Mueller probe outgrows its witch hunt phase
Yahoo News:
Steve Bannons eyes lit up. Several months before he left his job as a senior White House adviser last August, Bannon was talking to President Trump about the brewing political storm over the Justice Department investigation into his campaigns alleged ties to the Kremlin. Suddenly, Trump had an inspiration. He looked straight at Bannon, jabbed at him with his finger and uttered the phrase that would become the slogan of the White House pushback against the Russia probe: Witch hunt!
Brilliant, thought Bannon, as he later related the exchange to colleagues.
Ever since, it is a phrase Trump has returned to time and again and repackaged with typical Trumpian hyperbole. This is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history! Trump tweeted last May after ex-FBI director Robert Mueller was appointed as Justice Department special counsel to oversee the probe.
But now, as Trump prepares to end his first year in office, the witch hunt narrative may have outlived its usefulness. Muellers investigation has expanded and gained serious traction: The presidents former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and Manaforts chief deputy, Rick Gates, have been indicted. His former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, has pleaded guilty and is now a cooperating witness. So too is a former foreign policy adviser, George Papadopoulos, who has admitted lying to the FBI about repeated contacts with alleged Russian cutouts who had offered the Trump campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails.