Trump and Possible Charges

I have noted that Grand Jury = Charges. So what charges may be pending, and against whom?

Here is some of what I think could land like an atom bomb on the US political landscape, likely by the end of the summer. Let's start with the charges that will start off what may be a "death of a thousand charges" that sink the Trump administration.

Michael Flynn:

This man was Trump's National Security Advisor for somewhat under a month before having to resign over allegations that he was too cosy with Russia. The possible allegations could involve the following.

He did not get approval from the US Government when, as a former member of the military, he was employed by foreign governments (by RT, which is the Russian news/propaganda outfit in the USA, and by a Turkish company, working for the Russians who hired Flynn to work to subvert the Government of Ukraine, which is a US ally), and/or he was late applying for such approval. This is a clear violation of the law.

Related to this employment, he failed to disclose payments from Russia and Turkey for various services and speeches, as required when he applied for his security clearance when he was nominated as National Security Advisor.

He also may have lied to the FBI about whether or not he had discussed sanctions wit the Russians. Lying to the public happens all of the time these days.  Lying to the FBI is a clear case of obstruction of justice.

Aside 1 - What is Obstruction of Justice?

"The crime of obstruction of justice, in United States jurisdictions, refers to the crime of obstructing prosecutors or other officials. Common law jurisdictions other than the United States tend to use the wider offense of perverting the course of justice." - Wiki

The Special Prosecutor has asked the White House for information related to Michael Flynn. He will be charged with any or all of the above, I would think rather soon, in order to try to turn him against his former compatriots.

Jared Kushner (and Trump Jr and Manafort):

A few weeks ago, news "leaked out", as it is wont to do these days, that the Special Prosecutor was looking at Trump's financial dealings with Russians. As noted here, Trump lost it.

Within less than a week, he changed his legal team and explored the possibility of pardoning everyone, including himself; Priebus was gone, and "the Mooch" was in to smooth communications; Spicer resigned in protest; the "the Mooch" was replaced by Kelly; Sessions was viciously attacked on Twitter, obviously to get him to resign to clear a path for firing Mueller. There was smoke all over the place after the new focus on financial dealings was revealed - but is there any fire?

As part of his denial of any wrong-doing as part of his meetings with Russians as part of the 2016 presidential election campaign, Kushner has also clarified that, "I have not relied on Russian funds for my businesses, and I have been fully transparent in providing all requested information." You'll note how limited this denial is. He does not say he did not have any dealings with Russians. He does not say that he didn't provide funds to them. He does not say that he has no contact with any Russians now.  

As recently as 2015, Kushner had dealings with a Russian billionaire named Lev Leviev, paying his company $295 million in a real estate deal.  Leviev is a partner in a Russian firm called Prevezon Holdings that was under investigation for attempting to use real estate deals in Manhattan to launder money stolen from the Russian treasury.  Legal counsel for Prevezon was Natalia Veselnitskaya - the very person that Kushner met at the infamous meeting where he had been lead to believe that the Russians had damning information about Hillary Clinton.

Will charges of money laundering from previous dealings follow at some point? For now, there are only innuendos, and no evidence. But I would think that Trump's complete "freak-out" at the news that Mueller was also looking at financial dealings speaks to something rather ominous just below the surface. He has the right to remain silent, but his "freak-outs" speak volumes.

Apparently, Kushner did not include this meeting in his security application forms either. As with Flynn, this is a clear violation.

Aside 2 - Let's stop for a moment. There is an allegation in the alt-media that the "Russian connection" to Trump is a complete fabrication = "fake news".

And yet, we have the then National Security Advisor for Trump caught lying about the nature of a conversation with the Russian Ambassador to the USA - specifically about the fact that he was talking about sanctions - and he also took money from RT, which is the Russian propaganda news outlet in the USA, and to work for Russia to subvert America's Ukrainian ally.

And we also have Trump's son-in-law conducting hundreds of millions of dollars worth of business directly with Russian oligarchs, and meeting with Russians for the ostensible purpose of receiving information in order to subvert a US presidential election.

