December 2, 2018

"As a prosecutor, you build a case by having your cooperating accomplice witnesses plead guilty to the big scheme you are trying to pin on the main culprit."

"After all, what makes these witnesses accomplices, literally, is that they were participants in the main culprit’s crime. That’s the scheme you’re trying to prove. So, on guilty-plea day, the cooperator comes into court and admits guilt to the same conspiracy on which you are trying to nail the lead defendant. That gets you 90 percent of the way home.... This kind of guilty plea signals to the world, including to all the other suspects, that the accomplice is ready to testify that the criminal scheme existed — it is not a figment of the prosecutor’s fevered imagination.... With respect to the president and 'collusion,' Mueller does not have a crime he is investigating. He is investigating in hopes of finding a crime, which is a day-and-night different thing. The lack of a crime means the 'accomplices' are not really accomplices....  [I]f you turn a prosecutor loose to investigate political campaign activities — you are apt to find unsavory conduct that is not criminal but that some people will lie about.... But the convictions [Mueller] has amassed, even if they are only for false statements or are otherwise unrelated to the Trump-Russia rationale for the investigation, prove that many people Trump brought into his campaign were corruptible and of low character...."

Writes Andrew McCarthy (National Review).

101 comments:

David Begley said...

Of course McCarthy is right but that is of no concern to the lawless Dems. Get Trump!

gspencer said...

"prove that many people Trump brought into his campaign were corruptible and of low character...."

I've always been surprised that Trump, well before his 2015 presidential launch, never signed up the Clintons to work for him. Maybe he tried, and he found out that they preferred being corruptible and of low character on their own.

rhhardin said...

You want a system where the wrong people do the right thing, not a system that depends on the right people being there.

lgv said...

"...were corruptible and of low character...."

Aren't they all? That a prerequisite to employment for all political parties and campaigns.

High moral character is no way to win an election.

Fernandinande said...

"As a prosecutor, you build a case by having your cooperating accomplice witnesses plead guilty to the big scheme you are trying to pin on the main culprit."

I say they almost always use extortion to get a witness to cooperate, but some people call it bribery. Which is correct? Is it bribery rather than extortion if they know the witness is lying?

rehajm said...

Vast majority of people get into politics because they are corruptible and in low character.

Laslo Spatula said...

Corruptible and in low character: especially problematic in an identical twin.

I am Laslo.

Darrell said...

prove that many people Trump brought into his campaign were corruptible and of low character...."

Wrong. Every FBI agent or prosecutor knows that you just have to get the person to answer a question--any question--then find somebody that disagrees with that answer, and have them sign an affidavit. Scooter Libby's phone records showed he answered honestly: The reporter's notes, not even recorded contemporaneously, did not match the phone records, yet were the basis for Libby's prosecution.

Amadeus 48 said...

You lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas. Trump is a low character. That is what I like about him. He’s MY low character.

Diogenes of Sinope said...

If Mueller had any case against Trump it would have been leaked and common knowledge well before the midterm elections.

Diogenes of Sinope said...

The goal is to hobble the Trump presidency. To keep the investigation going, stirring the pot, more and more rumors, innuendo, accusations and turmoil without resolution. An endless and limitless inquisition. Mueller's is a political operation not a judicial process.

David Begley said...

Rod Rosenstein is entirely responsible for this. I want to see the ethics opinion where it approved him to be a witness, potential defendant and prosecutor in the same case.

Lyle said...

Who the hell in politics isn't corruptible and of low character? If Mueller went after everyone, himself included, he could jail everyone.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

"The goal is to hobble the Trump presidency. To keep the investigation going, stirring the pot, more and more rumors, innuendo, accusations and turmoil without resolution. An endless and limitless inquisition. Mueller's is a political operation not a judicial process."

Indeed. The Clinton Crime Family Deep State in action.

Diogenes of Sinope said...

Our elite betters hate the hoi polloi agreeing with Hillary Clinton, we are deplorable. And they hate Trump for being a trader to the elite. So this has little to do with justice and is mostly about punishing a heretic.

Kevin said...

We’re all waiting for Mueller’s report so the counterpuncher can begin counterpunching.

Trump: Rosenstein is dead. So is Susan Rice. Comey. Strozk. McCabe. Clinton. Lynch. Today I settled all family business so don't tell me that you're innocent. Admit what you did.

[RBG starts sobbing]

James K said...

