Trump Impeachment Update

They will interview Trump! Apparently, Mueller’s team, and maybe Mueller himself will interview Trump as part of the investigation into Russian influence in the last presidential election.

As has been noted in this space, the FBI is working hard to get all the lies on record, for follow-up with Obstruction of Justice charges when the bubble bursts and the rats start to sign like canaries. It is a well-worked scrip that has already netted them Papadopoulos and Flynn.  Nowhere is the arrogance that infects the White House more blatant and obvious that that in the person of Donald Trump. He lies shamelessly and endlessly, to a point where it seems that he may not actually be capable to telling truth from lies, or he doesn’t care, or he uses lies to rally his tribe, as was noted in the blog “The New American Prince and the Necessity of Lying.”

But you can’t lie to the FBI. You can refuse to answer questions courtesy of the fifth amendment, but if you do speak to them, you cannot lie. That is, and always has been, Obstruction of Justice.

Of course, if Trump is interviewed in person, he will lie. His only chance of avoiding being set up for an Obstruction of Justice charge is to ask that the questions come in writing, to be answered by his own lawyers – but I suspect he is to arrogant and narcissistic to allow for such a turn of events. 

Here are the lies that I suspect he will tell, confident that the cavalcade of make belief that is his White House will never crack thereby exposing the endless lies and prompting the downfall of the entire rotten edifice, especially the Liar in Chief.

He will tell the FBI that he had no knowledge of the June, 2016 meeting between Trump Jr., Kushner and Manafort, and purported representatives of the Russian government. Apparently his entourage had multiple meetings with the Russians, especially Kushner – he will also deny any knowledge of any of these.

He will deny that he had any knowledge of Papodopoulos’s contacts with the Russians shortly after he was hired by the campaign in the spring of 2016.

He will tell the FBI that he had no foreknowledge of the impending Wiki Leaks disclosure of Clinton-related e-mails, including the suspicion that the Russians were the source of these e-mails. 

He will tell the FBI that he had no knowledge of, nor did he direct, Flynn’s contacts with the Russians that occurred shortly after he won the presidency.

He will tell the FBI that he had no knowledge that Flynn may have engaged in illegal activities via his contacts with the Russians before very subtly asking Comey to drop any investigations of him. One of his own Tweets suggested that this is not true. His lawyers quickly took the fall for that Tweet, thereby saving Trump from having essentially confessed to Obstruction of Justice. (Note – if Trump knew that Flynn may have committed criminal acts BEFORE he asked Comey to drop the case, this would have, in itself, been a crime.)

He will deny that he has ever had, nor does he now have, any business dealings with Russians, especially those with ties to Putin.

He will deny any knowledge that his son-in-law and others may have been involved in business dealings with Russians, the purpose of which was to launder ill-gotten gains purloined from the Russian treasury.

He will deny that he has received any benefits from foreign sources of any kind while he has been President, including no net gains to his businesses. (The President of the United States is constitutionally-barred from receiving gifts from foreigners.)

He will deny common understandings of all of the lies and distortions that he has uttered since signaling that he will stand for office in 2016. If I were on Mueller’s team, I would recommend that the examination start with a review of his lies, lie after lie after lie, to put him on the spot, make him uncomfortable, and essentially invite him to repeat his lies.

I suspect that there is a series of e-mails out there that indicate that all of this is completely false. 

As I have noted in other blogs, I expect Trump to be impeached. The basis of this may be more than the fact that I think his son and son-in-law will be charged with Conspiracy Against the United States based on their illicit meeting with purported representatives of the Russian Government in June 2016, the expressed purpose of which was allowing that foreign government to influence a US presidential election. 

I now think that this man is so arrogant that he actually thinks he can outfox the FBI, and he will allow himself to be interviewed loudly maintaining that last bastion of “truthiness”….”I cannot tell a lie, and I have nothing to hide.” His lies will prompt an Obstruction of Justice charge that will be impossible to refute by even his most die-hard supporters in the corrupt US Press Establishment.

The irony is thick here. As I have noted in other blogs, I think he had to lie to get elected - they all do. And it will be, in part, because of his lies that he will be shown the door.

Bannon refused to answer any questions about Russia when he appeared before the Congressional committee probing links to Russia. Of course he did. Bannon understands the game very well indeed. Recall, he called the meeting with the Russians "treasonous" and wondered why they did not just call the police when they were contacted by the Russians. Exactly.