The Memo: Fears rise of the rich asshole move against Mueller
BY NIALL STANAGE - 04/10/18 08:23 PM EDT
Washington is on edge over the possibility that President the rich asshole could move soon to fire special counsel Robert Mueller or senior members of the Justice Department.
Some Republicans, as well as Democrats and independent observers, share the concern.
“He has entered a period of impulsiveness at DEFCON 5,” said one Republican strategist with ties to the White House. “We’re in uncharted territory, where anything can happen.”
Jaffer, now an adjunct professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, argued that, aside from the legal and constitutional questions, such a move would likely be ineffective.
“Nothing he will do will stop the investigation going forward, whether it’s led by Bob Mueller or anybody else,” he said.
But not all the rich asshole loyalists agree.
Reporting by The Hill indicates that some people who have been advising the rich asshole over the last year against firing Mueller are now beginning to shift in their view.
the rich asshole, who places much stock in the opinion of certain media personalities, could also be moved by the white-hot anger of figures such as Lou Dobbs, who said on his Fox Business Network show on Monday evening that he would “fire the SOB in three seconds if it were me,” in reference to Mueller.
A GOP operative, granted anonymity to speak candidly, referred to the idea of the rich asshole moving against Mueller or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as “a high-risk strategy.”
But, this source added, “I’m not sure you have much of a choice. Mueller has forced the rich asshole into this position. He’s got him cornered. This [investigation] is now totally off the subject of Russian collusion and it’s aimed at the heart of the rich asshole Organization.”
The big change came on Monday, when news broke that the FBI had seized material belonging to the rich asshole’s longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen. Cohen’s office, home and a hotel room he was staying in while his home was being renovated were raided.
Soon after the news became public, a visibly angry the rich asshole told reporters that the raids were “a disgrace” and an “attack on our country.”
The president’s anger continued into Tuesday morning when he tweeted, “Attorney–client privilege is dead,” and, a short time later, “A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!”
Speculation about an action against Mueller was stoked further when White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Tuesday that the rich asshole “certainly believes” he has the power to remove the special counsel.
That opinion is contrary to the legal consensus, which holds that the rich asshole could not directly fire Mueller. Under Justice Department regulations, a special counsel is considered to be under the purview of the attorney general and can only be fired for good cause. However, because Attorney General Jeff Sessions has recused himself from matters pertaining to Russia, Mueller’s probe is overseen by Rosenstein.
In his Monday afternoon remarks, the rich asshole said that Sessions had made “a terrible mistake” when he recused himself and also alluded to Rosenstein’s role.
More broadly, the rich asshole insisted that the investigators were “the most biased group of people.”
Some Republicans agree with the president.
“It does seem like they want to take down the president,” said Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union and a former political director in the George W. Bush administration.
Schlapp called the Cohen raids “highly dubious or legal brinkmanship” and said the legal probes into the rich asshole were “all looking very political.”
Asked about the idea that moving against Mueller would precipitate a constitutional crisis, Schlapp responded vigorously, “The constitutional crisis occurred yesterday when the president’s lawyer’s office was raided. That is the constitutional crisis!”
Others close to the rich asshole argued that the feverish atmosphere was excessive.
Chris Ruddy, the CEO of Newsmax Media and a friend of the president, asserted to The Hill that the rich asshole possesses “an uncanny ability to deal with multiple issues and remain placid and in control. I think we will see a measured response from him in the coming days over this unusual intrusion into his lawyer’s office.”
Others use more strident language, warning about the political ramifications of any move against Mueller or the other leading figures.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said on Tuesday during a Fox Business Network interview that it would be “suicide” for the rich asshole to fire Mueller. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said, “You can’t fire the special counsel. You just can’t,” in an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.
Meanwhile, another unanswered but huge question is how Republicans in Congress would react if the rich asshole did try to get rid of Mueller.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters on Tuesday that no legislation was required to protect the special counsel because it was his view that no firing would happen.
One source who worked closely with the rich asshole transition team said that there would be bipartisan dissent if the president moved against Mueller — but that the pushback would have its limits.
“Would it rise to a constitutional crisis? No,” this source said. “Would there be people on both sides of the aisle who thought that it was not a good thing to do? Probably.”
Mark Zaid, an attorney who specializes in national security issues, was among those asserting that the rich asshole’s anger at the ongoing probe is evidence he is feeling the pressure.
“Every step that the Justice Department — not just Mueller — takes that puts the rich asshole in a perceived vise would seem to make it more likely that Sessions, Rosenstein or Mueller would be fired. Probably in a moment of emotion,” he said. “But the issue is going to be the political circumstances if any of those terminations occurred.”
The GOP operative who requested anonymity argued that the events since the start of the week might have altered everything — with unpredictable consequences.
“The raid on Cohen changed the dynamics of this investigation,” the source said. “You can now see where the rich asshole might be in real jeopardy.”
The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage, primarily focused on some rich asshole’s presidency.
the rich asshole Sought to Fire Mueller in December
In early December, President the rich asshole, furious over news reports about a new round of subpoenas from the office of the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, told advisers in no uncertain terms that Mr. Mueller’s investigation had to be shut down.
The president’s anger was fueled by reports that the subpoenas were for obtaining information about his business dealings with Deutsche Bank, according to interviews with eight White House officials, people close to the president and others familiar with the episode. To some rich asshole, the subpoenas suggested that Mr. Mueller had expanded the investigation in a way that crossed the “red line” he had set last year in an interview with The New York Times.