It's painfully clear that Mueller's strategy is to drag his joke of an investigation on as long as possible, to cast a cloud over the Trump administration, and to continue to cover up the real crimes of his buddies Comey, Brennan, Lynch, et al. In the meantime he can entrap a few people into phony process crimes, as is his long time MO, or uncover completely unrelated financial peccadilloes. Trump can't shut it down for fear of giving the House Dems a pretense for "obstruction of justice" charges. Yet rather than focus on this outrage, McCarthy has to throw in a little virtue signalling about people of "low character."

Ann Althouse said...

"You want a system where the wrong people do the right thing, not a system that depends on the right people being there."

"If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself."

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

More here on the Mueller-Clinton-Dossier

Original Mike said...

Byron York: Remember Prague? In Michael Cohen plea deal, Mueller says nothing about key collusion allegation

From the article:

"...the Cohen plea agreement also made news in what it did not cover. Specifically, it spoke volumes — without saying a word — about a key allegation of the Trump dossier, the charge that Cohen traveled to Prague to arrange secret payments to Russian hackers attacking the Clinton campaign. The accusation is the heart of the collusion allegation, and Trump-Russia special counsel Robert Mueller's deal with Cohen strongly suggests that prosecutors have not found evidence to support it."

"A quick reminder of what the Prague tale was: In the dossier, former British spy Christopher Steele cited a "Kremlin insider" who reported that Cohen traveled to Prague in August 2016 for talks with Russians with close ties to the Kremlin. The talks, according to the dossier, focused on "questions on how deniable cash payments were to be made to hackers who had worked in Europe under Kremlin direction against the CLINTON campaign and various contingencies for covering up these operations and Moscow's secret liaison with the TRUMP team more generally.""

wild chicken said...

All pretty ironic considering there was actual collusion between Putin and Hillary on the Uranuum One deal.

So much projection.

Hagar said...

The Mueller "investigation" is going to go on until Trump leaves office, whether that be in 2021 or 2025.

Bob Boyd said...

The purpose of the never-ending investigation of Trump is to tie Trump's hands and protect the Dem machine from being investigated themselves.
The sight of all those Trump voters chanting "Lock her up!" must've had a lot of people in DC worried. When Trump actually won, they were pissing their pants. They know if Hillary goes down she won't go down alone.
"I'm with her" isn't such a great slogan when she is in prison.

tds said...

"...prove that many people Trump brought into his campaign were corruptible and of low character..."

and how is it different from any other presidential campaign team?

Phil 314 said...

Is anyone making a Netflix series on Trump/Russia collusion, or is it too soon?

When one does come out then we’ll have the real story.

Dude1394 said...

“prove that many people Trump brought into his campaign were corruptible and of low character...."

I call bullshit on this and McCarthy is hardly an objective observer. As if Hillary’s and Obama’s campaign facing a special prosecutor would not be having the exact same crap charges brought up. It happened to Clinton with that special prosecutor, all types of folks went down or could have if Starr was as corrupt as mueller for unrelated stuff.

Bobber Fleck said...

If you think Mueller has gone off the tracks in his investigation, wait until the House is in Democrat control.

Narayanan said...

Andrew McCarthy has not shown but simply holds Robert Mueller isn't corruptible or low character because FBI director!!

Amadeus 48 said...

As aggravating as the Dem fanboys of the press are, there are worse things than have our executive branch under constant scrutiny and indeed investigation. My complaint is not that they are doing it to Trump. it is that they didn’t do it to Obama and they would not have done it to Clinton. In fact, they gave HRC a pass on something that would have landed lower level people in the clink. They are still raiding the houses of whistleblowers on the Uranium One deal.

Trump can take care of himself if he will. An unconstrained Donald Trump would not be a good thing.

Mike Sylwester said...

In this situation, the person who is most corruptible and of low character is Robert "The FBI Whitewasher" Mueller.

Following him in the list is Rod Rosenstein.

Bobb said...

“prove that many people Trump brought into his campaign were corruptible and of low character...."

No. It proves some people will plead guilty to a process crime and be willing to go on probation or face a small time in jail* rather than go bankrupt facing the unlimited budget of the special prosecutor.

* The three sentences so far are 14 days, one month and six months.

Breezy said...

Sad thing is these high level thugs think they are protecting some high falutin institution called FBI, when that ship has already sailed. It’s reputation is already in tatters and these antics make it worse. Time to rip off the bandage let the light in so whoever is left can get on with the re-building process.

gg6 said...

