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Trump appears consumed by Mueller investigation as details emerge
Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN
Updated 8:57 AM EST, Wed November 28, 2018
Washington (CNN) Donald Trump’s behavior isn’t doing much to bolster White House assurances that he’s got nothing to worry about from Robert Mueller’s probe, after a series of potentially ominous turns in the Russia investigation.
The President’s recent barrage of tweets and comments and testimony from sources close to him – coinciding with thickening intrigue around the special counsel – hint instead at deep concern on Trump’s part.
“While the disgusting Fake News is doing everything within their power not to report it that way, at least 3 major players are intimating that the Angry Mueller Gang of Dems is viciously telling witnesses to lie about facts & they will get relief. This is our Joseph McCarthy Era!” Trump tweeted Wednesday, a day after blasting the special counsel as a “conflicted prosecutor gone rogue.”
Despite this outburst of fury, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders painted a portrait of a President who was serenely awaiting Mueller’s findings.
“I don’t think the President has any concerns about the report because he knows that there was no wrongdoing by him and that there was no collusion,” Sanders told reporters at her first daily briefing in a month.
The explanation for Trump’s angst over his predicament seems to lie in a flurry of startling and potentially significant developments and reports swirling around his jailed ex-campaign chairman Paul Manafort and other associates.
Trump, the most powerful man in the world who crafted a self-flattering image as the ultimate strongman boss, is in a deeply vulnerable spot and appears to feel cornered and in increasing peril.
He has no choice but to watch as Mueller, an adversary whose discrete public profile makes him an elusive target, grinds away, apparently getting ever closer to Trump’s inner circle and perhaps even to the President himself.
“The Mueller investigation is what it is. It just goes on and on and on,” Trump told The Washington Post Tuesday when asked about his relentless, unseen foe.
Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani offered a hint of the toll being inflicted on Trump behind the scenes when he told CNN’s Dana Bash the President had been “upset for weeks” about “the un-American, horrible treatment of Manafort.”
Details emerge
Manafort denies ever meeting with Assange
While the White House refuses to budge from its denial of collusion between Trump and Russia in 2016, a string of events now coming to light is stretching the notion that this is all one harmless coincidence to the limit of credulity.
In the space of a few days, it emerged that Manafort’s cooperation deal collapsed after Mueller accused him of lying on multiple occasions.
The Guardian reported on Tuesday that Manafort met Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who is accused of blasting out emails stolen by Russian spies to attack Hillary Clinton, on a number of occasions in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Both Manafort and Wikileaks have issued strenuous denials of the report – Manafort called it “totally false and deliberately libelous” and Wikileaks was “willing to bet the Guardian a million dollars and its editor’s head that Manafort never met Assange.”
The paper’s sourcing was also vague, making it difficult to assess the veracity of the reporting. So for now, joining the dots cannot produce definitive conclusions.
CNN later obtained draft court documents Tuesday with which Mueller plans to show how Trump associate Roger Stone allegedly sought information and emails from Wikileaks using another operative, Jerome Corsi, as a go between.
In another development, CNN contributor Carl Bernstein reported Tuesday that Mueller’s team has been investigating a meeting between Manafort and Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno in Quito in 2017 and has specifically asked if WikiLeaks or Assange was discussed in the meeting, according to a source with personal knowledge of the matter.
Such is the secrecy around Mueller’s investigation that no one outside knows what he knows. The special counsel has yet to lay out any case against Trump or his close associates on either alleged collusion or obstruction of justice.
If there is such supporting evidence, it is not clear that Mueller would be able to prove malicious intent by Trump. But all of the recent developments suggest that the special counsel has penetrated deeply into the events surrounding the troubled 2016 election.
In his dismissal of a cooperation agreement with Manafort, for instance, Mueller’s team said it has evidence to prove the former lobbyist lied “on a variety of subject matters” – a fact that alone must leave Trump wondering about the extent of his knowledge.
