Mueller Reportedly Investigating Donald Trump

By Jeralyn, Section Corruption Cases
Posted on Thu Jun 15, 2017 at 12:56:49 PM EST
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While James Comey had not been investigating Donald Trump personally, according to the Washington Post, Trump is a subject of Robert Mueller's investigation -- which now includes the firing of James Comey.

Daniel Coats, the current director of national intelligence, Mike Rogers, head of the National Security Agency, and Rogers’s recently departed deputy, Richard Ledgett, agreed to be interviewed by Mueller’s investigators as early as this week. The investigation has been cloaked in secrecy, and it is unclear how many others have been questioned by the FBI.

The Washington Post does not say the FBI is the source of the information. It just says "Five people briefed on the interview requests, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly" provided the information."

Trump is now fielding questions to his personal lawyer, Mark Kasowitz, who in turn, refers them to his publicist/crisis manager, Mark Corallo. Where have we heard Corallo's name before? In the Valerie Plame investigation -- he was the spokesman for Karl Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin.[More...]

What a conundrum that turned out to be: See here, here, and here.

Anyway, here's the backstory on Coates and Rogers.
Charles Pierce says Mueller is "following the money."

As for Jefferson Sessions, it seems no one is buying his country munchkinisms. As for the Mayflower, the photos of Kislyak and Sessions are all over the place. It's easy to figure out what event they are at from their ties.

Kislyak at the Mayflower, as he was leaving (next to what looks to me like the back of Sessions' head)

Sessions at the Mayflower:

Sessions memory lapses are not credible. Nor was his claim he met with the ambassadors as part of his Senate role on the Armed Services committee. Or is explanation for why he attended Trump's foreign policy speech. (He had already been designated a "foreign policy" and national security advisor to Trump.)

Sessions will get a pass for his memory, but if it's as bad as he claims, he really shouldn't be leading the Justice Department.

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Mueller Reportedly Investigating Donald Trump | 23 comments (23 topical)

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The Many Tongues of Newt Gingrich, Part MCMLXIX: (5.00 / 1) (#18)
by Donald from Hawaii on Sat Jun 17, 2017 at 07:21:40 AM EST

In which the former House speaker, who voted to impeach President Bill Clinton for obstruction of justice in December 1998, now claims per a speech yesterday that "[t]echnically, the president of the United States cannot obstruct justice."

: i think he really wants (none / 0) (#19)
by CaptHowdy on Sat Jun 17, 2017 at 07:48:56 AM EST

to get and keep Callista outta the house. idyl hands 'n all....

Sessions testimony was laughable (none / 0) (#1)
by ruffian on Fri Jun 16, 2017 at 04:05:14 PM EST

I was listening at work, and literally was laughing with my headphones on, I'm sure my coworkers thought I was even crazier than usual.

Basically 'I don't recall, but if I did talk to him it must have been proper...slow down you are making me nervous, brown lady'.

jeebus.

interesting (none / 0) (#2)
by CaptHowdy on Fri Jun 16, 2017 at 04:19:58 PM EST

that the man Pence hired as a lawyer is not only personally close to Comey but is Godfather to one of his children.

could just be the rarefied DC culture. still, interesting.


"It's very routine, (none / 0) (#3)
by KeysDan on Fri Jun 16, 2017 at 05:06:49 PM EST

very routine." asserts Pence....(and, I didn't know anything about Flynn, either)>


: And Trumps lawyer (none / 0) (#4)
by CaptHowdy on Fri Jun 16, 2017 at 05:22:41 PM EST

Just hired a lawyer. Can't wait to see if the lawyers lawyer hires a lawyer.

Do you think there's any truth to the rumor ... (none / 0) (#11)
by Donald from Hawaii on Fri Jun 16, 2017 at 09:04:59 PM EST

... that Mike Pence is actually the secret love child of Clutch Cargo?


I was thinking (none / 0) (#12)
by CaptHowdy on Fri Jun 16, 2017 at 09:11:27 PM EST

Doc Savage


Come to think of it (none / 0) (#22)
by jondee on Sat Jun 17, 2017 at 03:18:04 PM EST

I never saw Clutch Cargo alone with a woman either.


: You know, you're right. (none / 0) (#23)
by Donald from Hawaii on Sat Jun 17, 2017 at 11:33:26 PM EST

And come to think of it, Clutch Cargo also had bleached blond hair and a chiseled bod, and he spent almost all of his time in the company of his butch-daddy friend Swampy and young pubescent "ward" Skipper. Really, what was that all about? And why does Clutch have a name which otherwise would be a great moniker for a West Hollywood nightclub?
Maybe I was looking at it all wrong. Perhaps deep inside Mike Pence, there's an inner Clutch Cargo just waiting to burst forth. And maybe inside Clutch himself, there's an inner RuPaul yearning to break free.
And that would mean that Mike Pence is really one of those Russian nesting dolls, the one you keep opening only to find another inside. Which is yet another reason for Special Counsel Robert Mueller to continue his Trump-Russia investigation.
This bongwater moment has been brought to you by Amnesia Haze.
;-D

I think the more it's said (none / 0) (#5)
by CaptHowdy on Fri Jun 16, 2017 at 06:44:17 PM EST

He can't fire Mueller, every time a republican makes a public statement in support of Mueller and the investigation and especially every news story about how crazy and impossible firing Rosenstein and Muller is makes a Trump massacre more likely.

I really think it's coming. I think he is even demented enough to do it this weekend, the 45th anniversary of Watergate, just to show the world how little concern or regard he has about public opinion. And how expansive his hubris really is.