In the hours that followed some rich asshole’s initial anger over the Deutsche Bank reports, his lawyers and advisers worked quickly to learn about the subpoenas, and ultimately were told by Mr. Mueller’s office that the reports were not accurate, leading the president to back down.
some rich asshole’s quick conclusion that the erroneous news reports warranted firing Mr. Mueller is also an insight into some rich asshole’s state of mind about the special counsel. Despite assurances from leading Republicans like Speaker Paul D. Ryan that the president has not thought about firing Mr. Mueller, the December episode was the second time some rich asshole is now known to have considered taking that step. The other instance was in June, when the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, threatened to quit unless some rich asshole stopped trying to get him to fire Mr. Mueller.
The December episode, which has never been publicly reported, has new resonance following the disclosure on Monday that F.B.I. agents had carried out search warrants at the office and hotel room of some rich asshole’s personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen. In that action, the Justice Department seems to have walked directly up to — if not crossed — some rich asshole’s red line by examining something that seems unrelated to Russia.
Among the documents the agents sought were some related to two women who said they had affairs with some rich asshole, and information related to the role of the publisher of The National Enquirer in silencing one of the women.
After learning about the raid, the president again erupted in anger. He told reporters that federal authorities had “broke in to the office” and he called it “a disgraceful situation” and “a total witch hunt.”
When some rich asshole told Mr. McGahn in June to have Mr. Mueller fired, the president cited a series of conflict-of-interest issues that he insisted disqualified the special counsel from overseeing the investigation. Among the issues some rich asshole cited was a dispute Mr. Mueller had with some rich asshole’s Washington-area golf course years earlier. some rich asshole told Mr. McGahn to tell Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general and Mr. Mueller’s superior, that the time for Mr. Mueller to go had come.
Mr. McGahn believed those issues were not grounds for Mr. Mueller to be fired and refused to call the Justice Department.
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Over the next couple of days, some rich asshole pestered Mr. McGahn about the firing, but Mr. McGahn would not tell Mr. Rosenstein. The badgering by the president got so bad that Mr. McGahn wrote a resignation letter and was prepared to quit. It was only after Mr. McGahn made it known to senior White House officials that he was going to resign that some rich asshole backed down.
The articles that provoked some rich asshole’s anger in December — which were published by Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal and Reuters — said one of Mr. Mueller’s subpoenas had targeted some rich asshole’s and his family’s banking records at Deutsche Bank. some rich asshole’s lawyers, who have studied some rich asshole’s bank accounts, did not believe the articles were accurate because some rich asshole did not have his money there.
The lawyers were also able to learn that federal prosecutors in a different inquiry had issued a subpoena for entities connected to the family business of some rich asshole’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. The news outlets later clarified the articles, saying that the subpoena to Deutsche Bank pertained to people affiliated with some rich asshole, who was satisfied with the explanation and dropped his push to fire Mr. Mueller.
The White House did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Acutely conscious of the threat Mr. Mueller’s investigation poses, some rich asshole has openly discussed ways to shut it down. Each time, he has been convinced by his lawyers and advisers that taking the step would only exacerbate his problems. In some cases, they have explained to some rich asshole how anything that causes him to lose support from congressional Republicans could further imperil his presidency.
But some rich asshole’s statements to his advisers have been significant enough to attract attention from Mr. Mueller himself. Mr. Mueller’s investigators have interviewed current and former White House officials and have requested documents to understand whether these efforts show evidence the president is trying to obstruct the Justice Department’s investigation, according to two people briefed on the matter.
some rich asshole’s frustrations have tended to flare up in response to developments in the news, especially accounts of appearances of witnesses, whom some rich asshole feels were unfairly and aggressively approached by investigators. They include his former communications director, Hope Hicks, and his former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski.
The venting has usually been dismissed by his advisers, many of whom insist they have come to see the statements less as direct orders than as simply how the president talks, and that he often does not follow up on his outbursts.
One former adviser said that people had become conditioned to wait until some rich asshole had raised an issue at least three times before acting on it. The president’s diatribes about Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Mr. Rosenstein and the existence of the special counsel have, for most of the White House aides, become a dependable part of the fabric of life working for this president.
‘Beyond stupid’: Stormy Daniels’ lawyer smacks down ‘moronic’ Michael Cohen for going to the press
Attorney Michael Avenatti represents Stephanie Clifford, who goes by the stage name Stormy Daniels.
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The attorney for the rich asshole mistress Stormy Daniels blasted the president’s longtime personal lawyer for going to the press a day after the FBI raided his office and residences.
“While it may be good for CNN for Michael Cohen to be speaking to Don Lemon,” Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, “it’s moronic under the circumstances.”
“Any experienced attorney would tell a client not to be speaking to the press the day after the FBI executes three search warrants on your homes and your offices,” he continued. “This is just crazy, it’s ludicrous. When I heard that he’d actually spoken to Don Lemon, I didn’t believe it until I saw Don’s report.”
“It’s beyond stupid,” Avenatti concluded. “I don’t understand what he’s doing.”
The lawyer went on to say that he “still can’t believe” President some rich asshole referred reporters to Cohen aboard Air Force one last week, which he said in effect “put his personal attorney in the crosshairs by way of those statements.”
Watch below, via CNN:
LISTEN: Obama AG Loretta Lynch swipes at the rich asshole’s bogus claim that ‘attorney-client privilege is dead’
Loretta Lynch as President Barack Obama nominates her for US Attorney General (WhiteHouse.gov)
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Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch refuted President some rich asshole’s claim that “attorney-client privilege is dead” after the FBI raided his longtime attorney Michael Cohen.
“Attorney-client privilege is alive and well in this country,” Lynch told Washington Post reporter Jonathan Capehart while recording his podcast, Cape Up. “It’s something that is an important aspect of our legal system. It’s something that everyone at the Department of Justice takes very seriously.”
Later during their conversation, which also touched on her infamous tarmac meeting with former President Bill Clinton in 2016, Lynch suggested DOJ prosecutors have some of the toughest jobs in the country.