There was immediate speculation that Manafort’s apparent attempts to mislead Mueller amounted to an implicit plea for a pardon from the President. The White House said there had been talk of such a step. But adding to speculation that Manafort is angling for a pardon, Giuliani told Bash that the two legal teams had been in contact. This also raised the possibility that Trump has a genuine window into Mueller’s progress, another factor that might explain his recent anger.
The New York Times reported that the cooperation between the two legal teams had inflamed tensions between the special counsel and Manafort’s lawyers.
Potential impact
Stone’s efforts to seek WikiLeaks documents detailed in draft Mueller document
Former Watergate special prosecutor Richard Ben-Veniste told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin on Tuesday that if the report of Manafort-Assange meetings was correct it would be extraordinary.
“What in the world would Mr. Manafort be doing meeting with Julian Assange if not to talk about Assange’s role as a cut out for disseminating information the Russians obtained by illegal hacking?” Ben-Veniste said.
It was not clear whether Manafort’s alleged lies dealt with the reported meeting with Assange. But given that the fugitive Australian is confined to his hideaway in the embassy, he or his hosts are likely under surveillance, intelligence that Mueller would likely be able to access.
Mueller is not the only potential threat to the President interested in the deepening questions. Democrats, poised to take power in the House, are already gearing up to reinvigorate a congressional investigation on Russia.
What Democrats in Congress will do if they’re in power after midterms
“A meeting with Julian Assange would be the smoking gun,” said Rep. David Cicilline, D-Rhode Island, who sits on the House Judiciary Committee.
The House Democratic majority could eventually pose a grave threat to Trump’s presidency and represents a devastating erosion of the force field of political protection so far offered by the GOP majority on Washington power – another possible reason for his mood.
In the long term, any sustained dip in Trump’s popularity – his disapproval rating climbed to 60% in Gallup’s weekly tracking poll – could even eventually raise questions about the solidity of his standing among Senate Republicans that has so far always been seen as impenetrable.
Expectations high
The latest drama around Manafort is even more tantalizing given the possibility that the collapse of the cooperation agreement could prompt Mueller to reveal more about his tightly private investigation.
Special counsel prosecutors plan to detail Manafort’s alleged lies in a number of areas in a sentencing memo that could be filed with the court in the coming weeks.
Mueller has used indictments and court filings throughout his tenure to embroider a rich picture of Russian intelligence hacking, a social media campaign to disrupt the election and cozy ties between Manafort and pro-Russian political figures in Ukraine.
So expectations will be high ahead of his filing if it is done in public
“Without releasing a report, without another indictment, Mr. Mueller would be in a position to reveal a lot of information that we would all find very interesting about his investigation in open court,” said Ben-Veniste.
Such a filing is also now seen in Washington as a potential way around any attempt to disrupt a final report of the Russia investigation by Trump’s acting-Attorney General Matt Whitaker.
The new focus on the man picked to succeed the sacked Jeff Sessions may also point to another possible spur for the President’s current fury.
Trump has often seemed to know more about the probe than is available, and it’s possible that Whitaker, who is now in charge of overseeing Mueller, has read him in on the inside story of the investigation.
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It seems as if time is running out for both, Trump and Mueller. The international policies on China, its pilfering on intellectual property and its pressing on South Asian and coastal interests is more in accordance with State Department policy, then a unique Trump overture, its to manifold intelligence, for this reason Trump appears again more of a think tank puppetry abiding by an earlier forecast, that he us mainly interested in doing right by the sponsoring banks who hold him hostage by his bankrupt failures.
However the compromise is shaping up for a handshake on keeping him in office for the rest of his term, while everything will be litigated away.
Rationale:(even more bizarre)
The so called 'collusion was pre-planned!
This is how: no one was supposed to go down, Banaford, or anyone else. Now this may be a faulty way to approach this, but in the remainder of this ad.administration, all of these people may only given slaps on the wrist, and forfeiting their dishonest booty, well that will pay for their ‘defense’ at the very least.
What collusion? Right!
