FOLKS: Trump et al's pardon dangling is not just an impeachment issue for him. It's a criminal issue. Nixon was an unindicted coconspirator in U.S. v. Mitchell, where pardon dangling was alleged in Count I as a means conspirators used to obstruct justice & defraud the U.S. 1/
Ct I of U.S. v. Mitchell, the Watergate indictment in which Nixon was an unindicted coconspirator, charged a conspiracy to obstruct justice, defraud the U.S. and make false statements. Among the means conspirators used to execute the conspiracy, the indictment alleged, was: 2/
Par. 17(f): "The conspirators would make and cause to be made offers of leniency, executive, clemency, and other benefits to E. Howard Hunt, Jr, G. Gordon Liddy, James W. McCord and Jeb S. Magruder." These were all dangles, enticements to keep people quiet. On the tapes, Nixon 3/
Yes. DJT is famously unmoved by advice. If he'd wanted to do this interview, he'd have done it. Trump/attys want it to seem this tension exists. Trump/attys want it to seem he's not doing the the interview because Mueller wouldn't meet Trump's "reasonable" demands. Both false PR.
Why do I keep objecting to claims that Trump "wants to do the interview?" Because Rudy is right to think that what the public thinks about the Mueller investigation, and Trump's "cooperation," (or lack thereof), matters. It matters a lot - not to Mueller, but to the ultimate 1/
outcome of this unprecedented morass of presidential criminality. Yet, the media for some reason (friendship with those who "report" it?) keep parroting this claim uncritically, so much so that it's taken hold. It is an assumed fact in much public discourse even tho it is, at 2/
"The shift of power from Lewandowski to Manafort began from the moment the latter arrived on the scene, in late March. Manafort exudes authority, even down to the way he calls the candidate “Donald”...Manafort also developed a bond with the Trump family." 1/
April 19, 2016: “ 'He’s calling Manafort like 20 times a day,'” one person close to the campaign says."
FOLKS: In legal effect, Trump's "Russia, if you're listening" invite was no different than saying,"El Chapo, if you're listening, please deliver 8 tons of cocaine to Mar A Lago." 1/
As Mueller's RU GRU indictment demonstrates - to any clueless person who did not already know - computer hacking and stealing of info is a federal crime. Therefore, under both aiding & abetting and agency theories, Trump's urging another to do these acts may also be a crime. 2/
Under 18 USC 2(b),"Whoever willfully causes an act to be done which if directly performed by him or another would be an offense against the U.S., is punishable as a principal." Here's the Special Counsel's proposed instruction on this principle for the upcoming Manafort trial: 3/
1998-2010, Trump borrowed over $750M from Deutsche real estate. In same period, Justin Kennedy was Managing Dir/Global Head of Deutsche Real Estate Capital Markets. Kennedy left DB in 2010. Trump began borrowing from DB private wealth bankers in 2010. theguardian.com/business/2017/…
Into the '30's, democratic media assured readers the Hitler movement wd soon collapse: "Prideful of their own higher learning & cultivation, the intellectual classes could not absorb the idea that, thanks to “invisible wire-pullers”—the self-interested groups and individuals 1/
who believed they could manipulate the charismatic maverick for their own gain - this uneducated “beer-hall agitator” had already amassed vast support. After all, Germany was a state where the law rested on a firm foundation, where a majority in parliament was opposed 2/