Conflicted
Of course Don has tweeted.
They made up a phony collusion with the Russians story, found zero proof, so now they go for obstruction of justice on the phony story. Nice
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2017
You are witnessing the single greatest WITCH HUNT in American political history – led by some very bad and conflicted people! #MAGA
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2017
Sadly for him, it’s obstruction of justice even if the investigation turns up nothing in the end. The point of an investigation is to find out, so obstruction of that investigation is obstruction no matter what the findings are.
How ironic it would be if he turns out to be spotlessly clean on the Russia matter but did for himself with the obstruction…but of course that’s why “It’s not the crime, it’s the coverup” became a saying.
Mr. Mueller has requested interviews with three current or former senior intelligence officials, according to a person briefed on the investigation. The move suggests he is examining whether the president sought their help in trying to get James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, to end an investigation into Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser.
The special counsel is also seeking documents from the National Security Agency relating to the intelligence agency’s interactions with the White House on the Russia investigation.
Together, the requests from Mr. Mueller suggest new scrutiny on whether the president tried to influence the Russia investigation through conversations he had with Mr. Comey, whom he ultimately fired, or with other officials.
It turns out that firing the head of the FBI and then saying on national tv that you did it to abort an investigation into your own activities might backfire.
The president’s tweet Thursday morning suggests he remains dismissive of the investigation. Mr. Trump reportedly considered firing Mr. Mueller as special counsel, but was talked out of it by aides who worried about the consequences of taking such an action.
Christopher Ruddy, a longtime friend of Mr. Trump’s, had said publicly that Mr. Trump was considering terminating Mr. Mueller. Mr. Ruddy said the president believed that Mr. Mueller had conflicts of interest that should have made him ineligible to lead the investigation.
Mr. Ruddy said, in a PBS interview, that Mr. Mueller’s previous law firm represents some members of Mr. Trump’s family. And he revealed that Mr. Trump had interviewed Mr. Mueller to replace Mr. Comey as F.B.I. director the day before Mr. Mueller was selected to serve as special counsel.
The tweet from Mr. Trump on Thursday suggests that he still believes Mr. Mueller has conflicts of interest that undermine his ability to lead the Russia inquiry.
And that he doesn’t know what “conflicted” means.
I had to read this a couple times to get what the Orange Terror was getting at, and I think I finally grok the issue–unsurprisingly, it’s projection, again.
Donnie is small-minded, so he assumes everyone else is as petty and vindictive as he is. So of course, since he passed Mueller over for the FBI job, Mueller is going to be biased against him. That’s just logic, in Donnie’s warped little brain.
Well, see the bit in the last quoted passage about how “Mueller’s previous law firm represents some members of Mr. Trump’s family” and so on. They look for anything they can find, and Donald tries to convince the rest of us via Twitter.
Even the absence of specific collusion with the Trump campaign does not rule out Russian interference in the election itself, but Trump seems to be denying both things together. Collusion with Trump campaign staff might still not implicate Trump himself if said staff were smart enough to keep Twoscoops out of the loop for reasons of plausible deniability. Pre-inaugural connections between Trump, Flynn and Russia are another matter too, with the whole idea of private citizens conducting foreign policy on the sly. Would Putin have held off on retaliation for Obama’s sanctions without Flynn’s assurance that Trump would back off?
The greatest single witch hunt? I take it he hasn’t heard of the Inquisition. Or closer to home: Salem.