This collusion is a classic ponzi play, whereby a double entendre was created magically slight of hand to underwrite any doubt and to create an ansmolous atmosphere of a faux synthesis.
Lack of initial referendum or platform?
No Problema. The platform is being constructed as we speak. Very cleverly thought out with interest to those familiar with Vaudville.
Sub rationale: political correctness has passed with the by now familiarity with stuff like Pizzagate, the oral office, and the sudden death of the legal partner involved in whitewater, not to mention the use of private phones for top secret communication.
Therefore ‘they’ have to prolong judgement day unroll all of this will sink in 2 the public cinsciousness, which the second parties looks at with distaste, anyhow.
Psychologically speaking on an individual level, this is tantamount to an already borderline population being de-differentiated into an obliging search for a prototype, a hero to save a revolted child lashing out and repressed simultaneously.
This type of Everyman best Assange Himself either into Heroworship Or Aninomity, cause there is no going back.
New crisis about the role of attorney general:
If things couldn’t be any more muddy:
SCOTUS Blog’s Tom Goldstein’s Motion to Install Rosenstein as AG. “This is a constitutional crisis.”
By durrati / Daily Kos (11/29/2018) - November 29, 201893
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Michael Belanger / Flickr Rod Rosenstein PATRIOT…
Michael Belanger / Flickr
(Thomas C. Goldstein, known as simply Tom Goldstein, is an American attorney known for his advocacy before and blogging about the Supreme Court. Over the past fifteen years, Goldstein has served as one of the lawyers for one of the parties in just under 10% of the cases argued before the Supreme Court.)
Jurist.org
“Lawyer Tom Goldstein on Friday asked the US Supreme Court to appoint Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as the acting Attorney General, replacing Matthew Whitaker.
Goldstein claims that Whitaker was illegally installed as the temporary successor of former attorney general Jeff Sessions, and that Rosenstein is the legal and constitutional successor to Sessions. The motion argues that as the Senate-confirmed Deputy Attorney General, Rosenstein automatically succeeded to the role of Acting Attorney General under 28 USC § 508(a) and the Appointments Clause in Article II of the Constitution.
It seems as if crisis after crisis tries to deflect the idea that the process is wearing true the proposition that the
Swamp and the investigation are somehow related.
Michael Cohen pleads guilty to lying to Congress about Trump Tower project in Moscow, cuts deal with special counsel Robert Mueller
Kevin Breuninger
Dan Mangan
Published 12 Hours Ago Updated 6 Hours Ago
CNBC.com
President Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleads guilty to lying to Congress about a Trump Tower real estate project in Russia.
Cohen’s plea, his second in four months, comes as part of a new deal with special counsel Robert Mueller in the probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
In his court statement, Cohen says he lied to the Senate Intelligence Committee in order to be consistent with Trump’s political messages and out of loyalty to the president.
President Donald Trump’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty Thursday to lying to Congress about a Trump real estate project in Russia, and the extent of the president’s involvement in and knowledge of that deal.
Cohen’s plea in federal court in Manhattan, his second in four months, came as part of a new deal with special counsel Robert Mueller.
Prosecutors said Cohen lied in order to minimize links between Trump and his Moscow building project, and to give the false impression that the project had died before the Iowa caucuses in February 2016, the first contest on the path toward a presidential nomination.
On the White House’s South Lawn after Cohen’s court appearance, the president accused his former fixer of lying about his most recent admissions in order to “get a reduced sentence.”
“He’s a weak person and not a very smart person,” Trump said.
Trump’s lawyer, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, attacked Cohen’s credibility: “Michael Cohen is a liar.”
Cohen, 52, did not previously have a formal cooperation agreement with Mueller, but it is known that he has been speaking for the past several months to the special counsel’s office and other law enforcement entities. Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible coordination between Trump campaign-related figures and the Kremlin, as well as possible obstruction of justice by Trump.
