I’m calling it now: Robert Mueller will not interview President Trump in regard to the Russia investigation. Mueller may well play this decision close to the vest while he pursues other leads, but I believe he has already made this decision. This post is the analysis of how I reached that conclusion.
To start, it’s important to avoid being fooled by the bias of the interested parties. The Democrats, Republicans, and the media all have strong motives for their opinions, and for trying to spin public opinion their way. The Democrats and media really, really want the investigation to continue as long as possible; the Democrats want it to be available as an election issue, and the media is just plain addicted to having a Trump scandal to cover, regardless of whether or not such a scandal really exists. Even among Republicans, there are many who don’t like Trump very much, and would like to see him humbled by fears of possible prosecution. So it should not be a shock that the overwhelming message we have seen all this time, is how Trump is in trouble.
But Bob Mueller has his own troubles. Mueller had a sterling reputation when he was appointed to head the investigation, one of objective and professional standards. Then this happened:
It’s at this point, when we have to decide which Bob Mueller is running the investigation.“Bad” Mueller would be the proud and arrogant bureaucrat, who has botched investigations in the past
such as publicly accusing an innocent man in the Anthrax investigation,
failing to close a Hell’s Angels shooting investigation,
and according to aides, someone incapable of admitting mistakes, and someone determined to blame others for his mistakes.
http://www.newsweek.com/robert-mueller-special-counsel-russia-aides-criticize-722670
But there is also the fact that many high-level Republicans support Mueller, including Paul Ryan and Deputy AG Rosenstein.
https://www.cnn.com/2017/07/24/politics/paul-ryan-bob-mueller-witch-hunt/index.html
If that is correct, “good” Mueller is going to have to work through some stress, starting with the fact that the Republicans in Congress have lost patience with him, and even some media have begun to criticize an apparent bias by Mueller.
http://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/364873-mueller-fbi-face-crisis-in-public-confidence
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jul/4/robert-muellers-bias-will-affect-his-investigation/
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-02-07/trump-has-a-clear-path-to-refuse-mueller
I can’t pretend that I know the exact details of Mueller’s thinking, but I do have a few touchpoints which I think can be used as a foundation.
First, keep in mind that Mueller had retired. He was only interested in two jobs – coming back to head the FBI again (Mueller actually interviewed with Trump the day before he was named to head the investigation), or to be a Special Counsel, a rare opportunity to put his name in history books.
Second, keep in mind that if Mueller really wants to be unbiased, he may well feel he cannot appear to be giving anything to Trump. Let me explain this point in the context of the Strzok/Page/McCabe/etc. scandal:
Back when I was a baseball umpire and football official, there were occasions when, being human, officials would blow a call. When that happened, officials generally did one of two things. Some would admit the mistake to a coach or player, while others would stay silent on that point. If an official admitted a mistake, many times a coach or player would insist on a “make up” call. But no honest official can do that. While a coach or player (or fan) may see it as making things balanced, to deliberately make a wrong call to favor a team, even to “make up” for a bad call, is unconscionable. No honest official can ever deliberately call something to favor a team. Ever.
This matters, because I believe Bob Mueller is sick about the corruption of his team. Even if he believed Trump was guilty of something, which I do not think is the case, he knows the ‘evidence’ produced by the people who were essentially Hillary fans is completely useless – anything Mueller presents to Congress has to be clear of any connection to those criminals. I also think Mueller knows that there will be criminal indictments against Strzok, Page and others who tried to frame Trump, and McCabe had better keep a lawyer on speed-dial. For Mueller, the problem is rebuilding his credibility. Ironically, putting people on his team believed to be pro-Trump would just confirm – in the minds of both Republicans and Democrats – that Mueller could not be trusted. To Republicans, putting pro-Trump people on his team would be seen as an admission that he recognized the first team was out to get Trump, and they would never trust him. Democrats, of course, would be outraged by any member of Mueller’s team showing support for the President. Consequently, Mueller has had to rebuild his case using new evidence, while striving to use investigators who won’t be labeled as pro- or anti-Trump.
“Good” Mueller is not going to be a buddy of Trump. In this context, “good” simply means Mueller wants to do a thorough but fair job. That’s my read.
