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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsInvestigation puts his presidency in peril
Right Turn
By Jennifer Rubin
June 15 at 9:15 AM
... The president and his surrogates are already on the warpath, falsely suggesting that Comey engaged in improper or illegal conduct in leaking his memos and, putting out the line via Kellyanne Conway, that members of Muellers legal team had given to Democratic politicians (and therefore were biased). None of that will prove successful, in large part because there reportedly are a parade of other witnesses. (Daniel Coats, the current director of national intelligence, Mike Rogers, head of the National Security Agency, and Rogerss recently departed deputy, Richard Ledgett, agreed to be interviewed by Muellers investigators as early as this week.) These witnesses are likely to provide an account not unlike Comeys in which the president wanted them to interfere with Comeys Russia investigation.
... Trump certainly has one thing right: His presidency is imperiled so long as Mueller compels witnesses to testify, accumulates written evidence and traces the myriad of ties between the Trump team and Russians.
... the subject matter of the underlying investigation may extend to financial crimes, putting Trumps and his associates international business dealings under the microscope.
The addition to Muellers team of a prosecutor including Andrew Weissmann, Supreme Court advocate and criminal law expert Michael Dreeben, and others experienced in complex fraud and international bribery cases suggests that the probe may be looking at more than collusion between Russian officials and Trump team members. For example, it appears he has recruited an experienced Justice Department trial attorney, Lisa Page, a little-known figure outside the halls of Main Justice but one whose résumé boasts intriguing hints about where Muellers Russia investigation might lead. Page has deep experience with money laundering and organized crime cases, including investigations where shes partnered with an FBI task force in Budapest, Hungary, that focuses on eastern European organized crime. That Budapest task force helped put together the still-unfolding money laundering case against Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash, a one-time business partner of [Paul] Manafort.) News reports speculate that Mueller could be investigating potential money-laundering by Trump team members ...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2017/06/15/the-criminal-investigation-of-trump-puts-his-presidency-in-peril/?utm_term=.b0e4d8be063b
malaise
(269,144 posts)Lock them all up
HipChick
(25,485 posts)Wounded Bear
(58,685 posts)Guilded Lilly
(5,591 posts)BumRushDaShow
(129,304 posts)may just provide the motives (individual and/or group) for the subsequent collusion.