Mueller Pursues Obstruction Case Against Trump - Matthew Vadum

by Matthew Vadum

The collusion claim didn’t work, so the special prosecutor shifts gears.

Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III is expanding his investigation into the Left’s Russian electoral collusion conspiracy theory by examining whether President Trump tried to obstruct justice in the probe, according to the hyper-partisan leak-stenographers at the Washington Post.

It is all nonsense.

Democrats and Never Trump Republicans are setting up perjury traps just as Democrats did during Watergate and countless other investigations. But Donald Trump is no Richard Nixon. There is no evidence Trump covered up a crime, or even that there was an underlying crime to be covered up. But the longer the investigation goes on, the greater the likelihood that someone will innocently contradict himself in a deposition, giving evidence that doesn’t mesh with what was originally said to an FBI investigator. And voila! Someone who wasn’t a criminal goes to prison without forming any bad intent.

The obstruction allegation stems from statements made by former FBI Director James B. Comey who claims President Trump ordered him to end an investigation into former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn’s ties to Russia. Trump denies it even though he has the authority under the Constitution to fire Comey for any reason or no reason at all. Comey himself admitted he served at the pleasure of the president.

If the news report is accurate, it means that the president is under investigation now even though he apparently wasn’t as of May 9, the day he fired Comey, who has since outed himself as a leaker of information about Trump. The notes he took during discussions with Trump are considered his work product and therefore property of the U.S. government that he has a duty to surrender to investigators. Additionally, Comey have committed a crime when he leaked the notes.

“The FBI leak of information regarding the president is outrageous, inexcusable and illegal,” said Mark Corallo, on behalf of Marc Kasowitz, Trump’s personal attorney.

Now that the likelihood of Trump or any of his associates being found to have colluded with Russia to rig the last election has dropped to approximately zero for want of evidence, this Deep State-sponsored political theater is moving on to the next best thing: obstruction of justice, a perennial crowd pleaser in the snake pit that is Washington.

And the Left now has an added incentive to push the obstruction narrative because they don't want to talk about how one of their own, unemployed Trump-hating Bernie Sanders supporter James T. Hodgkinson, late of a white cargo van parked on the streets of Alexandria, Va., came close to assassinating House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) at a baseball practice on Wednesday morning.

President Trump, who turned 71 Wednesday, called out the Washington establishment for the all-too-convenient narrative shift.

"They made up a phony collusion with the Russians story, found zero proof, so now they go for obstruction of justice on the phony story. Nice[,]" Trump tweeted yesterday at 6:55 a.m.

An hour later he followed up with: “You are witnessing the single greatest WITCH HUNT in American political history - led by some very bad and conflicted people!  #MAGA[.]”

This move toward possible obstruction charges by Mueller “marks a major turning point in the nearly year-old FBI investigation, which until recently focused on Russian meddling during the presidential campaign and on whether there was any coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin,” wrote reporters at the Post. “Investigators have also been looking for any evidence of possible financial crimes among Trump associates, officials said.”

The article acknowledges that then-FBI Director Comey had been privately reassuring Trump since January that he personally was not the subject of an investigation.

“Officials say that changed shortly after Comey’s firing,” the newspaper report adds ominously.

Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats, National Security Agency (NSA) Director Michael S. Rogers, and recently retired NSA Deputy Director Richard Ledgett have reportedly agreed to talk to Mueller’s investigators.

As the saga continues to unfold, questions are being raised about Mueller’s apparent conflicts of interest that could disqualify him from continuing to serve as special counsel.

Former FBI Assistant Director James Kallstrom said this week to radio host Laura Ingraham that Mueller’s 15-year friendship with Comey is “a huge conflict of interest.”

Because Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made the decision to appoint Mueller.

“Quite frankly, I was really, really surprised and disappointed with the deputy attorney general, who first-off appointed a special counsel when there was no articulation of any crime whatsoever,” Kallstrom said. “And the statute actually calls for that, so that was ignored.”

Mueller and Comey “are close, close friends and the conflict of interest is so apparent," Kallstrom said. "I mean, did the deputy attorney general not have access to Google? I mean, you know, check these things out? It's just unbelievable. It's off the charts."

"What crime are they going to be investigating? There's not even an articulated crime. In fact, from the words of a wide variety of people on both sides of the politics, there is no crime," Kallstrom said. "The whole thing is a farce in my view. It's just crazy, and I don't know what this guy was thinking, this deputy attorney general."

Meanwhile, in a publicity stunt, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered political asylum to Comey.

“If Comey will be under the threat of political persecution, we are ready to accept him here,” Putin said, comparing Comey leaking notes on conversations with Trump to traitor Edward Snowden whom Russia granted asylum.

“This is strange,” Putin said. “How then is the director of the FBI any different from Snowden? He is not a head of the special services, but a human rights activist.”

Comey need not flee America. The establishment will protect him no matter what.

Matthew Vadum, senior vice president at the investigative think tank Capital Research Center, is an award-winning investigative reporter and author of the book, "Subversion Inc.: How Obama’s ACORN Red Shirts Are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers."

Source: http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/267019/mueller-pursues-obstruction-case-against-trump-matthew-vadum

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