Cohen told a judge Thursday that he lied in 2017 to the Senate Intelligence Committee about a proposed Trump Tower development in Moscow in order to be consistent with Trump’s political messages and out of loyalty to the president.
Cohen’s violation carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and three years of supervised release, according to his plea agreement.
Read Cohen’s plea agreement here
Giuliani said in a statement that “It’s no surprise that Cohen lied to Congress”:
“Michael Cohen is a liar. It’s no surprise that Cohen lied to Congress,” Giuliani said. “He’s a proven liar who is doing everything he can to get out of a long-term prison sentence for serious crimes of bank and tax fraud that had nothing to do with the Trump Organization. It is important to understand that documents that the Special Counsel’s Office is using to show that Cohen lied to Congress were voluntarily disclosed by the Trump Organization because there was nothing to hide. It is hardly coincidental that the Special Counsel once again files a charge just as the President is leaving for a meeting with world leaders at the G20 Summit in Argentina. The Special Counsel did the very same thing as the President was leaving for a world summit in Helsinki. With regard to the hotel proposal in Moscow, the President has been completely open and transparent.”
A court document laying out the special counsel’s allegations refer to Trump and his company, the Trump Organization, through the respective pseudonyms “Individual 1” and the “Company.”
The special counsel in a court document said Cohen “knowingly and deliberately” lied when he told the Senate committee that the Moscow proposal “ended in January 2016 and was not discussed extensively with others” in the Trump Organization.
In fact, Cohen discussed the Moscow project with another individual as late as about June 2016, and briefed Trump on it more times than he had claimed to the Senate committee, the special counsel wrote. Mueller’s team adds that Cohen “briefed family members of [Trump] within the Company about the project.”
Andrew Kelly | Reuters
President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen exits Federal Court after entering a guilty plea in Manhattan, New York City, November 29, 2018
Cohen had made the false claim in a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee in September 2017.
“I assume we will discuss the rejected proposal to build a Trump property in Moscow that was terminated in January of 2016; which occurred before the Iowa caucus and months before the very first primary,” Cohen said in that letter. “This was solely a real estate deal and nothing more. I was doing my job. I would ask that the two-page statement about the Moscow proposal that I sent to the Committee in August be incorporated into and attached to this transcript.”
Read Cohen’s criminal information here
The special counsel also writes that Cohen lied when he told lawmakers that he didn’t recall hearing a response about the project from Russia.
Cohen’s appearance in court was a surprise. He is due to be sentenced Dec. 12 on his prior guilty plea of eight criminal counts related to tax fraud, excessive campaign contributions and making false statements to a financial institution. Those charges came in a separate federal case not directly lodged by the special counsel.
In that hearing in August, Cohen said he paid two women at the request of a political candidate later confirmed to be Trump “for the principal purpose of influencing the election.” The women, Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, claimed they had had affairs with Trump. The White House denies the allegations.
At the courthouse on Thursday, Cohen pleaded to a single count of making false statements to Congress.
Cohen attorney Lanny Davis declined CNBC’s requests for comment. The White House had no immediate comment when asked about Cohen’s guilty plea. Trump was preparing to travel to Buenos Aires for the G-20 summit as Cohen pleaded guilty. In a tweet shortly after his comments outside the White House on Thursday, Trump announced that he had canceled his planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Argentina summit.
Trump said his decision was based on Russia’s seizure of Ukrainian ships in the Kerch Strait of the Black Sea.
Neither Cohen nor his criminal defense lawyer Guy Petrillo had any comment for a horde of reporters confronting them as they exited the lower Manhattan courthouse about 50 minutes after the plea hearing began.
After Trump won the 2016 election against Democrat Hillary Clinton, the then-president elect denied having anything to do with Russia.
The Washington Post reported in August 2017 that Cohen had emailed Putin’s personal secretary during the 2016 presidential campaign to request assistance in moving along a stalled Trump Tower development project in Moscow.
The development in Cohen’s legal saga came shortly after Trump sent multiple tweets raging against the Russia investigation.
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