This all happened - I have not even mentioned the allegation of hacking e-mails, which is the standard allegation. It is all serious, and speaks of possible Russian influence in the heart of the White House. The suggestion that there is nothing to the "Russian connection" is 100% Bull Shit.

Let's continue.

Kushner, Trump Jr, and Manafort - Trump's campaign manager - took a meeting with Russians where, before the meeting they had cause to believe that the point was to receive damning information from a foreign government designed to impact a presidential election in the United States. Kushner has since said that it was about discussing the Magnitsky Act, so he left.

That they even took this meeting is exceptionally disturbing. On its face, all three went to a meeting, then Kushner left once he realized that he was not going to get any juicy information about Hillary Clinton. Get it? Everything is OK because he left before he could commit a felony, the committing of which is clearly what he intended to do!

Oh, we need to point out that he actually had FOUR meetings with the Russians. After Kushner was caught having gone to this meeting, he decided to be transparent, and release e-mails relating to his four meetings with the Russians. Were these meetings disclosed in his security application?  

Aside 3 - What is a Criminal Conspiracy?

"A conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime at some time in the future. Criminal law in some countries or for some conspiracies may require that at least one overt act must also have been undertaken in furtherance of that agreement, to constitute an offence. There is no limit on the number participating in the conspiracy and, in most countries, no requirement that any steps have been taken to put the plan into effect (compare attempts which require proximity to the full offence). For the purposes of concurrence, the actus reus is a continuing one and parties may join the plot later and incur joint liability and conspiracy can be charged where the co-conspirators have been acquitted or cannot be traced." - Wiki

What actually happened at these meetings? I suggest that we still don't really know. What we do know is that if any information purporting to be about Hillary Clinton was offered and the US citizens at that meeting received and reviewed it, then even if they thought it was unworthy they would have crossed the line and would have clearly violated US election laws, as it is illegal for a US citizen to conspire with a foreign government to subvert a US election.

Specifically, in this situation, even receiving and considering information from the perspective of subverting an election in concert with a foreign government would constitute an "overt act" in aid of a conspiracy meaning that the criminal conspiracy test would be met.

I can hear the Twitter-sphere now..."How does this make sense?!!" What if we hear of a new version of the meeting where Kushner, Trump Jr and Manafort looked at information, realized it was worthless, and never used it?

Well, it doesn't matter. You see, when you set out to rob a bank, you cannot escape prosecution by complaining that after you held it up, there wasn't enough money to make it worth your while!!

This point is the key - the stated purpose of that meeting was in fact "robbing a bank" - subverting a US election in concert with a foreign government. These American citizens went to a meeting with the full intent of committing a felony. If they received and looked at any information, they crossed the line. Stay tuned.

And so, was the Magnitsy Act the reason for the meeting, or was this a fall-back excuse once the real reason for the meeting did not pan out?  I suspect that we do not know the whole story here. I suspect that we know very soon, for reasons outlined at the end of this tome.

Aside 4 - Again, the Russians are all over this. The suggestion that the "Russian connection" is "fake news" is borderline insane; the product of a deranged propaganda.

Donald Trump:

What about the President of the United States?

In keeping with the great traditions of both the Cosa Nostra and the Nixon White House (BTW - tomorrow is the 43rd anniversary of Nixon's resignation), everyone close to Trump will fall on their sword rather than implicate him in any crimes or misdemeanours. There will be no charges against him based on evidence offered by his underlings.

Some have discussed possible obstruction charges. Recall the definition of Obstruction of Justice above. Former Director Comey was subtly asked to drop the Flynn investigation by Trump in a private meeting. While this was unseemly, and while this was borderline obstruction, even Comey himself did not think it would meet the test.

But what about everything else Trump does?

Hey!!! Did you know that this man Tweets incessantly!?

Not only does he Tweet - he Tweets during congressional investigations, and about matters about which he is aware there are on-going criminal investigations. The point of these Tweets is clearly to influence the course of these investigations. The effect, coming as these public prognostications do from the President of the United States himself, may be to actually obstruct officials and prosecutors in the furtherance of their investigations.

