Re: Exclusive: Video shows Trump with associates tied to email controversy
What is the illegal thing that occurred? And by that, I want you to post the US code for what illegal thing occurred. Lets step this back and forth, time for you to put up.
Since I answered this question yesterday in another thread, I will repost it, in its entirety here as well. Might as well get some mileage out of it.
First, my point was that Trump is in hot water. He has investigations going on all around him. He may not be guilty of a federal crime, but that does not protect him from impeachment nor the general perception that he is incompetent (after all, he is responsible for hiring all of these bad apples). I am not asserting any crimes against him, at this time, but I will agree that he is an incompetent manager in this role.
Whether or not he committed a crime is hardly the point. The standard by which effective President’s are measured is not “well, he committed no crimes” He can do incredible amounts of damage to the office, to the country, to our security and to our democracy without committing a crime. He can commit impeachable offenses without committing a crime. Yet, he may have committed crime or numerous crime as may members of his family and staff.
I really don’t like stepping beyond my areas of knowledge in posts. I think it would be prudent for all of us to await the experts here. Our lay arguing of the nature of collusion or what constitutes treason is oft ill-informed and based upon emotion rather than insight. Robert Mueller is an outstanding prosecutor with a first rate staff in areas of fraud, defalcation, money laundering and corruption.
Robert Mueller's team has prosecuted high-stakes cases ?** including obstruction of justice - LA Times
It is likely he has been documenting the financial and political relationships between Trump and the Russians via various surrogates, which may lead to a proforma list of potential charges, and then settling in with his own thoughts of who is culpable, who is chargeable and who is prosecutable. I think we can all expect an interesting and historic report.
Right now, it appears laundry list of potential crimes includes, but is not limited to:
Perjury
Filing false reports
Soliciting campaign contributions from a foreigner
Conspiracy to Commit Election Fraud
Obstruction of Justice
Maybe RICO violations
Which, may extend to impeachable offenses and charges of dereliction of duty and emoluments violations. Again, these are some of the possibilities.
But, what is at stake here is not preventing Trump or his associates finding a tailor for a new striped wardrobe ..
Its to protect what limited credibility he has as the so-called leader of the free world (a role he is seemingly passing on, but that is another thread). And, beyond that, its to protect the dignity and influence of the Office of the President, its to protect the American Way and to protect our Democracy. There is lot at stake beyond Donald Trump. The office is far greater than he; and the question is whether he is far inferior to be holding the office.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...l-but-thats-a-low-bar/?utm_term=.bc5d4e5645e5
Of course, Donald Trump may face Obstruction of Justice and perjury charges in his own right.
Obstruction of justice case against Trump is a slam dunk - Business Insider
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...=.b4f920f1ac12
Equally troubling, however, is the non-criminal aspect. We have dereliction of duty in failing to protect American interests and exposing US secrets to foreign agents (by appointing Flynn)... in the end, it may not be about the legality as it is about the propriety. To quote David Frum: "
... The special counsel will investigate whether people in the Trump campaign violated any laws when they gleefully leveraged the fruits of Russian espionage to advance their campaign. By contrast, what happened in plain sight—cheering rather than condemning a Russian attack on American democracy—will be treated as a non-issue, because it was not criminal, merely anti-democratic and disloyal...."
All in, it’s a mess. We have a lame duck President only six months into office. The Republican party should be ashamed of itself for ever giving this guy the nomination. I suspect, however, the Republican party will do the right thing in the end, because I do believe Republicans are patriots….. then again, I have been called hopelessly naïve in my idealism.
Then again, he may well be guilty of a federal crime, but we will wait for the experts.
