Pierce: Robert Mueller Has Likely Crossed Trump's 'Red Line.' Now What?

[mcar]

Remember back earlier on Thursday, when the president* got into tough-guy costume and finally got around to implementing the sanctions that Congress had mandated several months ago, and I wrote that, in reaction to that, Robert Mueller nodded wisely and reached for another folder? You thought I was kidding, right? From The New York Times:

In the subpoena, delivered in recent weeks, Mr. Mueller ordered the Trump Organization to hand over all documents related to Russia and other topics he is investigating, the people said. The subpoena is the latest indication that the investigation, which Mr. Trump’s lawyers once regularly assured him would be completed by now, will drag on for at least several more months. Word of the subpoena comes as Mr. Mueller appears to be broadening his investigation to examine the role foreign money may have played in funding Mr. Trump’s political activities. In recent weeks, Mr. Mueller’s investigators have questioned witnesses, including an adviser to the United Arab Emirates, about the flow of Emirati money into the United States.

From this, it looks like Mueller plans to burn it all down. It looks as though he’s decided that everything with which this president* is involved is so irredeemably corrupt and lousy with dirty money that trying to split the difference between which corruption was involved with the campaign, and what dirty money financed it, is an impossible rat’s nest to untangle. So the easiest thing is to light a match and see what burns in what color flame....

In this context, all those stories about an imminent Cabinet and senior staff shakeup (Scott Pruitt for Attorney General? Pull the other one) take on a more ominous appearance. It would be perfectly in character for this president* to concoct an utter bloodbath tomorrow, firing Jeff Sessions after Sessions fires Ron Rosenstein, putting someone in place to fire Mueller, and sticking crazoid John Bolton in as National Security adviser just for fun. Then, if he can get Mike Pompeo lined up at State and the Empress of the Black Sites installed at CIA, the president* will have in place a team made up of people absolutely disinclined to inconvenience him in his pursuit of all he can grab.

The Congress? Now pull both of them at once.

There is a sense right now of something stirring in the murk. Too many people are acting far too nervously. Something shapeless is rising from the deep and, waiting for it, is Robert Mueller. He plunges implacably forward and, if he ever does look behind him, sees only the rising floodtide of the Rubicon.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a19448131/mueller-subpoena-trump-organization-russia/

[leftofcool]

1. It won't matter

Mueller has it covered.

[mcar]

2. Yes, I think he does

[Hortensis]

4. I think you're both right. Mueller has a mandate,

and he can hardly be unaware of the danger threatening his ability to carry it out. He can be fired, but he will have planned both to block that and for that contingency in case it happens. Knowledge is power and he has it.

[Basic LA]

3. Charlie Pierce is the gonzo writer of our time.

If Hunter S. Thompson owned the Nixon era, Charlie Pierce owns this current disaster.

[mcar]

5. A good comparison

[blugbox]

6. Sometimes I have to remind myself

That we know a microscopic fraction of what Mueller knows. I bet that if we had followed all of Mueller's huge cases, we'd always be on edge like this. He has taken down huge crime rings before and I'm sure outsiders watching would be in for a rollercoaster ride for those cases as well.

I give myself hope by trying to keep this in mind. For most of us, this is all unprecedented. For him, it's Thursday.

Yes, the stakes are astronomical, and the people involved are at our highest level of government... but he does this for a living. For him, evidence is evidence, facts are facts, and liars are liars. It doesn't matter who is involved.

[FakeNoose]

7. Trump was supposed to divest himself of the Trump Organization businesses

...before the inauguration. He said he was going to do that.
If he didn't then this is all his own damn fault.
He can't blame Robert Mueller for this.

[GeorgeGist]

8. I have misgivings about folks taunting Trump ...

to do something S T U P I D.

[SonofDonald]

9. Mueller knows that he's our biggest hope

To dismantle this clusterfuck and expose it totally, a patriot, a thinker, a man in the right place at the right time to do the right thing.

He knows we must survive this or everything that has come before is for naught.

He knows what's at stake.

[mcar]

10. I think he's got all this covered

If Dotard has him fired, all the info and indictments are still there.

[Amaryllis]

13. Help us, Obi Wan Mueller, you're our only hope.

[wiggs]

11. Media has spent all day debating the 'red line' angle...when it's clear that...

....:

1) Family finance issues that go to Russian conspiracy, money laundering, Kompromat, bribery, treason, emoluments, illegal foreign campaign contributions, obstruction, etc are fair game.

2) Trump's statement drew the red line at family finance issues that are UNRELATED to Russia...but media keeps forgetting to mention that

3) Trump doesn't get to decide where the red line is in an investigation of his crime family. Mueller has broad authority...and in actuality all evidence of misdeeds, lying, corruption, and obstruction that Mueller finds -- even if not directly pertinent to Russia -- would help bolster an eventual case of corruption, conspiracy, and obstruction having to do with Russia. If he shows that the Trump empire is built on criminal, unethical behavior it will help convince a jury or congress that Trump is an unethical criminal.

4) No one can trust what Trump says. In fact, it should be assumed in general that whatever he says is incorrect or a deliberate lie, for purposes of chaos, protecting himself, enriching himself, putting down others, making himself look good, or just for the pleasure of getting over on dupes. Why hang on his every word and spend days parsing?

The endless red line discussion and promotion today is frustrating. Achieves nothing.

[flibbitygiblets]

14. #3. n/t

[errant boy]

12. Wrong Perspective, Mr Pierce

Trump has crossed Mueller's red line. And I don't think there's any going back!

[Cha]

15. Pierce certainly paints a vivid picture!

trump is guilty, and he feels the law getting closer.. he's like a cornered rabid rat.. he's going to lash out foaming at the mouth.

Mahalo, mcar