"the convictions [Mueller] has amassed.." AMASSED?! What are there - 3 or 4 self-serving or pettifogging lies having nothing to do with 'Russian collusion'?..."prove that many people Trump brought into his campaign were corruptible and of low character...." wtf? "many"? "prove"? What a farce. McCarthy has 'proved' himself a 'low character', underemployed lawyer feeding off a phony scandal.

Murph said...

"You want a system where the wrong people do the right thing, not a system that depends on the right people being there."

I believe that pithy management concept originated (at least as spoken in public) with Milton Friedman? When he was speaking about choosing incentives to restrict pols insofar as might be possible.

Temujin said...

What is the standard for measuring low character and/or corruptibility? Today it is considered low character to wear a hat that says 'Make America Great Again'. Somehow that simple phrase worn on your body has become a neon light stating 'I am a Proud Racist'. Of course, that's ridiculous, but that's today's standard.

Would Obama's UN Ambassador, Samatha Power be considered low character because she illegally umasked 260+ American citizens during an election year. I stress that this was illegally done, with a purpose, and as part of a greater plan. What kind of person does that? And where did she get the order to do so, as this is not something a US Ambassador ever does. Low character?

Would Obama himself be considered low character for standing up in front of the world and declaring that the Benghazi attack was brought on by a video made a couple of years earlier by an obscure US citizen. A video almost no one saw that had nothing to do with anything. Any random 7 year old on the street could tell you minutes after the report of the attack came out, that it was a terrorist attack. Yet, there was President Obama, in multiple formats, lying very matter-of-factly to the American people and the world. Then following that up by lying to the dead men's parents about how they died. This, just a few years after he told the American people over 60 times that they could keep their insurance and their doctor under his plan when he clearly knew that was not so.

Is that low character? To me those are two examples of a much more devious and corrupt sort of low character- which undermines our very country. So again I ask: What's the standard for low character? Is it saying 'grab her pussy'? Or is it manipulating the intelligence services to gain information on US citizens during an election year? Information that can be used to try to change an election, or reverse the outcome of said election. Which is the real low character?

The Samatha Powers and Barack Obamas of the world continue to get free passes. As do the Andrew Weismanns of the world. Weissmann, the 'Bulldog' of Robert Mueller's prosecution team, has a horrible record of targeting innocent people and bulldozing them into lying for the government or ending up in jail. He has a track record that should put him in jail, yet he's doing the digging on Trump and his team. What is considered low character anymore?

narciso said...

McCarthy has been a year behind the curve:

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/12/another_turbulent_week_with_some_big_mysteries.html

Narayanan said...

If it was Milton Friedman who wanted the wrong people do the right thing

He gave the pols the idea of withholding taxes from paychecks.

Wrong people doing further wrongs.

narciso said...

Are those links ok?

Tom said...

Low character? AND corruptible?! In a presidential campaign, you say?!! Who's shocked by this?

Earnest Prole said...

Every word McCarthy writes is true, but hasn’t this been glaringly obvious since the day the probe was announced?

hombre said...

“... prove that many people Trump brought into his campaign were corruptible and of low character...."

Whereas the Clinton cohorts are incorruptible and of high character as are Mueller and his button men.

hombre said...

McCarthy has said from early on that Hillary violated federal law with her bathroom server and that Mueller has no probable cause for his witch hunt.

He is a straight shooter who knows his stuff. He might be a good choice for AG - if Trump wants a straight shooter.

James K said...

Every word McCarthy writes is true, but hasn’t this been glaringly obvious since the day the probe was announced?

Yes, though not to McCarthy. And it bears repeating anyway until it gets through the MSM wall of silence.

Original Mike said...

"Yes, though not to McCarthy."

Yeah, McCarthy has shown himself to be too naive to be AG.

Mountain Maven said...

McCarthy is returning to the NR-GOPe fold.

Guildofcannonballs said...

On Hanukkah we musn't forget our Uncle Milt:

"What is important is not the particular person who is elected President or the party he belongs to. I have often said we shall not correct the state of affairs by electing the right people; we’ve tried that. The right people before they’re elected become the wrong people after they’re elected. The important thing is to make it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing. If it is not politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing, the right people will not do the right thing either."

http://www.aei.org/publication/quotation-of-the-day-on-electing-the-right-people/

Yancey Ward said...

rhardin wrote:

"ou want a system where the wrong people do the right thing, not a system that depends on the right people being there."

"If men were angels, no government would be necessary"

One of the federalist papers from over two centuries ago.

Yancey Ward said...

Fernandastein wrote:

"I say they almost always use extortion to get a witness to cooperate, but some people call it bribery. Which is correct? Is it bribery rather than extortion if they know the witness is lying?"