I also think he really is starting to crack under the stress of this.

He (none / 0) (#7)
by FlJoe on Fri Jun 16, 2017 at 06:58:59 PM EST

really wants to do it, so far a whole parade of people have begged him not to, in the end he will go with his gut..scary thought. It looks like


Again (none / 0) (#8)
by CaptHowdy on Fri Jun 16, 2017 at 07:07:19 PM EST

I think that very fact makes it more likely.

It is scary. Otoh it is the one thing I think would cause enough republicans to turn on him. Not all of them. Enough


: I think the Special elections (none / 0) (#9)
by CaptHowdy on Fri Jun 16, 2017 at 07:10:41 PM EST

Next week could effect Trumps fortunes.
House republicans are already soiling themselves about a wave election next year. That could turn a wave into a tsunami

Oh, c'mon, Cap'n! Have a heart! (none / 0) (#10)
by Donald from Hawaii on Fri Jun 16, 2017 at 08:40:26 PM EST

Associated Press: "Trump advisers and confidants describe the president as increasingly angry over the investigation, yelling at television sets in the White House carrying coverage and insisting he is the target of a conspiracy to discredit -- and potentially end -- his presidency. Some of his ire is aimed at Rosenstein and investigative special counsel Robert Mueller, both of whom the president believes are biased against him, associates say."

I mean, who amongst us hasn't yelled at TV sets, blamed others for our own misfortunes and claimed that we were victims of a vast conspiracy, all at the same time? Why, the Nashville Predators and their fans were doing just that en masse last week during the second period of Game 6 in the NHL Stanley Cup Finals.

;-D

That said, nothing surprises me anymore about Trump. Nothing.


You had to go there, Donald (none / 0) (#13)
by jondee on Fri Jun 16, 2017 at 09:14:19 PM EST

four power play chances for Nashville and zero for Pittsburgh doesn't seem like much of a conspiracy, on the face of it..

I'm wondering if Trump is going to start kicking in and shooting out tv screens the way drug-addled Elvis did in his later years.


But of course, I had to go there. (none / 0) (#15)
by Donald from Hawaii on Fri Jun 16, 2017 at 09:24:51 PM EST

I never pass up a chance to take a good whack at a low hanging piñata. Teach your children well, their father's hell did slowly go by.


: Does Barron's father (none / 0) (#17)
by jondee on Fri Jun 16, 2017 at 10:31:01 PM EST

know he's been doing this?

I have yelled at a tv set or two (none / 0) (#14)
by CaptHowdy on Fri Jun 16, 2017 at 09:16:07 PM EST

That is one of the reports. Another was about him wandering around the WH at night. Apparently he doesnt sleep much.

This sometimes seems like Watergate accelerated by the modern news cycle.


Republicans can no doubt rest easy, ... (none / 0) (#16)
by Donald from Hawaii on Fri Jun 16, 2017 at 09:54:38 PM EST

... secure in the knowledge that their commander in chief is up all hours and doing everything he can to halt this relentless pursuit of justice.


: He's probably ransacking the (5.00 / 3) (#21)
by Anne on Sat Jun 17, 2017 at 02:37:35 PM EST

WH kitchen looking for the strawberries...

FBI will not release Comey memos (none / 0) (#6)
by CaptHowdy on Fri Jun 16, 2017 at 06:54:28 PM EST

DailyBeast

The Federal Bureau of investigation will not release copies of memos drafted by former director James Comey recounting his interactions with President Donald Trump, the bureau said on Friday.
The Daily Beast filed a Freedom of Information Act request after it was revealed that Comey had drafted memos detailing each of his nine conversations with President Trump. Comey told a Senate committee last week that those conversations convinced him that the president was attempting to pressure him into pledging fealty and easing up on a probe into former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn.
The FBI said it could not release the memos in response to that request, as "there is a pending or prospective law enforcement proceeding relevant to these responsive records, and release of the information in these responsive records could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings." The law enforcement proceeding at issue is likely the FBI's investigation into alleged Russian election-meddling, the Trump campaign's potential involvement in it, and the possibility that Trump committed obstruction of justice by firing Comey last month--a move the president admitted was prompted by the persistence of the FBI's Russia investigation

while an endless parade (none / 0) (#20)
by CaptHowdy on Sat Jun 17, 2017 at 08:02:31 AM EST

of clueless bobbelheads recite the CW that Trumps base is "sticking with him", 538 explains it aint necessarily so.

But the theory isn't supported by the evidence. To the contrary, Trump's base seems to be eroding. There's been a considerable decline in the number of Americans who strongly approve of Trump, from a peak of around 30 percent in February to just 21 or 22 percent of the electorate now. (The decline in Trump's strong approval ratings is larger than the overall decline in his approval ratings, in fact.) Far from having unconditional love from his base, Trump has already lost almost a third of his strong support. And voters who strongly disapprove of Trump outnumber those who strongly approve of him by about a 2-to-1 ratio, which could presage an "enthusiasm gap" that works against Trump at the midterms. The data suggests, in particular, that the GOP's initial attempt (and failure) in March to pass its unpopular health care bill may have cost Trump with his core supporters.
So while there's risk to Democrats in underestimating Trump's resiliency, there's an equal or perhaps greater risk to Republicans in thinking Trump's immune from political gravity.
If you look beneath the surface of Trump's approval ratings, you find not hidden strength but greater weakness than the topline numbers imply.

538