.
Is there a threshold of impeachable offenses before Speaker Nancy Pelosi gives the OK to start impeachment hearings and what might that threshold be?
Pelosi is still clinging to the fantasy of conducting investigations to gather as much evidence to persuade Americans that Trump should be removed – either by impeachment or election. That ain’t happening, and certainly not in a timely way. They say a court fight over requiring former White House Counsel Don McGahn to appear could take 8 months; Trump has sued to prevent New York State or anyone else releasing the tax returns despite the federal law says “shall” be provided upon request.
And the latest ruling by the radical right wing majority on the Supreme Court overturning Congress’ power of the purse to allow Trump to take $2.5 billion from the Defense budget to build his wall, and before, giving its blessing to the unconstitutional Muslim Ban – show that ultimately, Trump’s stocking the Supreme Court with Unitary Executive ideologues (as long as a Republican is in office) will pay off.
“Democrats are now left with one option to end Trump’s presidency: The 2020 Election” writes Dan Balz in the Washington Post.
That is delusional: the lack of spark will embolden Trump to do more – block investigations, sue to prevent release of documents, muzzle witnesses - and makes it more likely than ever that he will steal the 2020 election knowing there will not be consequences, and understanding the consequences (indictment, prison) if he loses. And the rest of the Republicans feel the same: they can only win by hook or by crook.
The only remedy to assure no one is Above the Law is impeachment, which would go outside the control of the Supreme Court, for Congress to gather and present the evidence of Trump’s high crimes and misdemeanors.
Why impeach? Because Trump has 18 months left in this term, and he is only getting more emboldened to defy Congress, the courts and the Constitution, undermining trust in more institutions that bolster democracy, because he is destroying the check-and-balances, separation of powers, co-equal branches of government – the oversight responsibility and power of the purse, defying subpoenas and willfully, along with his administration, violating laws, paving the way for more corruption (Ivanka and Jared have been using private emails for White House business to do end-run around public records law; KellyAnne Conway violating the Hatch Act and daring Congress to do something about it), but will likely double-down on the tactics that enabled him to steal the 2016 election, publicly inviting foreign adversaries to intervene (I can just hear what he told Putin and Kim Jong-Un privately: “I can overturn sanctions in my second term”).
But most of all, what he told the Turning Point Teens, the Hitler Youth of our time: “I have an Article 2, where I have the right to do whatever I want as President.”
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