Again, obstruction certainly seems to be the point of many of these communications. Many are also completely untruthful. Has it occurred to Trump that at least some of his Tweeting may itself meet the test of Obstruction of Justice?

Let me speculate a bit about a possible Russian connection.

Trump had previous business dealings with the Russians. Did the Russians send Trump some cash during the Great Recession 2007-08 to save his financial bacon, and now it is payback time

Certainly, one infamous Trump Tweet - "NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA - NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!" is 100% false.  His dealings with Russian apparently go back decades. Think beauty pageants and plans for Trump Towers, at least.

Related to this, one may want to ask why it is that Trump really run for office? Is he a modern day Manchurian candidate? Or is it simpler than that - is it that being President just the best business opportunity this man has ever known?

Other possible charges against any or all of the above:

Illegal campaign contributions if any of these funds came from a foreign source.

Receipt of gifts and other assets, including business opportunities, from foreign governments while in office, which breaches the US constitution.

More obstruction from lying to investigators relating to a many, many connections to the Russians - the illicit meeting or meetings; previous financial dealings; on-going communications or even dealing with the Russians.  Recall, you have the right to remain silent, but you cannot purposely mislead a cop - ask Martha Stewart what happens when you do that.  

The Russian Playbook and the Impending Storm of Evidence:

More than anything else - Syria, Ukraine, a higher price for oil - the Russians want the sanctions lifted. This is clearly what they hope to gain from a Trump presidency, and this was the very thing that Flynn discussed with the Russian Ambassador to the USA shortly after the election. The hope to curry favour with Trump was the reason they did not retaliate against the USA when Obama threw Russian diplomats out of the USA in late 2016.

But the sanctions not only have not been relaxed or lifted, Congress just voted to increase them! The Russians have responded by kicking hundreds of US diplomats out of Russia.

In short, Russia's Trump gambit has completely failed meaning that the Russians now have no reason not to try to play the other side of the street; that is, to cosy up to their old friends, the Clintons and the Democrats.

With the sanctions increased in severity and Trump powerless to stop it, I think that Trump will soon go from being their "agent provocateur", to being the Russians' sacrificial lamb, offered on a plate to the Democrats in return for a new run at reduced sanctions. Specifically, I think we can expect the Russians to start leaking select information about the various meetings and other undertakings noted above.

And so, I started by noting that the Special Prosecutor has convened a Grand Jury; in part because he cannot proceed without evidence, and he needs that jury to compel the production of evidence. This may be his lucky month - I think the evidence is about to start arriving in droves.

The Inevitable Impeachment:

With Flynn, Kushner, Manafort, and maybe even Trump Jr charged with anything relating to the Russians, I simply cannot see the Trump administration surviving. Trump does not have to be charged personally for him to be impeached, as 'crimes and misdemeanours" in the US constitution as a grounds for impeachment only means 'unfit for office'. With these people charged, his manifest unfitness will be crystal clear to all and sundry.

I think this will happen with lightening rapidity, dropping on an unsuspecting world within weeks, making for a blockbuster late August and September unlike anything we have seen since 1974. Unlike Nixon, Trump will not resign, and will have to be dragged out of the White House kicking and Tweeting all the way.

More ominous than this is the fact that any obstruction charges will be sold by propagandists as the "deep state" taking its revenge. With so many willing to believe so many lies, and so many opinion-makers willing to spew this relentless drivel, the end game here is not clear. (Note - there is a "deep state". But its primary concern is for the apparatus of the state itself, which Trump has not threatened, except for some noise about the EPA. As long as no one threatens the bureaucracy itself, they don't give a rat's ass who is in power.)

I need to state that I do think the Clintons, and Obama and their many minions should also be subjected to a special prosecutor who needs to look into their activities as well. As noted in a previous post, unlike Nixon who played the role of "crook" 43 years ago, I am concerned that they are all crooks this time.

Finally, the essence of what America represents is facing a growing crisis right now. The work of the Founding Fathers of the USA is about to be tested, I think like no time since the 60's and Watergate, and maybe even the Civil War.

Their work was sound. I think that after a time of trial and difficulty, America will emerge triumphant.