“If you want to win a popularity contest, don’t become a prosecutor,” the former attorney general told Capehart. “All you can do is hold onto your own integrity.”
Listen to their entire conversation below:
the rich asshole-backing GOP leaders ramp up criticism of Rosenstein: He should be held in ‘contempt of Congress’
Devin Nunes (Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
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Prominent congressional Republicans are publicly arguing for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to be held in “contempt of Congress” over special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
“House Intel Chair Devin Nunes (R-CA) privately told several colleagues today that it’s time for House GOP to hold Rosenstein and Wray in contempt of Congress, should they refuse to hand over requested docs, according to two people familiar with the discussions,” reported Washington Post national political reporter Robert Costa.
Congressman Nunes is not alone in making this argument on Tuesday.
“Rep. Pete King (R-NY), an intel committee member, tells me he thinks House should push forward with contempt proceedings against Rosenstein and Wray for ‘stonewalling’ on congressional document requests,” Politico’s Kyle Cheney reported.
“Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH) says Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should be ‘held accountable’ for the leadership they have displayed at the Department of Justice, specifically as it relates to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation,” the Daily Caller reported.
“This is like the Twilight Zone,” Rep. Jordan concluded.
Also on Tuesday, CNN also reporting President some rich asshole is considering firing Deputy AG Rosenstein. And The New York Times reported that the rich asshole tried to fire special counsel Robert Mueller in December.
CNN’s Bharara slams Sarah Sanders’ claim the rich asshole can fire Mueller: ‘She says things that are demonstrably false’
Former US attorney Preet Bharara. Image via screengrab.
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After White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Tuesday that President Donald the rich asshole “has the power” to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, former federal prosecutor Preet Bharara — himself fired by the president last year — told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that her comment is incorrect.
“Sarah Sanders says a lot of things that are demonstrably false,” Bharara told the CNN host shortly before news broke that the rich asshole tried for a second time to fire Mueller last December.
“The special counsel may be disciplined or removed from office only by the personal action of the attorney general,” the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York said, reading from the Justice Department’s regulation on independent counsels. “The attorney general may remove the special counsel for a variety of reasons and they include misconduct, incapacity, conflict of interest or other good cause and has to put the reasons in writing.”
“The regulation is clear in affording the special counsel some protection of measure of the whims of even someone like the president,” Bharara concluded. “That language is about as clear as it can get. If Sarah Sanders and others would take the time to read it, they would understand.”
Watch below, via CNN:
the rich asshole tried to fire Mueller again in December
Special counsel Robert Mueller and some rich asshole (Wikimedia Commons)
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some rich asshole tried to fire special counsel Robert Mueller again in December, the New York Times reports.
the rich asshole’s consideration followed fury over reports that the special counsel issued subpoenas about his business dealings with Deutsche Bank, which the president believed crossed a “read line.”
the rich asshole’s attorneys consulted with Mueller, who reportedly told the president those reports weren’t correct—prompting the president to back down.
The Times report comes after a whirlwind couple of days for the president; on Monday, he fumed over news the FBI raided the office and residence of his personal attorney Michael Cohen in a separate investigation referred by the special counsel.
According to a separate report, the rich asshole also sought to fire Mueller in June of last year.
the rich asshole considering firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to keep Mueller in check: report
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. (Shane T. McCoy / US Marshals)
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President Donald the rich asshole is considering firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in the aftermath of the FBI raid on his personal attorney Michael Cohen’s office and residence. The move would be done to “check” special counsel Robert Mueller, CNN’s sources say.
CNN reported that firing Rosenstein is “one of several options — including going so far as to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions — the rich asshole is weighing” since Cohen’s raid.
Earlier in the day, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins tweeted that Sessions was seen leaving the White House, though it remains unclear whether the appearance was related.
the rich asshole’s tax cuts didn’t benefit American workers
April 10, 2018
Nicole Goodkind
Posted with permission from Newsweek
President Donald Trump’s corporate tax cuts might not have trickled down to American workers in the way that he suggested they would.
Trump and Republican leadership have long touted their tax cuts as a massive boon to America’s working class, if not through direct tax reductions or refunds, then through the trickle-down effect of bonuses and wage increases from their employers who receive massive corporate cuts. “Tax reform is working,” Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan said in January, mentioning Apple’s decision to reward a bonus of $2,500 in stock grants to some Apple employees. “Workers are coming home and telling their families they got a bonus, or they got a raise or they got better benefits.”
But a new analysis of all Fortune 500 companies found only 4.3 percent of workers will receive a one-time bonus or wage increase tied to the business tax cuts, while businesses received nine times more in cuts than what they passed on to their workers, according to Americans for Tax Fairness, a political advocacy group devoted to tax reform. The analysis also found that companies spent 37 times as much on stock buybacks than they did on bonuses and increased wages for workers.
The study looked at corporate data, news reports and independent analyses of the top companies in the United States, which represent more than two-thirds of the gross domestic product, and analyzed changes in wages and share buybacks since the announcement of the Republican tax plan in December.
“There are too many disingenuous claims that the Trump and Republican tax cuts for corporations will trickle down to the middle class,” said Frank Clemente, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness. “President Trump and Republicans gave huge tax cuts to big drug companies, big oil and other corporations, but corporations are giving back little—if anything—to working families,” said Clemente. “In fact, this [analysis shows] that 433 corporations out of the Fortune 500 have announced no plans to share their tax cuts with employees.”
The newest projections by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that the Republican tax plan led to, in part, a 2018 deficit $242 billion higher than previously estimated.
Roughly 36 percent of Americans approve of the Republican tax cuts, according to a March Quinnipiac University Poll and a CNBC poll found that 52 percent of working adults said they had not seen a change to their paychecks since the cuts were passed.
In January, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said 90 percent of all working adults would see increases in their paychecks because of the cuts.
