Robert Mueller just backed Donald Trump into a corner over Donald Trump Jr
Special Counsel Robert Mueller has been busy today. He’s reportedly indicting far-right conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi in relation to the Trump-Russia scandal. Now, as it turns out, Mueller has just backed Donald Trump into a corner when it comes to Donald Trump Jr’s criminal culpability in the scandal.
It’s long been widely reported that Donald Trump and his criminal defense team were working on written answers to Robert Mueller’s questions, but it’s always been assumed that those questions were limited to obstruction of justice. Instead, the questions are about Trump-Russia election collusion, according to Reuters. Specifically, they’re focused on Donald Trump Jr’s meeting with Russian government representatives at Trump Tower during the election. This now leaves Trump with an impossible choice.
Donald Trump can try to pin the entire thing on his son by insisting that he had no knowledge of the meeting. In so doing, Trump might protect himself from criminal culpability, but he’d be helping to ensure that his son goes to prison. In addition, if Mueller can catch Trump lying about his own role, then Mueller can nail Trump for lying to federal investigators, which is a felony. Trump’s only other option would be to tell the truth and incriminate himself in the name of trying to lessen his son’s criminal culpability, which – given Trump’s sociopathic nature – seems unlikely.
No matter which way Donald Trump goes with this, there is no remaining doubt that Robert Mueller is seeking to indict Donald Trump Jr. Does this mean that Mueller’s endgame involves putting Junior in handcuffs and using it as leverage to finish Trump off? It’s worth noting that Jared Kushner also attended that meeting, though his role appears to have been less central.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report