But justice did not eventually prevail against Nixon. Thanks to his preemptive resignation and Ford’s subsequent pardon, justice never even got to lay its hands on him.
There’s a really big evidentiary flaw. Cohen saying Trump told him to lie is pretty weak evidence for an indictment let alone trying to get a conviction. There’s plenty of room for reasonable doubt when comparing the testimony of two witnesses when neither is very credible. Cohen is after all the guy that was lying.
Buzzfeed said there was independent evidence supporting Cohen’s claim that Trump told him to lie. That piece was huge. That’s into the territory where Mueller already has at least one recommendation for an indictment of Trump written in his draft report. AG Barr has already named that behavior as something that is NOT in executive privilege during his testimony. If accurate that’s claiming evidence at the level of the Nixon tapes.
Buzzfeed’s story just isn’t accurate.
Note: please don appropriate tinfoil headwear before reading the following speculation.
Anther possibility is the the Buzzfeed story was a Dan Rather/witness for the prosecution ploy, in which Buzzfeed was sent a story with phony evidence with the hope that its exposure would taint all of the other evidence surrounding Trump’s Malfeasance.
That doesn’t sound too farfetched to me, although I doubt that any of Trump’s flunkies are that clever.
That kind of makes sense.
And if that is true, then Mueller’s statement nipped that in the bud.
I don’t recall exact specifics offhand but isn’t Trump known for sending flattering stories about himself to the New York gossip rags back in the 80’s?
Planting a story that gets everyone frothing at the mouth about impeachment and having that story turn out to be fake news is cleverness way above Trump’s pay grade but put enough of Trump’s monkeys in front of enough keyboards and you never know what you might get.
I’ve also been trying to remember the specifics of that case, and I think you’ve got it. The bit I’ve bolded is the key point to keep in mind.
Yes, the flaw in Buzzfeed’s reporting of the facts is actually pinpointed (well, indicated) in the statement by Mueller’s spokesman:
It’s Buzzfeed’s strong implication that their source is within Mueller’s team that Mueller pushed back against with the release of the statement.
This is correct.
Woodstein correctly reported that Haldeman was the fifth person who could tell Sloan to disburse money, but incorrect to state that Sloan had testified to that at the grand jury hearing. Sloan later said he would have said this, and I think even said he wanted to tell the grand jury this, but no one asked him.
And that’s what’s wrong with our country. It seems we need another amendment SPECIFICALLY SAYING THAT THE PRESIDENT IS NOT ABOVE THE LAW. The Founding Fathers just took the obvious for granted. His worshipers apparently need to be cut off at the knees before they realize they are being driven down and not being risen up.
It’s gets very tiring trying to help people that won’t give up their shovel and keep digging deeper.
This.
Maybe a nothing burger, but Mao on a pogo stick, given there is so much smoke, categorical denials being walked back, Giuliani’s contortions, false equivalency spin, and a forensic looks at personal and Trump Inc tax returns…
I hope this isn’t a red herring. Otherwise the only thing Mueller will have on Trump is every other thing Trump’s done in the past few years.
I know, right? And that could take decades to sort out.
How could they know that the story would be contested?
This is the thing that confuses me about the whole deal - if Buzzfeed was totally wrong, why the refusal to answer? I mean, the WH has taken the position of “repeat a lie often enough and people believe it as truth”, so why not just categorically deny it, especially if that denial is actually true?
Maybe after he’s outlived his usefulness, Putin will “arrange an accident”. He already knows he can literally get away with it - anywhere in the world.
But I don’t want him to get ANY deal to quietly resign and go away. NO NO NO NO! Because he won’t.
He would never honor his end of the deal (ANY deal) and has had access to TOO many state secrets. We’ve already seen how quick he hands secrets to Russians, He HAS to spend the rest of his life in prison. He will always be too big a security risk.
The only pragmatic, practical solution is to let him die in prison. Maybe Meuller can give him a chair and a rope.
Which means in a way, when Nixon said “it isn’t illegal if the president does it” was kinda sorta correct. That was about election shenanigans. Now it’s about treason. Will that get a pass too?
From Republicans? For a Republican president?
Of course. He’s a member of their team now. And I suspect that several other Republican leaders are already covering up their own Russian compromat or “help”.
Christian Republicans have already reconciled themselves to supporting a man who is an adulterous liar, who knows nothing of the bible, and has rarely gone to church, and who espouses anti-christian thoughts just about every time he opens his mouth.
There is no honour left in the party. None.
Let’s say you witness an assault with a gun, some guy you don’t know shoots some other guy you don’t know. And flees the scene. You are swift of foot and possess mad ninja skills, you can probably chase the shooter down, disarm and secure him for swift and certain justice.
You do not possess any skill or training in medicine and emergency trauma procedures, but the victim still lives and need helps at once. However, if you try, the scoundrel will escape. No contest, you help the afflicted.
TANJ. There ain’t no justice. Best we get is a rough approximation, based on human limits of truth and reason. Necessary, nonetheless, but crude and unreliable. What sentence would be appropriate for GeeDubya in justice for a hundred thousand innocent Iraqi citizens? What for Cheney, or even Powell?
I want the truth, the whole truth. Ecce homo, behold the man, let him be seen for what he is. I need for my fellow citizens to see the Emperor’s shriveled Circus Peanut winkie. No, it ain’t justice, but it will do until justice comes along.
’luci, will you then wave? Like this?