Why Robert Mueller can’t hurry
With each passing day, Donald Trump becomes more dangerously unstable. It also becomes more painfully clear that he was never legitimately elected President of the United States to begin with, and that he’s guilty of numerous serious crimes. “Robert Mueller, Please Hurry” has become a popular and understandable rallying cry for the Resistance. Recent events have reminded us that it’s probably not the best advice.
This week Mueller informed a federal judge that he’s ready to start the trial against Paul Manafort right now, and yet the judge assigned a September start date anyway. It’s just how these things work. The trial, if it happens, may last for years. By that time Trump’s fate will likely have already been decided. Manafort was always going to be inclined to take his chances at trial, because he can afford the kind of high priced attorneys who just might be able to find creative way to beat the rap.
In fact Mueller arrested Manafort’s sidekick Rick Gates in the hope of getting him to flip on Manafort, which might cause Manafort to realize that he’s going to have to cut a deal after all. That plan is now in the process of working, and we’ll see if Manafort flips or not. But it’s a reminder that if Manafort does go to trial, then whether Manafort wins or loses that trial, he’ll end up being no use to Mueller at all.
Keep in mind that Paul Manafort is facing one of the most broad and serious collections of criminal charges ever brought against any American, and yet he’s still hesitating about cutting a deal. To get people closer to Donald Trump to flip on him, the ones who can truly take him down, Robert Mueller has to put together some of the scariest sets of criminal charges in history.
If Mueller moves on people like Jared Kushner or Hope Hicks too quickly, before he’s built those criminal cases into pure nightmare fuel, and they decide to simply take their chances at trial, then that’ll be a fail for Mueller. He needs to scare them into cutting deals, and it takes time to dig through every dark corner of these people’s lives in order to find all of their skeletons. If Mueller tries to hurry up the process, he may blow it forever. He only gets one shot at these people. You don’t want him cutting corners. You want him getting it right.
