Also stupid.
If you wind back the FBI to how it was before Comey got to it…well then you’re talking about the FBI under Robert Mueller.
Wait for the executive order trump signs declaring laws he doesn’t like illegal.
BTW, from this point on, I refuse to capitalize trump, white house, potus, whatever. I’m not wasting capital letters on that dirt bag.
I don’t think they care that much about the long term health of the republican party. Assuming that trump really is bad for the long term health of the republican party.
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I’m curious about something. If Pence were somehow caught up in this and he ends up resigning, if Trump, for whatever reason, refuses to fill the Vice-President vacancy, could he be forced to accept someone either by Congress or the courts?
And I’m rather surprised that Pence hasn’t been in Mueller’s hot seat yet. Everyone on the transition team needs to be questioned, and that includes Pence
Another thing I’m curious about. If it’s shown that Trump and/or his team talked to the Russians to get them to do stuff contrary to what the Obama administration wanted, is that illegal in any way if it happened during the transition? It’s certainly politically incorrect for an incoming administration to talk at cross purposes in foreign affairs to what the current administration was trying to do, but are there laws against that?
That’s why the talk about the Logan Act.
Only two indictments, no prosecutions.
Maybe history will be made.
It most certainly is. A fairly old law called the Logan act.
Bottom line: trump wasn’t President until he was, and anybody pursuing a foreign policy other than that of the Obama administration would be, at least in theory, in violation of said law.
No. There have been a few times that we didn’t have a Veep. LBJ didn’t have one while he completed JFK’s term.
I seriously doubt there is going to be any prosecution of the Logan Act. I absolutely agree that the pre-election communication between the Russians and Trump’s campaign were anything but normal, and would suggest unethical behavior. But the Logan Act in no way prohibits discussion of policy during a presidential transition period. The Logan Act was written to prevent individuals from seriously undermining foreign policy through conduct that is patently disruptive. Consider the reason the original law was written in 1799 - a political activist trying to actively promote a separate foreign policy track and in a way that effectively undermines the approach adopted by the President.
To give an example of what could be a violation of that act, let’s say Trump lost to Hillary in 2016 but let’s say he was still in contact with Russia and decided he wanted to propose a secret (or even not-so-secret) alternative track for foreign policy with Russia. He and his entourage - not elected but as private citizens - visit Russia and get Russia to agree to terms and conditions that are outside what a Hillary CLinton presidency would advocate (the end of NATO, etc). Even though it’s not official US policy under a president Clinton, it would be confusing, disruptive, and sow doubts about which policies are the official ones. THAT would be a violation of the Logan Act. That’s quite different from what has been discussed in the reports.
I would think that anyone who has not been interviewed should probably be concerned that they are a target.
I don’t think there is any way to compel Trump to fill the Veep vacancy if he refused for some reason to do it. Congress could maybe pass legislation, or they may simply defer to the next person in the line of succession – which is Paul Ryan. I speculate that’s what they would do.
Re Pence, there’s that old saying about playing poker: If you look around the table and you can’t identify the sucker, guess what? It’s you. If I were Pence, I’d be extremely concerned that I had not been asked to provide documents or asked to have a chat with the investigators.
Agree with running coach re the Logan Act. It is the mechanism that prohibits private citizens (including incoming administration officials) from working against the objectives of a current administration. I hear a lot of people snicker at the notion that the Logan Act could be invoked, but if you ask them about it, the most common reasons they offer is that the law is colloquial and has not been used before. Those things are true, but just because the law is old doesn’t invalidate it in any way. Nor does the fact that it hasn’t been used. Up to now, we haven’t had a case where it was necessary to be used. But then, we were never so dumb as to elect a complete fucking moron to the presidency before, either.
It’s true that there are perfectly legal ways for an incoming administration to have conversations with foreign governments about their intended policies. Trump’s gang didn’t appear to respect those lanes. They disregarded an express, forceful request by the Obama administration to not interfere in any way with the sanctions Obama imposed as a result of Russian subversion of our election. Trump continues to interfere with those sanctions every single day to the present time by refusing to impose them on Russia.
The Logan Act is as valid a part of the Constitution as any other part, and we make new law based on the Constitution all the time. If it applies in this case, there is no reason it can’t be invoked and used to prosecute its violators.
My genuine silver lining hope here is that when we get to the bottom of this there is such obvious money laundering into campaigns that the US government is forced to do serious campaign finance reform. If that happens, then this administration will have been worthwhile.
LBJ didn’t have any power to appoint a Veep after he succeeded JFK. There was no mechanism for the appointment of a Veep to fill a Veepancy until the passage of the 25th Amendment, which came into force early in 1967. By that time LBJ was in his second term and had his very own Veep, Hubert Humphrey.
Is Hope Hicks up next on Mueller’s list of naught and nice?
Aaaaaaand (literally) almost unbelievable. But if so, I guess even #realDonaldTrump isn’t always real Donald Trump?
Sounds like something that merits some under-oath testimony–official communications of the Commander in Chief are being written by an assortment of people. That’s an issue that requires investigation.
Amazing, by the way, that they bypassed actually-semi-plausible explanations such as have been offered in this very thread–and, no doubt, all over the Internet. (For example, that Trump added in the charge he “just learned about,” the lying to the FBI one, merely to save on words, and/or as a result of having just awakened, and/or having a brain fart.)
Instead, they come up with this implausible tale that a lawyer grabbed Trump’s phone and posted something incriminating against Trump–imitating Trump’s Twitter style impeccably.
Idiocy. If this is Kelly’s work, he drops even further in my estimation.
Are tweets are official communications? I don’t really know but my guess is not.
Unsubstantiated WH gossip says that Trump’s reaction to hearing the Flynn news was to throw a coffeepot down a West Wing hallway and to refuse to take any calls for the rest of the day. I have no idea how one would substantiate this outside of speaking to the cleaners responsible for cleaning coffee off the walls, but it amuses me to believe it true. The more unhinged Trump is, the more mistakes he makes regarding the investigation. The more mistakes he makes, the more Mueller benefits.
<chortle!> I heard the coffee pot story, too. Sounds like him.
Guess that’s what happens when your coffee boy cops a plea.
I think Sean Spicer, I call him Lyin’ Sean, Lyin’, once said in the press briefings that Trump’s tweets are official policy.
The COVFEFE Act was introduced in the House to make his tweets official communications, but nothing happened after that. Not aware of any other legislation that would make them official. Still, if Sean said it in his official capacity as White House spokesman…