Richard M. Nixon to David Frost, 1977.
The President cannot obstruct justice because he is the chief law enforcement officer and has every right to express his view of any case.
John Dowd, one of an ever growing number of lawyers representing Donald J. Trump in a recent interview.
Acid flashbacks, contrary to the dire warnings coming from those who have never actually done LSD, really are rare occurrences. However, sometimes you have a brush with something so bizarre, so straight from a twisted past experience, you have to wonder if you aren't in the throes of one.
The latest episode was triggered by the words of John Dowd. He was speaking in defense of a President who is on the cusp of making Dick Nixon's criminal behavior look like two bit shop lifting.
What started the latest uproar in the main stream press and among Trump doubters every where was, of course, a weekend tweet. It was posted by Trump's Twitter account, but there is some debate about who actually wrote it. The gist of the message--meant to distance El Don from former National Security Advisor, Mike Flynn--was that Flynn had been fired because, "he lied to the vice president and the FBI," about meetings with the Russian ambassador last December.
Oops.
As with all comedy, slapstick to dark satire, timing is everything. Lying to the Vice President isn't a criminal act, although it's certainly a breach of trust and disloyal. That's why, according to Trump, then and now, Flynn was canned.
The trouble is, within a scant few hours of the firing, Trump was urging then FBI Director James Comey to drop the bureau's investigation into Flynn's nefarious activities. Comey says he refused and not long afterward, as we all know, he was also shown the door.
Unlike fibbing to the Vice President, lying to the FBI is a felony. One which Flynn just copped to. If Trump knew his national security advisor had committed that crime, which the tweet indicates he did, his leaning on Comey to stop the investigation and the subsequent firing of the director begins to look suspiciously like obstruction of justice.
The Big Orange Guy denies he ever put heat on Comey to drop the investigation, but Comey, followed the first rule of all professional bureaucrats. He covered his ass by documenting the entire meeting immediately after it happened.
John Dowd, besides the whole president can't obstruct justice thing, is now saying the incriminating tweet wasn't written by the boss at all--that he wrote it and he'd like to plead guilty to nothing more than poor composition.
If that is what happened at least one legal expert said the president's counsel should be disbarred for so carelessly exposing Mr. Trump to such charges. Brother Dowd shouldn't worry too much about getting cashiered from the legal profession though. That's because lawyers rarely get disbarred for lying on behalf of their client, hell it's expected of them. And, let's face it, everyone to the left of Steve Bannon is convinced it was Don at the keys that morning no matter what his attorney says.
Meanwhile, a CBS/YouGov poll of Alabama republicans shows 71% of them believe all the sordid accusations against Roy Moore, the GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate, are false. Huge majorities of those people think the whole affair was a frame job perpetrated by either the democrats, the national media, or both.
To celebrate the news Trump tweeted, "Democrats refusal to give even one vote for massive Tax Cuts is why we need republican Roy Moore to win in Alabama. We need his vote on stopping crime, illegal immigrants, Border Wall, Military, Pro Life, VA, Judges, 2nd Amendment and more. No to Jones, a Pelosi/Schumer Puppet!"
That's right, fuck Moore's victims and full speed ahead with the agenda.
Lock up your teenaged daughters Washington D.C, 'Ol Roy Boy is on his way.
sic vita est
12-4-17
Flynn may turn out to be a modern John Dean.
ReplyDelete