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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump-Russia Isn't About the Cover-Up. It's About the Crime.
In Watergate, it was the cover-up, not the crime. But in Russiagate, that stands to be turned on its head. We already know a lotand we can be sure Mueller knows more.
JONATHAN ALTER
NICK AKERMAN
02.09.18 10:48 PM ET
Recall the Watergate cliché that the cover-up is worse than the crime. That may have been true then. While it was never established that President Nixon knew in advance about the break-in at the Watergate complex, he was forced to resign after proof emerged that he used the CIA to obstruct the FBI investigation.
In the Russia scandal, special counsel Robert Mueller has credible proof of obstruction of justicei.e., the cover-up. But in a highly politicized climate, where memos and insults are weapons of distraction, that wont likely be enough. Even if Democrats take control of Congress in November, most Republicanslike most juries in run-of-the-mill criminal caseswill demand significant evidence of an underlying crime as a motive for the obstruction before turning on President Trump, much less voting in the Senate to remove him from office.
While Mueller and his team dont leak, signs that such evidence exists are clear from news reports, which contain only a tiny portion of what the special counsels office possesses. The fragmentary and often disconnected nature of those reports obscures the reasonable supposition that Mueller is well on his way to detailing conspiracy, wire fraud, illegal foreign campaign contributions, or all three. During Watergate, the special prosecutor had most of the evidence that doomed Nixon at least nine months before his August 9, 1974 resignation. Mueller, too, likely has the goods already, even without smoking gun tapes.
One tip-off was in Michael Flynns December 1 allocutionhis signed submission to the court as part of his guilty plea to making false statements to the FBI on January 24, 2017. It received almost no media attention but suggested the nature of the criminal conspiracy that would likely be at the heart of Muellers prosecution.
more
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-russia-isnt-about-the-cover-up-its-about-the-crime?ref=home
SWBTATTReg
(22,130 posts)Take care...
Squinch
(50,954 posts)ever been made on our Democracy.
And, call me a sap, but for all its faults and failings, I love the idea of what our Democracy could be if we took care of it.
nailed it. here we are complaining in a blog and not out in the streets...
Hekate
(90,710 posts)...and your local Democratic Party. The truly massive Women's Marches have been used extensively for GOTV, voter registration, networking, and encouraging women to run for office. Were you there?
Have you noticed the number of GOP Congressmen who have decided to not run again this year? A lot of them have been confronted outside their local offices by fed-up constituents, in some cases every single week for over a year. They also get many, many phone calls to their offices every single day. The poor things are just all tired out. Have you been calling them and visiting their offices?
Make sure you vigorously support the Democrats running to replace them.
Have you noticed that hun dreds, if not thousands, of women are filing to run for office this year? They are running as Democrats. Get out and support them.
Change is happening. Be part of it. Don't "hang out complaining on a blog." DU is a discussion board, anyway. You're welcome to hang around, debsy, but a lot of DUers are Resisting in real life, so hustle your bustle and do the same.
I have been part of the resistance - I even crocheted my own pussy hat! I had tried perviously looking up an indivisible chapter in my area and there wasn't one last time i checked but there is now so I've contacted them. I was being cynically rhetorical in my post. It is more productive to be positive and, by all means, actions speak louder than words - thanks for the reminder!
triron
(22,006 posts)including the POTUS.
debsy
(530 posts)...it is very important to remember that the crime is treason and it seems there are many senior office holders who are either complicit or actively participated in the coup. With all these branches of government being held by traitors, it is hard to see a way out of this except to exit and stop paying taxes to support it. I still hold out a glimmer of hope but it is minuscule at this point.
edhopper
(33,582 posts)is does he have the evidence of Trump's money laundering operations.
PatSeg
(47,486 posts)It doesn't appear like anyone was being very careful or discreet. For all the suspicious activity that we've heard about on the news, I am sure Mueller is aware of much more.
edhopper
(33,582 posts)publicly admitted it.
PatSeg
(47,486 posts)They are such a riot. For such a family of liars, it is amazing how often they tell the truth and implicate themselves. It is scary that such an inept group of people, could get as far as they have.
not fooled
(5,801 posts)but will anything come of it?
dump's gonna fire rosenstein, GOPee house will never impeach, etc.
I wonder whether the Dems can resuscitate the investigation if they take back the House.
standingtall
(2,785 posts)once they take back the house if Trump does fire Mueller,but even if the can't there is enough data already available to justify impeachment. Many of Trumps efforts to obstruct justice have been in the public eye and on top of obstruction of justice Trump has refused to impose the sanctions on Russia that were passed with a veto proof majority.
tblue37
(65,393 posts)kentuck
(111,098 posts)at this vulnerable time in our history??
Nitram
(22,803 posts)the cover-up will get them out of office and into jail. I don't care how we do that as long as we do it.
I'm not sure though that a jury can't be convinced. I worry that if they can't convince a jury many Americans won't be convinced.
I want them out no matter what, but to many, obstruction of something they don't think was a crime will sound like petty politics.
This is why I hope each and every day that they can prove the crime. And I am generally not an optimist. But, I honestly think they will.
Nitram
(22,803 posts)bullet-proof evidence.
TimeToGo
(1,366 posts)Though it depends on your definition of bullet proof.