The key question is whether Mueller, thinks Trump is innocent or guilty. Or, as I think, undecided but leaning just annoying.
Consider the people Mueller has interviewed. And even more important, what did Mueller do after each of them? And how did the indictments handed down turn out so far?
If you look at the evidence, the people interviewed, all in all there’s nothing at all to indicate Trump is in any danger.
Also, consider this: A Washington Post article quoted in The Hill predicts Mueller will release his report to Congress in July.
The Hill post suggests that the report will be an interim report, but the timing is important.
Why?
Because that same WaPo article confirms that the President is not the target of a criminal investigation.
So, what we have is an investigation which is not focused on Trump, and as things stand now a report is coming up in three months. Consider it takes a couple months to write up and prepare the report, and what we have here is an investigation beginning to wrap up.
So why is Mueller still at work? Moving on to new touchpoints:
Third, Mueller is finishing a career project, one to which his name will always be attached. Mueller does not want to be known as a guy who couldn’t nail a target without cheating. This is important;
Mueller swamp creature extraordinaire a guy who used Nazi tactics with Manafort, then afterwards runs to Rosenstein for a memo to cover his ass, yes gimmie the authority to get him for stuff that has nothing to do with the election. Rosenstein having no such authority promptly complies.
Now with the paper trail and timeline exposed they attempt weakly to make it seem it isnt a witch hunt…dudes we have been watching, we know. Sure you voted for other swampies NWO progressive RINOs the stench of your actions tells all.
No good face can be put on this investigation. It was conceived out of political need and promoted with the desired end of removing a duly elected President from office as a substitute for elections. If Mueller is beginning to be concerned about his reputation and integrity after this “investigation” ends, he comes to the party pretty late. There’s still the little matter of packing his team with pro-Hillary, anti-Trump sycophants that has tainted the veracity of the entire effort.
From an integrity stand point, Mueller’s only play is to come completely clean about how there never was any evidence even justifying an investigation, much less indicating Trump’s collusion with Russia. He doesn’t come out completely clean but he does do what is honest and right.
Given the diligence with which Mueller has conducted his investigation, it seems unlikely that he would not seek an interview with Donald Trump. Failure to do so would be like leaving the final chapter of a long book unwritten. It would make the entire effort to learn the truth seem pointless. It would be viewed as an act of capitulation. I don’t think that’s in his nature.
Whether Trump will somehow evade compliance is another matter. He doesn’t know what Mueller knows, and could be asked any number of direct questions that he doesn’t want to answer. No doubt he’s being strongly advised to dodge any such danger.
@Greg: Yeah, Trump knows what Mueller knows. He knows Mueller knows there never WAS any collusion.
Surely everyone realizes the Special Counsel investigation is not narrowly limited to the question of collusion. Robert Mueller was given legal authority from the beginning to investigate a far wider range of questions. No doubt he’s been doing so. Mueller’s investigation hasn’t been turned into a cover up operation, as Nunes did with the House Intelligence Committee’s inquiry. Nor has there been a calculated series of politically motivated leaks.
Trump’s people truly don’t know what Mueller might know. Therein lies the danger, if Trump is questioned under oath. Trump tends to respond off the cuff and has no regard whatsoever for consistency or truthfulness. His advisers know this. I think they’ll try to delay or dodge any occasion requiring Trump’s sworn testimony. Failing that, the last resort might be the Fifth Amendment.
@Greg: Anything beyond Russia and the election was not rogue Rosensteins to authorize, Sessions is the only one that could. Rosensteins signature to the FISA court using contaminated evidence tells all, he put his ass on the line stating it was all true. Dirty cops, dirty investigation.
@kitt, #6:
That legal argument is like closing the barn door when the horse has already escaped into the meadow. Authorization for a wider investigation was given, and Sessions did absolutely nothing to alter its scope. It’s far too late to stop it now. Even if obstruction of justice couldn’t be legally established, the appearance of it would be so compelling that it would spell political disaster.
@Greg:
Nope. Rosenstein only has authority to allow Mueller to investigate that which Sessions has recused himself from: Russian collusion. If any other investigation is warranted, it is Sessions and Sessions only who can authorize the investigation.