Michael Cohen refutes the rich asshole’s claim FBI ‘broke into’ his office: Agents ‘were extremely professional and respectful’
Michael Cohen (CNN)
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President some rich asshole’s longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen said the FBI agents who raided his office and residence were “professional, courteous and respectful” during their search. The comments counter the president’s own remarks about the bureau “breaking in” to his lawyer’s office in the immediate aftermath of the raid.
CNN reported Tuesday on Cohen’s comments — the first response since the raid carried out by FBI agents Monday.
“I am unhappy to have my personal residence and office raided,” Cohen told CNN by phone. “But I will tell you that members of the FBI that conducted the search and seizure were all extremely professional, courteous and respectful. And I thanked them at the conclusion.”
When host Don Lemon asked Cohen if he was worried about the search, the president’s attorney said he “would be lying” if he said he wasn’t.
“Do I need this in my life? No,” he said. “Do I want to be involved in this? No.”
Cohen remains insistent that the $130,000 “hush agreement” payment to the rich asshole mistress Stormy Daniels was legal, but told Lemon that given the raid, he’d “rethink how he handled the payments” because of how the search impacted his family.
‘Extraordinarily uncomfortable’: CNN rolls cringeworthy close-up of the rich asshole’s generals during his anti-FBI rant
President some rich asshole, Vice President Mike Pence, and generals in the White House.
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The Secretary of Defense and Joint Chiefs of Staff were placed in an “extraordinarily uncomfortable” position on Monday when President some rich asshole used a White House meeting to claim that America is under attack because of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
“During a meeting with his military leaders and national security leaders when President the rich asshole addressed his grievances against Jeff Sessions and Rosenstein and special prosecutor Mueller over the raid on the office, home and hotel of his personal attorney,” anchor Jake Tapper reminded. “What are folks in the Pentagon telling you about the mood in the room among these national security officials and generals?”
“You only have to look at that video, everyone is saying it was very uncomfortable,” CNN’s Barbara Starr noted. “You see several general officers there, four stars, just staring and keeping their faces expressionless or staring down.”
“They are in a room with their commander-in-chief talking about an attack on the country, but the attack is actually some rich asshole’s personal political problems of course,” she continued. “These men and women are charged with defending the country and they are listening to what is essentially a political statement by the president.”
“It is unprecedented in terms of putting them in an uncomfortable situation, politicizing the military, there is no question,” Starr concluded. “It was an extraordinary moment, extraordinarily uncomfortable for the Secretary of Defense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and the chiefs, and all of the major commanders, Jake.”
Stormy Daniels is cooperating with the feds in their Michael Cohen investigation
Adult film actress Stormy Daniels (left, via Shutterstock) and the rich asshole's personal lawyer Michael Cohen (right, via screengrab).
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the rich asshole mistress Stormy Daniels is cooperating with federal investigators probing the alleged “hush agreement” payment given to her in October 2016 by the president’s longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen in exchange for her silence about her affair with the then-Republican candidate.
NBC journalist Sarah Fitzpatrick reported news of Daniels’ cooperation on Twitter as MSNBC broke it on-air Tuesday.
NEW: Stormy Daniels cooperating with federal investigators probing 2016 non-disclosure agreement and $130,000 payment she received from Pres. Trump’s longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, sources familiar with the proceedings tell @NBCNews
News of Daniels’ cooperation came a day after Cohen was raided by the FBI in connection to the payment made to Daniels and alleged payments made to two other women who claimed to have had affairs with the rich asshole.
The pardon power can be used in the commission of a crime by the president
US President some rich asshole speaks to staff at the Department of Homeland Security in Washington, DC, on January 25, 2017, where he vowed to restore "control" of US frontiers by building a wall on the Mexican border (AFP Photo/Nicholas Kamm)
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News that one of President the rich asshole’s lawyers allegedly told lawyers for Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort in secret that the president might pardon them has caused renewed interest in the question: Can the pardon power become an instrument to obstruct justice? The answer is: Of course it can.
Think of a simple scenario. The president is asked to pardon a criminal and is given a bribe to induce the act. Would that mean that the bribe had not been a crime because the president has virtually unlimited and unreviewable pardon power under Article II of the Constitution? Of course not. The person pardoned may remain pardoned, but the president in that scenario took a bribe—and that was a criminal act (remember that VP Spiro Agnew resigned in disgrace for taking bribes—the office doesn’t inoculate criminals.)
There is no question that the framers intended the pardon power to be one of the most sweeping granted the president. Alexander Hamilton explained the rationale in Federalist No. 74 this way: “Humanity and good policy conspire to dictate, that the benign prerogative of pardoning should be as little as possible fettered or embarrassed,” he wrote. “The criminal code of every country partakes so much of necessary severity, that without an easy access to exceptions in favor of unfortunate guilt, justice would wear a countenance too sanguinary and cruel.”
So no court can review a pardon; Congress cannot undo a pardon. The power is “unfettered and unembarrassed.” However, that does not mean that it can be used in the commission of a crime by the chief executive.
Take the Watergate example. In that case, the offer of a pardon was dangled in front of defendants to assure their silence in a criminal proceeding. This act, as part of a cover-up, was widely considered to be an obstruction of justice.
Consider Article 9 of the Articles of Impeachment adopted by the House Judiciary Committee in 1974, which spelled out various “high crimes and misdemeanors” of President Nixon, including the following: “endeavoring to cause prospective defendants, and individuals duly tried and convicted, to expect favored treatment and consideration in return for their silence or false testimony, or rewarding individuals for their silence or false testimony.”
The reference is, in part, to activity of Richard Nixon with his adviser Charles Colson in January 1973. Colson’s friend and fellow Brown University alum, E. Howard Hunt, was in deep trouble. Hunt was one of the leaders of the burglars who had broken into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate complex.