I was always under the impression that corroboration was required in such cases, but I could be wrong. However, given that I also think people of low character gravitate to government services most connected to politics which will be most conspicuous in the prosecution systems, I think you have crooks prosecuting crooks.

Sebastian said...

"many people Trump brought into his campaign were corruptible and of low character"

Like General Flynn, nailed for "lying"?

The witch hunters destroying our system are, ipso facto, of lower character than anyone they persecute.

Yancey Ward said...

I see the professor beat me to it.

Joan said...

If you read the whole article, it’s clear that the amassed/proof/ low character sentence is McCarthy summarizing Mueller’s tactic, not his own opinion.

Original Mike said...

Blogger Bob Boyd said..."The purpose of the never-ending investigation of Trump is to tie Trump's hands and protect the Dem machine from being investigated themselves.

The sight of all those Trump voters chanting "Lock her up!" must've had a lot of people in DC worried. When Trump actually won, they were pissing their pants. They know if Hillary goes down she won't go down alone.
"I'm with her" isn't such a great slogan when she is in prison."


On the morning after the election The Fortune of War Pub in Sydney had this on their blackboard at the Pub entrance (wish I could post the pic):

"There is still hope for Hillary Clinton.
Nelson Mandela became president after 27 years in prison!!!"

Matt Sablan said...

Wasn't the Prague Tale, as it is called, also... THE WRONG COHEN?

wildswan said...

The Mueller investigation is dragging on just like the John Doe investigation in Wisconsin and for the same reason. It makes some naive people think something must be wrong somewhere in the Walker administration or the Trump campaign because otherwise the investigation would stop. Anyhow that's what I thought for a long time during the Walker investigation because the alternative explanation is that law enforcement at a very high level is corrupt. This proved to be the case in Wisconsin and so I quickly realized what Mueller was doing. But on the national scene people have to through that same process of realization. It takes quite awhile for a middle class person to decide that the FBI at the highest level was corrupt under Mueller and Comey and that the CIA under Brennan was corrupt and allowed Hillary to expose national secrets and sell national power and that the President - Obama - did not and does not care. But the world won't come to an end just because people have to realize that a very self righteous group at the top, the court of adoration about Obama, was rotten to the core (as could have been known by its support of Hillary and Bill) and has gotten the USA into a lot of trouble. But it takes time for people to conclude that they have all the information needed for a decision on such a big complex decision, the decision to inwardly acknowledge that the explanation for the Mueller investigation, the attacks on Trump and the previous poor state of the US economy is all one thing: corruption of, by and for the left as it exists in American politics.

Original Mike said...

Blogger Matthew Sablan said..."Wasn't the Prague Tale, as it is called, also... THE WRONG COHEN?"

Yes, and that fact is important. It's evidence that the Steele dossier was assembled with data mined by somebody (*cough* Fusion GPS *cough*) from US spy agency databases.

cyrus83 said...

The thing about getting people to plead guilty to lying is that it renders them unreliable witnesses in any future trial against anyone else. If all Mueller has at the end of the day is a bunch of people confessing to lying to investigators, he pretty much has nothing.

The statute should be revised so that lying to investigators cannot be a stand-alone charge, but only brought when there is a charge for an antecedent crime that was being lied about.

Bruce Hayden said...

“I say they almost always use extortion to get a witness to cooperate, but some people call it bribery. Which is correct? Is it bribery rather than extortion if they know the witness is lying?”

Good point.

I think that McCarthy is right here. Getting your lead witnesses to cooperate by getting them to admit to lying to the FBI (etc) burns them as witnesses against the higher level people that you are after. All that Mueller really has are process cries against people he has tried to flip. Because they have pled guilty as having lied, they cannot be used, in court, against Trump, nor any other higher ups. This is why he says that anything that Mueller does from here on out is political, not legal. He knows he can’t get Trump legally, so plans on passing the job onto the House Democrats, which, thanks to rampant cheating in the last election, easily have the votes to impeach Trump, regardless of wrongdoing found. But that isn’t going to end well for a lot of Deep State players, as well as high ranking Democrats, because, as he admits, Trump is a counterpuncher, and the obvious counter to impeachment is to burn the house down, with a lot of prominent Democrats still inside. He has the votes in the Senate to get a vigorous AG appointed. And probably A DAG replacement to Rosenstein.