And even the slightest appearance of obstruction would be political gold for Democrats who have no intention of even attempting to look like a viable alternative to Republicans. Their only hope, it seems, is to depose Trump through sedition being apparently ignorant of the rules of succession.
Soon the investigations and revelations of the illegal activity by the left to try and remove Trump will overwhelm and swamp this witch hunt. Then you leftists will be really sorry you pursued this path.
@Greg: Mueller is a dirty cop
Some $12 billion in $100 bills was dispatched to the Iraq war theater, and vanished.
The IRS deliberately targeted Christian and conservative organizations to cause them trouble.
Fast and Furious saw the government traffic guns into the hands of Mexican cartel criminals.
The Department of Justice spied on AP reporters.
Bill Clinton and the Clinton Foundation got millions for speeches while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state.
Hillary Clinton dealt to Russia control of 20 percent of the uranium capacity inside the U.S. and hid it from congress
Of course, there was Hillary Clinton’s private email server, and all the government records, including classified, that ended up there.
The HSBC money-laundering scandal.
“If Mueller couldn’t (or wouldn’t) stop any of these obviously corrupt and criminal practices during his own term as FBI director, it’s hard to believe that he will conduct a fair and impartial investigation into the politically charged assumption of ‘Russian interference’ in the 2016 presidential election.”
Incompetent?
No just dirty.
@kitt, #9:
No he’s not, and he never has been. In fact, his long-standing professional reputation is precisely the opposite.
That’s certainly a lot more than can be said for the reputation of Donald J Trump, who is an inveterate liar and known bunko artist. Consider the details of the Trump University scam. He bought his way out of any acknowledgement of wrongdoing or trial before a jury by way of a $25 million settlement.
Mueller’s failure to endorse the right’s myriad conspiracy theories does not denote a lack of integrity. He’s the sort of person who requires credible evidence before accepting an accusation as fact. The reason no criminal charges have been brought in connection with any of the right’s endless accusations is because there’s no convincing evidence backing any of them up. A number of the accusations are incompatible with known facts. The Uranium One tale, for example, makes no sense at all, given that Clinton had very little to say about the decision.
Mueller, on integrity.
When this man has completed his investigation as Special Counsel I will trust his findings, whatever they might be.
04/09/2018, 10 minutes ago — FBI raids the office of Trump lawyer Michael Cohen
From The Hill: FBI raids Trump lawyer’s office
@Greg:
The fact that he has not terminated this phony witch hunt confirms he is now a dirty cop in the service of corrupt liberals.
You liberals are SO SURE of Trump’s collusion, why has it been impossible for find a single shred of evidence to confirm it? I mean, this isn’t like Hillary’s perjury, which is taped, this vaporous, phantom accusation exists solely in the minds of cry babies pining for some magic bullet to remove Trump from office and miraculously install the corrupt, lying criminal Hillary upon her throne.
Mueller’s latest stunt, storming Cohen’s offices, merely underlines his desperation and corruption. Like the armed raid on Manafort’s home, done totally for the dramatic theater of the optics, not to accomplish any necessary goal. Cohen has even less to do with the Russian question than Manafort.
Grasping at such phony straws is an act of a desperate, corrupt person.
@Deplorable Me, #12:
You don’t know what evidence Mueller may have at this point, any more than I do. He’s running a very tight, leak-free ship. What I’m sure of is that Mueller is a very competent and diligent investigator.
Are you speaking of Trump’s lawyer? Because that most certainly isn’t an accurate description of Robert Mueller.
If you want stunts, consider Nunes’s behavior. Corruption? Let’s see what Mueller finds.
@Greg: So the dirty cop got a liberal judge for a warrant to do what they would not do to Harpy take client lawyer privileged stuff for his witch hunt.
Yes Greg I gave you a list of things that made him a dirty cop hiding the investigation into Russian bribery with the uranium deal from congress, he is a dirty little scum bag of the lowest kind.
I want a special prosecutor for the special prosecutor lets see if squashing the investigation into the uranium deal and hiding it from congressional oversight isn’t treasonous.
