The real reason Donald Trump can’t keep himself out of prison
While Donald Trump is spouting off his greatest hits of “No Collusion! No Obstruction!” and the all-time favorite “Witch-hunt!”, be assured Robert Mueller did not just pack up his old kit bag and walk away. Even if Trump is declaring the Senate done with the Mueller investigation, the Mueller investigation is far from done with him.
Take a look at this little-remarked upon phrase recently reported online by CNN: “a different grand jury from the one Mueller originally used.” This refers to the criminal case against Roger Stone, Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. It is ongoing, as so many things are that concern Mueller and Trump. You don’t impanel a new grand jury unless more indictments are coming.
Republicans want this whole Mueller/Russia thing to go away so badly, they’ll do anything to stop it, including abandoning war heroes like John McCain while embracing detestable people like Jim Jordan. While diversion and lies work for their lobotomized base, it’s getting harder and harder for them to defend the indefensible. But, nevertheless, they persist.
The current on-going obstruction is allowing the White House to see the Mueller grand jury material William Barr has authorized to go to Congress. This is, of course, entirely predictable. Trump will scream “Executive Privilege!” and wait for the Judiciary committee to go through the courts, Bill Barr will earn his Get Out of Jail Free card and we will have to gnash our teeth and suffer more obstruction.
But the truth grinds forward anyway. Trump believes “his” Senate will protect him. He is right that they will try. But in the end, there’s no way to control all these leaks. For every grand jury witness who keeps their mouth shut, there are two who are whispering behind everyone’s back about what they know. Trump went from Make America Great Again to insisting that he won’t resign. We’ve discussed the “I” word (impeach) and the “R”-word (resign). Soon we’re going to get to the “P” -word, and we’re not talking about Pelosi (hint: prison).
TR Kenneth is the author of the thriller, A ROOM FULL OF NIGHT. You can read all about her at trkenneth.com and on Twitter