Things are really starting to heat up, with Congress now lame duck and Christmas around the corner. UT USA Huber, as well as Comey are scheduled to testify before House committees in closed session (so that they can be thoroughly interrogated, instead of the politicians grandstanding, which would be the case in open session). Huber seems to have been looking into Clinton Foundation malfeasance, which is why, almost assuredly, why FBI agents illegally procured a warrant to search the house of a registered whistleblower, and then stayed for six hours after acquiring the target of their search warrant, rummaging around looking for dirt. Of course, DoJ IG Horowitz already had copies of the whistleblower’s documents, and had given them to the Senate - but the Clintons and their enablers probably did not. Never mind. It looks like they have a couple more whistleblowers. Meanwhile IG Horowitz has a report several months overdue to Congress presumably detailing DoJ and FBI FISA malfeasance. As I mentioned yesterday, Q seems to be projecting major events this coming week, likely on or around 12/5.

Pass the popcorn.

mccullough said...

Of his two sets of guilty pleas, what’s the serious crime Cohen pleaded guilty to? Something about taxi medallion fraud?

The campaign finance violation is a joke. The payoffs yo Stormy and another woman were “unreported campaign contributions” and “exceeded $5,000”? Paying off people to keep silent is legal, for the most part, and is a personal expense. Campaign finance law would be a total joke if campaigns can use campaign funds to pay off mistresses as consultants who keep quiet.

That Cohen was even charged with this by Preet’s disgruntled minions shows what petty fools they are.

Government gets by because people have enough trust in the government and each other. Comey and Brennan and the people in their agencies and the other part of government who went along with their bullshit have eroded trust.

As FBI Director, Mueller did nothing to investigate Wall Street. That might be because Holder and Obama told him to have the FBI stand down. And Mueller did as he was told because that’s the kind of public servant he is. He wasn’t smug about it like Comey, who like John Roberts makes a big show of honor and humility in order as a disguise for doing the cowardly thing. But Mueller was useless as FBI head. Totally ignored Wall Street that melted the economy.

But now Sideshow Bob is hot on the trail of nothing. Mueller is an Honorable Man. Just ask Flake and Romney.

These types of political investigations are nothing new. Hacks like Lawrence Walsh and Ken Starr spent years on bullshit as well because they, too, are Honorable Men.

Mueller is a Whitewasher. Always was. That’s how he became FBI Director. His tenure was a spectacular failure. The FBI was focused on fucking steroid investigations in baseball while Wall Street assholes were melting the economy. He is a ducking joke just like Comey and Brennan. These guys are throne sniffers who pretend they are independent. Honorable Men. Fucking Lackeys is what they are. No better than brother-in-Law of some Big City Mayor in charge of the local Department of Transportation.




When he retired he was a Whitewasher in the private sector for the NFL.

Original Mike said...

"He has the votes in the Senate to get a vigorous AG appointed."

I'm not so sure about that.

narciso said...

And banamex (well he spoke for them) apple and Facebook. His firm represented Deutsche bank.

Bruce Hayden said...

“Yes, and that fact is important. It's evidence that the Steele dossier was assembled with data mined by somebody (*cough* Fusion GPS *cough*) from US spy agency databases.”

Which brings up the logical question of hell the heck did Fusion GPS get access to such. It very likely came from FBI authorized searching by contractors of their FISA Title VII databases, which was shutdown in 4-5/16 by NSA Dir Adm Rogers, when he discovered such. It was grossly illegal. We know that the illegal searching was done - we just don’t know who did it, because that has been, of course, redacted in the FISC opinions involving the misuse. Which, of course, ignores the problem that the results of those queries were, by law, masked. Who unmasked the targets of these searches? My guess is that it was done using UN Ambassador Samantha Powers’ credentials - but she claims that it wasn’t she, implying that someone else was doing so in her name or using her credentials. Oh, and very likely this problem very ties directly to the Obama White House. But then Strzok and Page, in their text messages, had alredy incriminated the Obama White House in the fraudulently obtained FISA warrants on Carter Page (and thanks to their two hop rule, that meant surveillance of most of the Trump campaign, transition, and maybe even early Administration).

Matt Sablan said...

"The statute should be revised so that lying to investigators cannot be a stand-alone charge, but only brought when there is a charge for an antecedent crime that was being lied about."

-- I'd be fine with people being charged for lying to investigators if it were evenly applied. It is not, so I see no reason to give politicized investigators tools to jail their political unfavorites while giving passes to their friends.

gadfly said...