Conspiracy against the United States is a crime, and there are paper trails these are not theories they are FACTS, with evidence.
Mueller said Trump was not a target he is a liar.
@kitt, #14:
Republicans hadn’t even concocted and begun to promote their bullshit Uranium One story until 2015. Mueller’s tenure as Director at the FBI ended in September 2013. He held no government position of any kind until he was appointed Special Counsel in May 2017.
Trump Blasts Mueller Probe as ‘Attack on Our Country’
No, Mr. Trump, it’s a methodical, legally authorized, and totally necessary investigation of you and your administration, to determine if you’re the danger to the country, and you’re powerless to stop it. The only things that can hurt you are your own behavior, or an unacceptable truth that has thus far been hidden. You are not the country.
@Greg:
Yeah, that has been a common characteristic of these operations and liberals investigating Trump, hasn’t it? Tight lips. To the contrary, everything that could be damaging to Trump has been leaked. The silence now is due to the absence of anything to leak.
Cohen had been cooperating, same as everyone else in Trump’s organization. This is theater. This kind of invasion it totally unnecessary, unless one is seeking validation for their very existence. One who stoops to these tactics is indeed corrupt. The honorable thing to do would be to issue a report that nothing has been found and it has all been a liberal-instigated wild goose chase.
That’s only when it was revealed. The corruption occurred (not “concocted”) in 2010. Russia’s involvement was known by law enforcement and the State Department before the deal went down. So, are your beloved leaders that stupid or did they deliberately allow the Russians to take control of 20% of our uranium?
@kitt:
Heck, for Hillary they let everyone in her inner circle claim they were her attorney so they could not discuss “attorney/client” discussions. Everyone else they granted immunity before any investigation was done. Compare that to raiding Trump’s attorney’s offices and scarfing up all attorney/client and executive privilege conversations.
The “investigation” is ended; they found nothing. So, now they are trying desperately to provoke Trump to fire one of the idiots involved so they can go back to screaming at the sky that Trump is obstructing an investigation. Again, compare that to Bill telling Loretta to tell Comey to back off and let Hillary skate away.
@Greg: Time… time what is he statute of limitations on treason, oh there is no limit on that one. Before the deal was brokered in 2009, the FBI under Robert Mueller. Before the Obama administration approved a controversial deal in 2010 giving Moscow control of a large swath of American uranium, the FBI had gathered substantial evidence that Russian nuclear industry officials were engaged in bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering designed to grow Vladimir Putin’s atomic energy business inside the United States, according to government documents and interviews.
The racketeering scheme was conducted “with the consent of higher level officials” in Russia who “shared the proceeds” from the kickbacks, one agent declared in an affidavit years later. They just didnt cover their tracks well enough, even with Dirty cop Muellers assistance.
There’s nothing random about anything that Mueller does. There’s a reason the office of the President’s lawyer was raided by the FBI, and we’ll eventually find out what that reason is. This is not the sort of thing that can be done for no good reason.
@kitt:
Their tracks would have been covered completely had Hillary won, as she was expected to. That was the plan. That’s why so many in the DOJ supported her.
@Greg: You are right, Cohen was appointed National Deputy Finance Chairman of the RNC on 04/02/2017. They wanted RNC records, dirty spies. You better hope they use this information better than Hillary did.
@Greg: And according to LEAKS from the Mueller team, they are looking at a Ukrainian donation.
LEAKS. Leak em if you got em, mates. If there’s nothing to leak, there are no leaks.
F.B.I. Raids Office of Trump’s Longtime Lawyer Michael Cohen; Trump Calls It ‘Disgraceful’
Geoffrey S. Berman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, is a Trump administration appointee. He’s also a republican, and was a financial contributor to the 2016 Trump campaign.
This guy’s office didn’t authorize an unannounced raid on Cohen’s offices and residence to search for and seize evidence for no good reason.
@Greg:
And who provided the “reason”? Remember the “dossier”? You think it’s possible that they may have provided more concocted information that is unverified and unsupported by fact?
Why raid someone’s business when they have been cooperating? Theater, that’s why. Who needs theater? Desperate people, that’s who.