Hunt left a mountain of incriminating evidence in his hotel room at the Watergate and had been arrested and indicted. He faced trial starting in the second week of January 1973 before a federal judge known for his severe sentencing, John J. Sirica (Hamilton would have labeled him “Sanguinary John.”).
Howard Hunt’s troubles were compounded by the sudden and tragic death of his wife in a plane crash in Chicago in December 1972. She had been the pay-mistress for the hush money delivered to the arrested burglars to keep them from testifying in their criminal case. She had $10,000 in cash in her purse when her plane went down short of the runway at Chicago Midway Airport, crashing into a nearby neighborhood.
Hunt still had young children. He worried that if he went to trial and Judge Sirica threw the book at him, his children would be effectively orphaned. In his despair, he asked his lawyer, William Bittman, to meet with Colson to ask for the promise of a pardon so he could plead guilty and avoid the trial.
Colson, against the advice of others in the White House, met with Bittman and in a kind of Mafioso way assured Bittman that “Christmas comes once a year,” meaning Hunt, like Jimmy Hoffa a year earlier, could expect a pardon after spending some time in prison. Bittman understood the allusion. He had been one of the prosecutors who put Hoffa in jail; Nixon pardoned Hoffa on December 23, 1971.
Colson’s subsequent meeting with Nixon in the Executive Office Building was captured on tape, with Nixon clearly agreeing to the pardon.
Hunt then pled guilty and the four “Cuban” burglars took it as a sign that they, too, would be pardoned, so they followed suit, pleading guilty, and remaining silent. The trial progressed against Gordon Liddy and James McCord, the wireman burglar and former CIA operative. Both were found guilty by a jury.
As the time approached for Judge Sirica to sentence all the defendants, young John Dean, Nixon’s White House Counsel, met in private with Richard Nixon to warn him that there was a “cancer growing on his presidency.” The tape of the conversation (Tape 886-8) is instructive on the use of pardons in a cover-up.
After some preliminaries, Dean told Nixon that he, Dean, has been obstructing justice by being a conduit for the hush money—“taking care of people out there who are guilty of crimes.” He then advised the president that he had an obstruction problem with the offer of clemency to Hunt.
Dean called the president’s position on the pardon “untenable.” He illustrated his point: “You know, the Watergate hearings [before the Senate] just over,” Dean said, “Hunt now demanding clemency or he’s going to blow. And politically, it’d be impossible for you to do it.”
Nixon agreed: “That’s right.”
“I’m not sure that you’ll ever be able to deliver on clemency,” Dean continued. “It may be just too hot.”
“You can’t do it until after the [1974] elections, that’s for sure,” Nixon ventured. “But even then… your point is that even then you couldn’t do it.”
“That’s right,” Dean responded. “It may further involve you in a way you shouldn’t be involved in this.”
“No,” Nixon replied, “it’s wrong. That’s for sure.”
The point is simple; even a scheming Nixon recognized it. If some rich asshole offers clemency to keep someone from testifying or providing evidence to authorities, it is an obstruction of justice. The key is the intent. If it is done with “corrupt” intent, as the obstruction statute labels it, then it is a crime and can be the basis for an article of impeachment.
James D. Robenalt, author, January 1973, Watergate, Roe v. Wade, Vietnam, and the Month That Changed America Forever. He lectures nationally with John Dean on Watergate. His new book, Ballots and Bullets, Black Power Politics and Urban Guerrilla Warfare in 1968 Cleveland, will be published July 1.
This article was originally published at History News Network
the rich asshole at crisis point on Mueller
BY ALEXANDER BOLTON AND MELANIE ZANONA - 04/10/18 08:14 PM EDT
President the rich asshole’s showdown with Robert Mueller headed toward a crisis point on Tuesday, with the White House saying the rich asshole has legal authority to fire the special counsel.
Republicans unnerved by the president’s anger in public and private sought to talk him down, fearing a “Saturday night massacre”-style series of firings harking back to the Nixon era was growing more likely.
GOP lawmakers fear presidential firings of Mueller, Attorney General Jeff Sessions or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein would cause chaos in Washington and dim Republican hopes of holding their congressional majorities.
“I have made my views public, and I hope he’s listening to those of us who say it would be a mistake,” said Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn(Texas).
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) insisted legislation to protect Mueller was unnecessary because cooler heads would prevail.
“I haven’t seen a clear indication yet that we needed to pass something to keep him from being removed because I don’t think that’s going to happen, and that remains my view,” McConnell told reporters. “It’s still my view that Mueller should be allowed to finish his job. I think that’s the view of most people in Congress.”
the rich asshole’s fury at the FBI’s raid on Monday on Michael Cohen, his personal lawyer, has triggered the latest crisis surrounding the Mueller probe.
Federal prosecutors were reportedly seeking information on payments made to two women, adult-film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who both claim to have had affairs with the rich asshole years ago.
The personal nature of the probe has clearly angered the president, who decried an unfair witch hunt of his presidency in a Tuesday morning tweet.
“Attorney–client privilege is dead!” the rich asshole tweeted. “A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!”
The president also canceled a planned weekend trip to two South American nations.
Allies of the rich asshole were egging him on, saying they would understand if he took the step of firing officials at the Department of Justice — a decision some Republicans have said could spark a constitutional crisis.
“I understand the president’s frustration with the hypocrisy playing out at the Department of Justice,” freshman Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) told Fox News. “Frankly, it would be warranted if we made changes at the very top of the Department of Justice.”
“I think there is a sufficient basis to fire Rosenstein in particular, and likely the attorney general for not doing his job,” he added.
That suggestion shocked other Republicans.
“If the president were to fire the deputy attorney general, that would be an extraordinary crisis and a real problem, and I just don’t think he’s going to do it,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).
