President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

Mueller going after the Trump family finical records is really going to define how the rest of this plays out.

The absolute one thing the Trumps do not want exposed is their finances how much money they have tied up in Russia. A whole bunch of Trump family lies and denials could be exposed.

Seems like a game-changer.

 

I have no idea, obviously, but I agree that any "leaks" from Mueller's investigation have seemed purposeful. He strikes me as a man who knows how to exert pressure.

 

If they got this story wrong...

 

I was hoping to hear from you on this, and I appreciate the response.

 

There is a Fox report and denials from the White House and Trump lawyer.

Definitely pushback that leaves some doubt.

Appears Bloomberg, Rueters, ABC and others are confirming.

 

LaVar Ball says he hasn’t been thanked for the ‘patriotic’ shoes he sent President Trump

 

For sure, it was well-informed, moreso than a lot of the interpretations I've read. Like you said, I found his explanation of the "role" of underlings' guilty pleas to be instructive. But it is only applicable to the current situation if Flynn is being investigated for his co-participation in the same crime ("major scheme") as Trump. My only point is there are a lot of scenarios in which the investigation is currently focusing on crimes that Trump or Kushner or whoever committed without a criminal involvement from Flynn. The only thing McCarthy seems to establish is that Flynn and Trump did not conspire together on a crime more serious than obstruction. He does not address the possibility that Flynn had knowledge of, but was not an active participant in, crimes committed by other members of the campaign.

Or, to go back to The Wire analogy, what if Mueller's investigation suggested but could not prove that Flynn was a corner kid selling dime bags on instructions from a ringleader? Maybe the kid ran from the cops but somehow got rid of the dope during the chase. Maybe the prosecutor doesn't have the evidence to establish chain-of-custody, but is convincing enough that he gets the kid to cooperate in exchange for pleading guilty to running from the cops. By McCarthy's logic, the fact that the corner kid pled guilty to an ancillary process crime instead of, say, possession with intent to distribute, is an indication that there was/is no case for felony conspiracy to distribute against whoever is buying the shit wholesale.

 

I'm thinking they'd go great with Trumpy Bear.

 

I think McCarthy's argument is that, in such a situation, a prosecutor would never allow the getaway driver to skate on a charge of lying to the cops. He would offer him a reduced charge that still forces him to acknowledge on the record that he was enlisted as a participant in a criminal endeavor that resulted in murder. McCarthy would argue that the standard operating procedure would be to offer a plea to manslaughter, or accessory after the fact, rather than lying to the cops. The rationale makes sense to me, and McCarthy did a good job of explaining/supporting the point. But the only thing he establishes is that Flynn probably wasn't the getaway driver in a murder. But he concludes that, because Flynn wasn't charged as a getaway driver, the murder in question did not occur. It is possible for someone to lie about their knowledge of a murder without having been a criminal participant in the commission of that murder.

McCarthy could be right. Mueller's inability to charge Flynn with something greater than lying to the feds could be an indication that he will be unable to charge anybody with something greater than lying to the Feds. But it doesn't strike me as any more likely than a number of other explanations.

 

LOL.