Why, Why, Why did they Lie, Lie, Lie
He is the President, he’s staying the President, and he’ll get re-elected President Presidential Senior Advisor Kelly-Ann Conway – 4/19/19
Donald J Trump is a cancer on the Presidency – George Conway, Kelly-Ann’s husband– 4/19/19
This is the end of my Presidency, I’m f**ked! – Donald Trump, 4/17/17, the day Mueller was appointed
President Trump is a victim. As he said at the release of the Mueller Report, “…no President should have to go through this.” Attorney General Bill Barr continued this “victim” theme in his pre-release press conference, characterizing the President as:
“…frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks.” Barr legally excused the President’s continuing acts of obstructing justice because of this frustration. Let’s hope that doesn’t become a more general criminal standard:
Defendant – “I didn’t file my tax returns because I was frustrated, your honor.”
Judge – “Oh, you were frustrated, then you can go home, have a good day!”
And Donald Trump Jr, is ignorant. I’m not trying to be insulting, I’m simply stating what the Mueller Report said. Mueller determined that he couldn’t charge Junior with conspiring with the Russians at the June 9thmeeting, because Donny didn’t know working with the Russians to get stolen material to use against Hillary Clinton was wrong. The legal term is mens rea, “the intention or knowledge of wrongdoing that constitutes part of a crime.” If he didn’t know it was wrong, he can’t be convicted. So much for “ignorance of the law is no excuse,” go ahead and run a Presidential campaign, you don’t need to know the law, in fact, knowledge will get you in trouble.
But the overarching theme of the Mueller Report is that the Trump Campaign was in almost constant contact with Russian sources, and that the members of that campaign, led by the President himself, have lied over and over again about what they did. Which begs the question: why, why, why did they lie, lie, lie?
If they were truly “victims” as their bedtime story goes, of Federal agents who plotted a “coup” to overthrow the duly elected President: it they were truly “innocent,” then why did (and do) they continue to lie about what happened? The short answer is “mens rea” once again, they really thought what they did was wrong, whether Mr. Mueller could prove it or not. They acted guilty because they thought they were guilty, and but for the lying of defendants who anticipate a Presidential pardon, destruction of evidence (where did all the Bannon/Prince texts go) and obstruction of justice, they might well have been charged.
Michael Cohen said it best as quoted in the report: the Trump campaign was a “branding exercise” that went tragically wrong. They weren’t supposed to win, winning exposed the Trump organization to the legal scrutiny that the Trumps had spent generations trying to avoid. The Mueller report is just the first step.
The Mueller Report is a road map for other Federal Prosecutors. It is also a road map for Congressional Impeachment, with the second volume on Presidential obstruction of justice laying out ten separate charges. Mueller himself felt constrained by Justice Department policies: he couldn’t indict a sitting President and he felt a “sealed” indictment to be opened after Trump leaves office was “unfair.” The Special Counsel felt that if you deny a defendant their “speedy trial” and day in court by sealing the indictment for an extended period of time, you deny them justice. And, as Julian Assange can attest to, sealed indictments don’t always remain sealed.
But all of the actions of the Trump organization weren’t within the narrow scope of investigation that was Mr. Mueller’s charge. Mueller didn’t look into the loans from Deutsche Bank, and whether the Russians, or the Saudis, or the Qatari’s have an undue influence over the President through the money he owes them. Mueller couldn’t look, but the Congressional committees and the Federal prosecutors in New York can. The Mueller investigation made over a dozen sealed referrals to other prosecutors; the conclusion of the Muller investigation is not the conclusion of problems for Donald J. Trump. Maybe that’s why they continue to lie, lie, lie.