@Deplorable Me, #23:
Do you truly believe the tale that Cohen tried to buy off Trump’s porn star with a $130,000 payment out of his own pocket, without Trump’s knowledge and with no expectation of reimbursement? If so, this forum needs to install a laugh track button.
Trump attorney Cohen is being investigated for possible bank fraud, campaign finance violations
Most likely they’re sifting through bank records and financial transactions to determine where the money ultimately came from, suspecting it either represents an illegal campaign contribution or was misappropriated.
The $130,000 isn’t the only payment in question. Raid on Trump’s Lawyer Sought Records of Payments to Women
@kitt: What about Rosenstein–should DT fire him?
How bout Sessions? Mueller??
Kelly gonna leave?
Wag that dog—bomb Assad.
@Greg:
Speaking of needing a laugh track, you have never answered whether or not you believe Hillary deleted 33,000 emails just after they were requested as evidence just because they were only about yoga, weddings and funerals. To get an answer to your question, it is only right and proper I get an answer to mine.
Most likely you are citing leaks. I thought the Mueller operation didn’t leak. This is a desperate action of a desperate man. No collusion, no crimes, nothing at all for all their witch huntery. Now he is trying to provoke Trump into something that can be construed as obstruction. He better hope there is some really sound reason for invading an attorney’s office. He’s liable to get spanked real hard and add yet another big screw-up to his resume’.
@Deplorable Me, #26:
Yes, I have. For those who might have forgotten, I’ll repeat my opinion that the deleted material was all of a personal nature, and that, under the laws applicable at the time, she was under no legal obligation whatsoever to make them available for public inspection or for republican propaganda purposes.
There are many knowledgeable people indirectly involved with the investigation who are able to make good informed guesses. This particular one seems fairly obvious. The fact of at least one payment was known already; Trump’s own attorney alleged paying out of his own pocket without reimbursement. That rather unlikely behavior immediately gives rise to questions about the truth of the statement, and about how such a payment should be characterized in the context of a presidential campaign.
If something significant and unlawful is being deliberately hidden, there’s been obstruction already.
@Greg:
If you actually want people to believe you believe that, you don’t really deserve answers. That is the biggest load of CRAP that is possible to be foisted on anyone. She WAS under legal obligation to make them available to the State Department because she CHOSE to mix her “personal” emails with State Department emails. They were NOT for the public. However, as soon as she got wind of the request, she utterly and completely destroyed them. Now, those must have been SOME yoga routines, huh? Enjoy your dream world where you believe people actually believe that crap.
Leakers. Leakers leaking leaks. If there was ANY substance to any of the collusion accusations, it too would have been leaked.
If they played by the same rules as liberals, it would have already been deleted and Bleachbit cleansed. It seems people with nothing to hid don’t have to resort to those tactics… people who don’t do yoga (cue laugh track, along with groans). Cohen had provide the investigators with everything they had requested, but that’s not good enough. So, the message going forward is DON’T cooperate. Stonewall, like the “most transparent administration in history” and delete all you possibly can. Because, no matter what you have or have not done, no matter how much you cooperate, if liberals have a hand in the “investigation”, you will still be dragged through the mud… if you aren’t a liberal.
So, now the question of whether or not Trump will be interviewed by Mueller or answer questions: he should tell Mueller to shove it up his biased, partisan, grandstanding ass. It won’t be equitable, it won’t be fair and it won’t be done with justice in mind, so shove it… up, really far.
@Deplorable Me: Mueller is a dirty bastid no less than a self serving hack he has blown every case and cost a multimillion dollar lawsuit and drove an innocent man to suicide in the anthrax case.
Here is the saintly Mueller http://thefederalist.com/2018/02/08/robert-mueller-botching-investigations-since-anthrax-attacks/.
Evil, no conscience or ethics.
@kitt: Mueller has as much ethics as the team he picked.
Yeah, he should do that with a Twitter post. That would be a good move.
@kitt: Damn Kitt–thems mighty harsh words.
Dems would lOve to see DT twitter fire Mueller–fits right in their plan to impeach him after they get the House this NOV.