Acts of a Guilty Man
A may seem simplistic, but an innocent man tends to act innocent, and a guilty one guilty. Innocent folks are open, they are willing to cooperate, they are willing to discuss. If you need an example James Comey would certainly be one: he is open, he is willing to discuss, there is no subterfuge, even about the questionable decisions he made about the Clinton email investigation.
Oddly enough, another innocent (seeming) man is Sam Nunberg. As “manic” as his reactions to the Mueller subpoena seemed to be, he came across as an innocent guy, who wanted to defend his friend Roger Stone, and who was overwhelmed with the task of searching through three years of emails. His “manic” behavior, going from one interview to the next, made us question his mental health, but not his guilt. This contrasts to Carter Page, who also did a whole series of bizarre interviews. Page left us with the feeling that he was either nuts, or playing the “nut” role. I’m betting on the latter.
So let’s take the Trump side for a moment, and look at the defense strategy he has taken.
The first move was to immediately deny any and all charges of “collusion” (whatever that term means, the legal charge would be conspiracy.) He’s done that since January of 2017, when the Steele dossier was first revealed. Every step in the investigation since then has been followed with the claim of “…no collusion here…”
The next move was to discredit the investigators. When the Russia investigation began, it was led by the media. “FAKE NEWS” was the cry, and every detail was challenged. Michael Cohen (Trump’s private lawyer) immediately initiated a lawsuit against the first publisher of the Steele Dossier, Buzzfeed. Attacks against journalists began (and continue) from Jim Acosta at “Fake News CNN” to Michael Schmidt at the “failing New York Times,” to “sleepy eyed Chuck Todd that son of a bitch” at MSNBC.
Fake News, Fake News, Fake News, Fake News: over and over again, denying the truthfulness and the accuracy of the American media. And while many Americans have been able to get past the background noise, to those looking for a Trump defense, this was the first and foremost.
As the investigation moved to its legal phase, the attacks changed to include the investigators themselves. They claim that the FBI (the same agency that impacted the outcome of the 2016 election by revealing further Hillary Clinton email investigations) was corrupted against Trump. There were texts between a lead FBI agent and his “paramour” (gotta love that word – it characterizes the illicit nature of both participants) showing they hated Trump (and Clinton and Bernie Sanders – but we never get much on that.) They fire the leader of the agency, Comey, then attack his replacement, McCabe.
They bring in Rod Rosenstein, then immediately begin to attack him (“a Democrat from Baltimore” – not true by the way.) Soon it’s a picture of an entire Department of Justice gone rogue, from Rosenstein through the FBI.
There is no real evidence that any of this is true, it’s all two plus two equal five stuff. But it doesn’t matter. Damage the investigators, and call into question the outcome of the investigation, even before the outcome has come out! These are the actions of someone who presumes guilt, not innocence.
And what about Robert Mueller himself? Other than the repetitious claim that his team is “Democrats” there has been little else said about the investigators. The FBI has borne the brunt of the charges; the lawyers and investigators working out of the Mueller offices have been immune so far. They are the final target – when Trump goes directly after Mueller, either through word or deed (attempting to fire him) we will know that the end is near.
When you step back from the details of the fray, insults, interviews, indictments and investigations; what you see is a long term pattern: actions of guilt. I don’t claim to know what Trump is guilty of, more likely financial failures than direct campaign violations (though everything is possible) but he sure is acting like a guilty man.
