Blurry Mueller investigation demands your focus
The Trump-Russia scandal and the evidence that has been dug up this past year is getting harder and harder to deny. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into collusion between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia in the 2016 election is not just a democratic conspiracy, or “witch hunt” as Trump likes to call it. This is an issue that the public has to take seriously. Controversial platforms and unconventional behavior should not give you a free pass on evaluation from “biased” investigators and judicial officials, and as such we have to treat Donald Trump like we would any other president. With Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury” shaking things up and bringing to light several controversial (yet questionable) accounts that paint a scary picture of a disorganized and chaotic White House, the American public waits with bated breath for news on cooperation between former Trump cohorts and the special counsel.
Obstruction of Justice charges seem to be the main objective of the Special Counsel as it stands right now, and one-by-one people are folding and cooperating with the investigation. Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, has even come before the House Intelligence Committee to talk about his time in the White House.
The latest revelation in this lengthy investigation follows the firing of FBI Director James Comey. Current reports, confirmed by an interview Trump had with Lester Holt last year, seems to indicate that he deliberately terminated an appointed official to curb a federal investigation.
Reportedly, Trump, soon after terminating Comey, ordered his counsel to fire Robert Mueller as well, a new revelation that came to light after leaks from New York Times correspondents Michael Schmidt and Maggie Haberman. However, Don McGahn threatened to resign if forced to fire Mueller, so Trump backed off and only the anger (and special counsel) remained.
This is insanity. The picture the administration is painting is not what it seems. With so many factual accounts and leaked documents, like the Trump Jr. emails and Flynn contacts, the information imbalance that existed before the election between the right and the left is quickly closing, and the witch hunt narrative set forth by the right does not hold up. There is very little legal precedence here, so what will happen next is very unclear. The question still remains about whether this translates to obstruction of justice, but it certainly establishes motive, and, in combination with other accounts from former and current Trump administration staffers, the investigation can not be blown off as a partisan pony show. Trump said that he would be open to talking to Mueller under oath, but his lawyers have been quickly playing damage control and trying to avoid that possibility these past couple weeks. It is more important now than ever to not turn a blind eye to investigations at this level of government, and while the “smoking gun” hasn’t been uncovered yet, the matter certainly merits investigation and cannot be dismissed as just another “deep state” operation.
