Expert: “cataclysmic” consequences within weeks for Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, and Donald Trump Jr
The past twenty-four hours have seen a whirlwind of events in Donald Trump’s Russia scandal. We learned that Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller for the past week if not longer, giving Mueller a wide array of inside witnesses including Michael Flynn and Steve Bannon. Now Mueller wants to interview Trump, and he wants it to happen soon. This has led one political expert to predict that things are about to go south for Trump and his family within weeks.
MSNBC commentator and U.S. intel expert Malcolm Nance reacted to the day’s news by summing it up this way on Twitter: “Today confirms my estimate that by the end of March Mueller may take cataclysmic acts in Trump Russia investigation. By then we’ll see if Kushner or Trump Jr are indicted or turn on Trump.” This falls roughly in line with Palmer Report’s earlier analysis that, once Mueller interviews Trump, Mueller will have no further use for Trump’s son or son-in-law (link). In fact, we have a sense of how this might play out.
For now, the door is likely still open for Kushner and Trump Jr to negotiate plea deals against Donald Trump. Mueller already has a slew of inside witnesses, but adding testimony and evidence from a couple of Trump family members to the mix certainly can’t hurt the case he’s building. It’s extraordinarily difficult to imagine Trump Jr cutting a deal that takes down his own father, but it seems feasible that Kushner would sell out his father-in-law in order to avoid prison. However, that window is only open until the day Mueller interviews Trump.
After that, we expect the window to close with prejudice. Once Robert Mueller finishes his interview with Donald Trump, the obstruction phase of the investigation will be over. Mueller’s need to get Trump to cooperate for the interview will be over. Mueller will have every reason to go ahead and arrest Donald Trump Jr and Jared Kushner, and begin prosecuting them, after the interview. Nance thinks we’re now just several weeks away from that kind of scenario playing out, and so do we.