GOP lawmakers couldn’t escape questions about the rich asshole, Cohen, Mueller and Rosenstein from reporters at the Capitol — even on a day when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was testifying on Capitol Hill for the first time.
Pushback from fellow Republicans against firing Mueller has grown stronger since the beginning of the year, when the rich asshole’s allies mostly shrugged off speculation that the president would somehow cut short the special counsel investigation, dismissing it as an unlikely prospect.
While most Republicans maintain they don’t think the rich asshole will quash the probe, they’re less confident than before.
And statements from the White House podium on Tuesday from press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders only added to their fears.
Sanders announced that the rich asshole “certainly believes that he has the power” to end Mueller’s investigation. The comments suggest the White House may be looking for legal arguments to back a decision to fire Mueller.
Legal experts say the rich asshole does not have the power to fire Mueller directly. Under Justice Department regulations, that authority falls to the agency official in charge of the investigation — in this case Rosenstein.
It is easy to see why a rich asshole decision to fire Mueller would make Republicans queasy.
A Quinnipiac University poll conducted this month found that 69 percent of American voters oppose the rich asshole firing Mueller while only 13 percent support it. More than half of the Republicans polled, 55 percent, said the rich asshole shouldn’t interfere.
Republicans are worried about a wave election this fall that could cost them their House majority. There are also fears about the Senate, though the fact that Democrats are defending many more seats in the upper chamber gives Republicans more confidence about holding it.
Still, many GOP senators fear firing Mueller would pose new risks to their majority.
the rich asshole also has reason to fear a Democratic takeover of the House and Senate, which would unleash investigations of his administration.
Amid uncertainty over what the rich asshole will do next, some Republicans are pushing for legislation to protect Mueller, although that path doesn’t yet have much support in the party.
Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) have sponsored bipartisan bills to protect the special counsel.
The Tillis measure would empower judges to reinstate Mueller if a court found his firing to be improper. Tillis on Tuesday called for a vote on the measure.
Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) tried to ramp up pressure on Republicans Tuesday by defending the integrity of Mueller’s work and calling for Senate floor action.
– Jordain Carney contributed
Millennials are fleeing organized religion as Christian hypocrisy becomes impossible to ignore
Christian leaders praying over some rich asshole in the Oval Office (Photo: Screen capture)
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I think we can safely say that President some rich asshole has changed American politics forever. He won the White House with no political experience, didn’t release his tax returns, and the extent to which Russia was involved in tilting the election is still under investigation. In the midst of all of the rich asshole’s deception and corruption, there’s one rule he had to follow: yielding to the word of God.
Be a good person by treating others well, say your prayers, be humble, thank God, and you have a pretty good shot at getting into heaven. That’s how it was explained to me. Now, some of my friends were holy rollers whose families took praise to the next level: They went church ten times in a seven-day week, even on Tuesdays, wore suits, quoted Bible verses and washed away their sins by being baptized in front their congregations. But extreme or not, the majority of Americans are taught one way or another that Jesus died for us and our lives should be devoted to making it up to him.
God is on our money and has been inserted into our Pledge of Allegiance, so don’t even think about running for president without spending huge portions of your campaign explaining your relationship with God and how he found you — we assume God is a he — and distancing yourself from Muslims while pandering to Christians and Catholics up and down the Bible belt. It all seems phony — fake as a $3 bill with George Bush on the front — and especially when it comes to the rich asshole’s appeal to conservative Christians.
Seriously, you are going to tell me that some rich asshole, who received 81 percent of the vote from white so-called Evangelicals, is a devout Christian? False praisers and prophets looking for profits aren’t a new thing.
My grandmother was one of those church women who proudly suited up, tied her chalk-polished white shoes up extra tight and went to war for her pastor, baking dinners, working street ministries or attending whatever event he asked her to attend, and at times giving her last to make sure the church kept the lights on. But she lived in a different time. My grandma was a Baby Boomer, so she hailed from a time when religion meant something, back when the black church was the center of the black community.
Imagine having a place where you can go to meet up and strategize with like-minded people. A place where you can go to eat, celebrate, rejoice, dance and sing until your lungs ache. No money? No problem. This place would never turn you away; in fact, they might even give you some money in a time of need, help you raise funds to start that business or connect you with resources to ensure your success. This place also offered all of that in addition to marriage counseling and programs for children. Most importantly, the black church offered hope.
“The black church was the creation of a black people whose daily existence was an encounter with the overwhelming and brutalizing reality of white power,” theologian James Cone, author of “Black Theology and Black Power,” wrote. “For the slaves, it was the sole source of personal identity and the sense of community. Though slaves had no social, economic or political ties to people, they had one humiliating factor in common — serfdom.”
The black church was an extension of slavery that derived from one of the most powerful tools of white slave masters. Owners and overseers liked to dangle the idea of Christianity to slaves, teaching them that a cocktail of accepting white Jesus, hard work and obedience would prohibit them from being slaves in heaven. Some masters would even allow their slaves to wear their old clothes and worship on Sundays.
My grandma, like many people in her generation, never questioned the origin of the traditions they subscribed to, and why would she? By the time she came of age, the church was the only consistent resource in black communities. She passed that on to her children, who tried to pass it on to us, but our relationship to religion had evolved by the time I was a teenager in the ’90s.
“Open up!” my friend Block yelled. He beat on the door until the hinges rattled. I sat on the floor in the next room, nursing a half cup of vodka. The walls were so thin that you could hear dust form. “Open up! Or I’m gonna see dude myself!”
Block’s sister came out the room. Her face was puffy and shiny from tears. She flopped her back on the wall and slid to the floor before telling him that her boyfriend told her, “you a stupid b**ch if you think I’m leaving my family for you!”
She was a teenager like us and had been seeing dude for a while.