With the arrival of Donald Trump into the political scene, "norm erosion" began with an overwhelming sense that America’s civic norms and democratic institutions faced unusual dangers. R Street notes:

For example, when candidate and then President Trump suggested prosecuting his political rivals, refused to say whether he would accept the results of the election, encouraged violence by his supporters, and claimed that illegal aliens somehow “rigged” elections, he violated norms.

Along these lines, John Holbo at Crooked Timber finds fault with Andy McCarthy:

It’s useful to narrow it down. This President, in this era of hyper-partisanship, is a peculiarly unconstrained beast, legally. (Not just in the old, familiar imperial presidency sense.) There isn’t much Trump could do to get Republicans to impeach him. So impeachment is off the table as a check on Presidential abuse of power. In a narrow, legal sense, the immunity of a sitting President from prosecution, plus arguable exemption from conflict of interest laws, plus theoretically unconstrained pardon power, means on paper, a lot of ‘get out of jail free’ cards. No one would have aimed for this result. It’s obviously bad to have no check on Presidential corruption. (Maybe the emoluments clause is going to save us. We’ll see.)

Andrew McCarthy is a good example. In his latest piece he objects to Mueller’s investigation – as he always does – on the grounds that there is no clear, overarching, blackletter ‘collusion’ crime in the prosecutor’s cross-hairs.

Note [Andy's] attractive, exculpatory impersonalism of "cosmic injustice". ("Note that word: crime. There are many wrongs that are not crimes, activities that are immoral, mendacious, unseemly. If we are talking about cosmic justice, all these wrongs should be made right. But prosecutors do not operate in a cosmic-justice system.") If awful stuff comes to light in l’affaire Russe, but it can be made out that there wasn’t a technical law against it; or if there is some law, but still some last ‘get out of jail free’ pardon card to be played – then Trump isn’t guilty – nor can Republicans be said to be at fault for turning a blind-eye. It’s the universe. Ergo, anyone who is upset about corruption is just some kooky, wild-eyed cosmic justice warrior.

The position is self-undermining within the scope of the piece itself. McCarthy is indignant that Mueller is violating prosecutorial norms – not breaking laws. But McCarthy doesn’t, therefore, chalk Mueller’s wrongdoing up to the cosmos’ injustice tab and shrug it off. But there’s an attractive pseudo-purity to such legalism.

I think probably the most effective tack, rhetorically, is to force the likes of McCarthy to own the apparent perversity of the allegedly principled result. Namely, the right thing to do is to not expose serious Presidential corruption, since, weirdly enough, it isn’t illegal.

Original Mike said...

"If awful stuff comes to light in l’affaire Russe, ..."

Yeah, get back to us when that happens.

LA_Bob said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
LA_Bob said...

cyrus83 said, "The statute should be revised so that lying to investigators cannot be a stand-alone charge, but only brought when there is a charge for an antecedent crime that was being lied about."

There's a better chance we'll get good, solid entitlement reform before Congress dreams of reforming the "making false statements" law.

Unknown said...

Interesting thread, as (almost) always.

Mueller doesn't seem to be held in high regard. Corruption amongst the leadership of those whose firearms/ammo/firearms training* all come free, is clearly understood by most. That the media has picked sides is obvious.
So when will America decide that the past Administration needs to suffer the criminal consequences of their actions?

Small correction - training isn't just 'free', it's during working hours.

mccullough said...

Norms are constantly eroded. Trump has done his share. It didn’t begin with him.

Obama, Holder, and Mueller let their friends on Wall Street walk away with some fines paid by their company. Jon Corrine gets a CFTC action for misappropriating $1.6 billion in client funds instead of a criminal indictment and 20 years in prison.
This is egregious favoritism on major crimes.

As an everyday matter, the failure by multiple administrations to enforce immigration laws just washes away any respect for the rule of law.

And, of course, there is Hillary and her coterie setting up the private server, sending classified information on it, then lying about it.

Obama, Lynch, and Comey let them skate.

Trump is accelerating the erosion of political and government norms.

It is naive, ignorant, and/or partisan to say it “began” with Trump.


mccullough said...

Corzine

Humperdink said...

Menendez

Kevin said...

"Hillary Clinton did not swear an oath to tell the truth before meeting with the FBI for three and a half hours last weekend, and the interview was not recorded, FBI Director James Comey told House lawmakers on Thursday.

The lack of a sworn oath does not remove the possibility of criminal penalties against Clinton if she lied to the FBI, though he said he had “no basis to conclude” that she was untruthful. ...

