Robert Mueller just ate Donald Trump’s “red line” for breakfast
For the past ten months, Donald Trump has largely been content to sit back and do nothing, even as Special Counsel Robert Mueller has picked off his advisers and associates one at a time. Trump has tried a few tepid antics and some angry tweets aimed at sabotaging the investigation, but predictably, none of them have worked. All along, however, Trump’s legal team has publicly floated the idea of a “red line” which Mueller was not allowed to cross.
As Mueller has made steady progress toward taking Trump down, Trump’s people have alternately defined the “red line” as Trump’s finances, Trump’s relationships outside politics, and Trump’s international relationships. This week Mueller made a single move which revealed that he’s blown through all three “red lines” when he detained a guy you’ve probably never heard of at an airport in Boston, seizing the guy’s cellphone, and subpoenaing him to testify before a Trump-Russia grand jury.
Ted Malloch is not the first, or even the second, Trump-Russia figure who has been detained at an airport by Robert Mueller. But this is the first time he’s descended on someone who is so central to, well, everything. Malloch is an associate of Donald Trump. He’s also an associate of Trump’s close pal Roger Stone. He has some sort of connection to Julian Assange that only Mueller seems to know about. In addition he’s an associate of British politician Nigel Farage, who led the Brexit movement.
While we don’t yet know what specific role Ted Malloch played in the Trump-Russia scandal (he wasn’t arrested, so it’s possible he’s nothing more than a material witness), it’s easy to see how the above things fit together. Stone was a campaign adviser to Donald Trump, during which time Stone was colluding with Assange. Russia meddled in the U.S. election and in the Brexit vote. Cambridge Analytica played a key role in both those votes. Malloch, Assange, and Farage are all based in the UK. Malloch was on his way from the UK when Mueller detained him.
Perhaps most importantly, this strikes at the heart of any money flow that existed among Donald Trump, Russia, Cambridge Analytica, you name it. This is a reminder that Trump’s financial entanglements go far beyond merely the Trump Organization’s shady deals. Robert Mueller’s new witness has the ability to tie huge pieces of the puzzle together. He’s set to testify before Mueller’s grand jury in two weeks, which means that Mueller is in the process of indicting various people for all of the above. Mueller is eating Trump’s “red line” for breakfast.