“I’m gonna beat his head in,” Block told her. “Come on, D!”
She pleaded for him to stop as he stormed out. I chugged my drink and tripped out of the door behind him.
“What’s the move?” I asked.
Block sparked a cigarette, cracked his car window and blew a cloud out. “She been messin with the preacher dude from up the block for a minute. He been gassin her up, making her think they was gonna be together and she just cry all of the time. I’m sick of this clown. I’m a crack his jaw.”
“Haaaaaa, yo, we gonna go fight a preacher?” I blurted, trying to hold my laughter in. “What, you gonna crack him over the head with a stack of Bibles? Drop me off, man. My grandma would roll over in her grave! And I’m not letting you go to jail for assaulting a preacher.”
“What should I do?”
I told him to tell his sister to stay away from the guy. He didn’t beat her or anything, he just broke her heart. That’s what religion represented to me at that time in my life: heartbreak. Church people prayed, suffered and never really had anything, just like in the slave days. And my perception of a lot of church dudes was lower than the chances of that preacher leaving his family for Block’s sister. We drank, blew weed, hustled, chased girls and ran the streets because we were young criminals. Church people from the neighborhood did all of the same things, but looked down on us because they put on suits and prayed on Sundays. Knowing preachers and deacons who dipped into our dating pool wasn’t a strange thing; they drove cars like ours or better and wore designer clothes and jewelry like us. We basically looked the same to outsiders.
I don’t think all churches are bad. A lot of pastors do great work. However, rogue preachers are everywhere, and a lot of people who are blinded by the need for that hope our grandmas talked about can’t tell the difference.
I have no personal experiences with white churches other than I heard that their services aren’t as long. A black church sermon could easily be eight hours of songs and preaching — throw your whole Sunday away — whereas I think white church only lasts 20 minutes. But again, I don’t know; I’ve never been. I do know that white church people who identify as Christians are responsible for every major American war, bombing other countries, the genocide of Native Americas, the horrific mid-Atlantic slave trade, plantation slavery, and now some rich asshole, who probably has had more scandals than any other president in the history of our country.
the rich asshole collects scandals like trading cards: championing sexual harassment and assault, calling entire countries full of black Christian s**t holes, allegedly hiding a string of affairs with women like adult film star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal. Through all of this, the evangelicals, the holy rollers — the white Christians — are silent. I remember them demanding Bill Clinton’s head during the Monica Lewinsky affair in the ’90s. Is it because the rich asshole is pro-life and Clinton wasn’t? Because a sin is a sin, right? Or is it just hypocrisy?
Either way, unlike in the days of slavery, the Civil Rights movement, my grandma’s day and Clinton’s, information is everywhere. We are in the era of the 24-hour news cycle where everyone has access to everything, which means evangelicals are definitely watching and choosing to remain silent, thus uniting many people who represent the modern black church and white church with their actions and forcing me to see them as one and the same: phony. The talk doesn’t match their actions.
Millennials are definitely taking note, and continue to abandon the church. A 2015 Pew Research Center study found 35 percent of millennials identify their religion as “none” — that’s twice the percentage of Boomers. If Christian hypocrisy isn’t addressed, organized religion won’t last.
White House: the rich asshole believes he has power to fire Mueller
BY JORDAN FABIAN - 04/10/18 02:50 PM EDT
President the rich asshole believes he has the power to fire Robert Mueller as special counsel leading the Russia probe, the White House said Tuesday.
“He certainly believes that he has the power to do so,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, adding that the rich asshole is not acting now to fire him.
Sanders said the rich asshole believes Mueller has “gone too far” after FBI agents executed a raid on the office of the rich asshole's personal attorney in part based on a referral from the special counsel’s office.
The White House’s stance on firing Mueller has been rejected by many legal experts who say the rich asshole does not have the power to fire the special counsel directly.
Under Department of Justice (DOJ) regulations, that authority falls to the department official in charge of the investigation — in this case, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
Democrats in Congress were dismayed by Sanders’s comments.
“The DOJ regulations could not be more clear; the president does not have the authority to remove Special Counsel Mueller,” said Matt House, spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) “Because of the Attorney General’s recusal, only Deputy AG Rosenstein could remove the special counsel, and it would have to be for good cause.”
Sanders said, however, the White House has explored whether the rich asshole could fire Mueller without Rosenstein’s signoff by seeking advice from “individuals in the legal community” and Justice Department officials.
“We’ve been advised that the president certainly has the power to make that decision,” the spokeswoman said.
Sanders’s statement marks a shift in tone for the White House, which has said repeatedly for months that the rich asshole has not discussed firing Mueller.
“There are no conversations or discussions about removing Mr. Mueller,” White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said last month.
Mueller returned to the center of the rich asshole's crosshairs on Monday after the FBI raided the office of Michael Cohen, the president's longtime lawyer and fixer.
Cohen's attorney said the raid by the U.S. Attorney's office with the Southern District of New York came "in part" by a referral from Mueller in the course of his investigation into Russia's election interference efforts and whether the rich asshole campaign cooperated with them.
the rich asshole lambasted the search as a "real disgrace" as he spoke to reporters Monday night, hours after the news of the FBI raid surfaced.
"It’s an attack on our country in a true sense. It’s an attack on what we all stand for," the rich asshole said.
He went on to declare that the search yielded "nothing."
Federal prosecutors have not publicly announced their findings but multiple news reports said the investigators were looking for documents related to a payment Cohen made to an adult-film actress that says she had an affair with the rich asshole, as well as about Cohen's ownership of taxi medallions.
the rich asshole raised the prospect of firing Mueller, saying ”many people have said" that he should do it. But he gave little indication about whether he plans to follow through.
“We’ll see what happens,” he said.