Comey himself was not among the “five or six” agents who interviewed Clinton, he testified on Thursday. But he assured lawmakers that Clinton told the truth throughout the session.

"I don’t think the agents assessed she was evasive," he added."

So for Flynn the standard was "not 100% accurate in every way", for Hillary it was "not assessed to be evasive".

Matt Sablan said...

... What was the point of interviewing her if she wasn't required to be honest?

JackWayne said...

Re Althouse’s Madison quote: Madison made sure to provide the unlimited governmental power to control the people. And failed to provide the power to control the government. His view of a Constitution is fundamentally unsound. A Constitution should not be designed to control the People, it should be designed to control the Ruling Class. Local government (federalism?) is mostly all you need to control the people. Madison was a dilettante and it shows.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The Clinton investigation was a scam. They let her walk and that was the plan all along.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

I can hardly wait till Mueller gets through all the minibosses and gets to the final boss battle!

elkh1 said...

How about staffers on other campaigns? How about Podesta who had committed the same "corrupt" and "low character" crime as Manafort, but was never charged? Was Manafort worse than Podesta? Or was Mueller a corrupt, low character Clinonite who abused the law in an attempt to avenge Hillary's loss?

Jupiter said...

Matthew Sablan said...

"I'd be fine with people being charged for lying to investigators if it were evenly applied."

If it were evenly applied, everyone who has ever spoken with a federal agent would be in prison.

Guildofcannonballs said...

"I think you have crooks prosecuting crooks."

Watch Church of Felons about Polk County WI. It is about drinking/drugs and driving. The DA gets busted and blows like a .16 or something.

Great doc.

Brian said...

The Mueller "investigation" is going to go on until Trump leaves office, whether that be in 2021 or 2025.

My $.02:

It will be sometime between July 2019 and July 2020. It might be an interim report, but a report will be issued. They will want a republican to run against Trump in the primaries. That argues for an earlier date.

By July 2020, it will be time to issue a report, but not have Congress do anything about it, and leave it up to the "will of the voters". Why impeach a president 4 months before an election.

There won't be an impeachment from the Democrat controlled house, much to the consternation of the Democrat base. All the more reason a majority of the Dem candidates will be Senators. They will get to call for impeachment without being able to do anything about it. This is good news for Trump. Senate candidates don't fare well in presidential contests. Especially if they have voting records (so Obama doesn't count).

Sam L. said...

I don't read the National Review, having given it up with their Never-Trump issue, and now I Never-Trust the NR.

I Callahan said...

With the arrival of Donald Trump into the political scene, "norm erosion" began with an overwhelming sense that America’s civic norms and democratic institutions faced unusual dangers

Right, because getting BJ's in the oval office, Dems telling voters that Republicans want to throw old ladies down staircases and make them eat cat food, calling Republicans "Hitlers", well, that just didn't happen until Trump was elected.

What you NeverTrumpers never have the balls to admit is that Trump is a response to that lack of "norms", NOT the cause. It's wusses like you who want to stand there and let the Dems treat us like we're lepers. The "muh principles" excuse has been erased, and I, for one, will NEVER vote for another Republican again if it morphs back into the sissified bunch of insiders they were before Trump. Let the Dems win and ruin it all, and real men and women will rebuild afterward.

Big Mike said...

What you NeverTrumpers never have the balls to admit is that Trump is a response to that lack of "norms", NOT the cause.

+1

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

Any investigation into Russian collusion that doesn't include Hillary's campaign or the Obama administration is illegitimate. It's just a partisan hack hit job.

Original Mike said...

Blogger I Callahan said..."What you NeverTrumpers never have the balls to admit is that Trump is a response to that lack of "norms", NOT the cause."

Who are you talking to?

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

I laugh when the talking heads talk about Mueller being ready to wrap this up. Democrats don't give up on investigations. Wisconsin would be on John Doe 6 if it wasn't for the courts.

Jupiter said...

Yancey Ward said...
"... I think you have crooks prosecuting crooks."

You got the first part right.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“You lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas. Trump is a low character. That is what I like about him. He’s MY low character.”

Evidently, if one has low character one is happy to have a person of low character be POTUS. I wouldn’t have thought you to be a person of low character, I’m disapointed.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“As aggravating as the Dem fanboys of the press are, there are worse things than have our executive branch under constant scrutiny and indeed investigation.”

So the Press isn’t the enemy of the people afterall, eh?

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Trumpists don’t like the “lack of norms”, so they go get someone who is so abnormal they make previous lack of norms appear quite normal.

You people are nuts.

Jim at said...