When Sanders was asked by reporters on Tuesday whether the rich asshole has spoken to people about firing Mueller, Sanders responded that she hasn't spoken with the president about that topic.
"I can't speak beyond that," she said.
– Ben Kamisar contributed
Updated: 4:35 p.m.
the rich asshole thanked a Fox News reporter for asking him why he doesn’t just fire Mueller: report
VP Mike Pence (left), President some rich asshole (center) and national security adviser John Bolton (right). Image via screengrab.
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The reporter who asked President some rich asshole if he plans on firing special counsel Robert Mueller Monday told a fellow radio host that the president mouthed “thank you” to him after he asked his question.
The Washington Post reported that Fox News Radio White House correspondent Jon Decker admitted to multiple fellow radio hosts that the rich asshole was “very appreciative” of the question asked in the immediate aftermath of the FBI raid on his attorney Michael Cohen’s office and residence.
“Obviously it’s something the president has been considering, it’s something the president has been talking about,” Decker told Mark McGill of Michigan’s NewsTalk 95.3. “Because I tapped into something when I asked that question of the president.”
He later told Laura Anderson and Bill Edwards of WTKS NewsRadio in Savannah, Georgia that the rich asshole was “very appreciative of my question that I asked of him. He liked the way he answered it.”
‘He is losing his shit’: Insiders say some rich asshole is ‘at a different level’ after Cohen raid
some rich asshole bears his teeth during a speech/Screenshot
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some rich asshole is angry, isolated and “more unpredictable than ever,” according to a new report in Politico sourced to four people close to the president.
The president already canceled a trip to South America, apparently acting out after the raid of his attorney Michael Cohen’s office, and may now unilaterally fire the people he considers to be responsible for the investigation into his ties to Russia and his lawyer Michael Cohen’s activities.
“The all caps tweet, that’s the primal scream. That’s the war cry,” a GOP operative “close to the White House” said to Politico, referencing his early morning rage tweets.
“He’s losing his sh*t,” the source said. “We’re at a different level now.”
Targets of the president’s rage—who may find themselves fired while he stews instead of traveling—include Rod Rosenstein and Jeff Sessions.
People who know the rich asshole say that his body language gave away his rage: “his arms crossed and his punchy rhetoric meant, to those who’ve worked with him closely, that the rich asshole was not happy and no amount of information could change his mind.”
Having lost close advisors like Hope Hicks and Rob Porter, Politico says the rich asshole is now calling Fox News personalities Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro and Lou Dobbs for advice.
‘Your career is dead’: The internet mocks the rich asshole’s frenzied tweets after FBI raids attorney Michael Cohen
some rich asshole during CNN debate (Photo: Screen capture via video)
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After spending Monday nursing a ragegasm, President some rich asshole began Tuesday with a Tweetstorm sounding off and playing the victim.
The internet was quick to respond to the president’s tweets with their own fact-checks as well as morning mockery.
NBC executive producer Christina Ginn sent the rich asshole an explainer about what attorney-client privilege is and the limitations of the rule that allows for a “crime-fraud exception.”
Mr. President, here is a good primer on attorney-client privilege in this case from @CevallosLaw & @NBCNews: nbcnews.com/politics/donal… twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
“Because of the potential damage to legitimate attorney-client relationships caused by these mass seizures of records, U.S. Attorneys are trained to explore alternatives to these warrants when evidence is sought from a practicing attorney,” the primer explained. “One alternative would be a subpoena, which allows the attorney to search for and produce the documents. The fact that the FBI opted for a raid without notice suggests prosecutors believed less-intrusive measures might result in the destruction of evidence.”
MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski noted that such privilege is “dead” once evidence has been found of a crime.
Yes.Thank u for pointing this out. According to legal experts,once prosecutors have evidence of a crime, the privilege drops. So u r right!
Bloomberg View executive editor and the rich asshole biographer Tim O’Brien noted that typically when the rich asshole is tweeting with all capital letters it means he’s concerned.
Translation: “Whenever it’s in CAPS, I’m WORRIED.” twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
You can read the rest of the tweets below:
Going full Nas this morning twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
Today would be an excellent day to release your tax returns. twitter.com/realDonaldTrum…
Saying BARACK OBAMA was born in Kenya was a witch hunt, this is getting what you deserve mother fuckkkkkker
sweetnaenae
Looks like it's going to be a day. => twitter.com/realDonaldTrum…
If it really was a witch hunt, which I assume you mean is totally baseless, how is it that a US Attorney that you appointed signed off on the search warrant and a judge that you appointed approved the search warrant?
If you did nothing wrong, what are you worried about?
Oh no you lost some privilege. How hard for you.
Your Presidency is dead, criminal.
Yeah, I think he’s going to fire some people soon... twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
Good morning. You're panicking. Take a valium and chill.
Idiot. It isn’t a shield against criminal acts
Snowflake alert. twitter.com/realDonaldTrum…
22 indictments is not a "Witch Hunt," fella.
Having someone YOU appointed sign off on multiple search warrants for you personal lawyer's properties/offices is NOT a "Witch Hunt." #DirtyDonald#DonaldtheRussianPuppet
No sir it isn’t unless you are still plotting a crime. You see, we have a legal system and no one is above the law.
And so the toddler tantrum begins....
M. A. G. A - My attorney got arrested.
Trump why so upset? What are you hiding?
The LAW appears to be working - and you are not above it.
You appointed Berman
Are you a witch?
Subtlety has never really been his strong suit twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
Mueller showed his true colors yesterday. This isn’t about justice, it’s about cancelling the democratic election of 2016
Awww poor triggered Jackmaybe if you didn’t support a criminal piece of shit things would be different?
Your are fucked, Cohen is fucked. Here’s how you avoid this entire situation: don’t break the fucking law asshole
And from the “nice some rich asshole” parody account:
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