Once again, we've disappointed the Jill Stein voter.

It really hurts.

The Godfather said...

Maybe I'm crazy, but what I see is the Mueller investigation coming to an ignominious end. Yes, I see and hear all the George Stephanopouluses claiming that Mueller is closing in on Trump, but I see nothing -- NOTHING -- that proves or even hints at proof of collusion between Trump and Russia. Of course Mueller will issue a "report", and if the AG bars its public release it will be leaked. And it will try very hard to make Trump look bad -- in contrast, I suppose, to his current public image as a choir boy and candidate for sainthood? But (if I'm right) it will be so far less than Mueller was supposedly appointed to find, and that the MSM have promised us he will deliver, that the public will ignore it.

Paul Doty said...

As opposed to the paragns of virtue in the Clinton organization. For the love of God, will these lowlife, bottom-feeding, self important, disingenuous, lying assholes EVER give it a rest?!

Jupiter said...

The Godfather said...
"Yes, I see and hear all the George Stephanopouluses claiming that Mueller is closing in on Trump, but I see nothing -- NOTHING -- that proves or even hints at proof of collusion between Trump and Russia."

One gets tired of saying it, but say it one must. It is not illegal to collude with Russia. In fact, colluding with Russia is a grand old American tradition, going back at least to FDR, who actually flew to Yalta in order to have his picture taken colluding with Joe Stalin, and including such Democratic luminaries as Ted Kennedy, who conspired against Reagan with the Soviet Union, and more recently Barack Obama, who insinuated to the Russian President that he would have "more flexibility after the election". I'm not sure where selling America's uranium supply to Rosatom fits in, but it wouldn't be a crime if she hadn't accepted the bribe.

I Callahan said...

Original Mike: I was talking to Gadfly.

Bruce Hayden said...

@Gadfly - so, at the end of your long quote from Holbo, or whoever he or she is, we are still at the place where Mueller has nothing. I get it. Holbo doesn’t likevMcCarthy. But he really didn’t say anything beyond that. He doesn’t even try to refute what McCarthy said, but rather just calls him a bad, misguided, person of some sort. Does he elsewhere make an argument that the Mueller investigation has really discovered any actual crimes committed by Trump, or his family members? That they illegally colluded with the Russians to steal the election? That any of these bit players who plead out on process crimes, such as lying to FBI agents, can effectively be used in court against anyone?

Original Mike said...

I don't think gadfly is properly identified as a NeverTrumper. More like a loony lefty.

But maybe I'm wrong.

walter said...

"the convictions [Mueller] has amassed, even if they are only for false statements or are otherwise unrelated to the Trump-Russia rationale for the investigation, prove that many people Trump brought into his campaign were corruptible and of low character"
--
Yeah..put Hil's and O's circle under the same pressure and see what kind of shit is squeezed out. Grab hip waders.

Douglas B. Levene said...

I read the comments on NRO to McCarthy's articles and I dunno, maybe it's because I'm a lawyer and so what McCarthy is saying is so obviously correct, but most people don't seem to get his argument. It doesn't seem to matter whether they are supporters or opponents of Trump. McCarthy's argument about how a prosecutor constructs a conspiracy case and why it's obvious that's not what Mueller is doing seems to just fly over their heads.

Bob Loblaw said...

If you think Mueller has gone off the tracks in his investigation, wait until the House is in Democrat control.

I suspect the Democrats are savvy enough to realize the American people have no interest in endless House committee investigations fishing for crimes. Heck, they didn't have any interest in Hillary's blatant criminal behavior when the Republicans were trying to use hearings to get the word out.

If Democrats don't have that savvy or are forced into it by the base, they'll probably lose the House again in 2020.

gadfly said...

The Justice Department is planning an unusual appeal to stop the governments of the State of Maryland and the District of Columbia from using a federal lawsuit to demand access to information about whether President Donald Trump is using his luxury Washington hotel to unconstitutionally profit from his office.

Last month, U.S. District Court Judge Peter Messitte turned down Trump’s request for permission to seek an appeal of early rulings in the case that went against him. Now, federal government lawyers say they plan to appeal anyway, using a rarely invoked process that can block a wayward judge from pressing on with a course of action alleged to be illegal or improper.


Emoluments violations are acts to be defended by the President, not the Solicitor General. The controversial efforts by Trump to use Justice Department lawyers as his personal law firm have been attacked since he fired Jim Comey and Jeff Sessions for refusing to do so. So herein lies the first steps outside the line by acting AG Whitaker.