Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/08/04/mueller-grand-juries.html
…
3 Likes
But I thought this was just a witch hunt!
8 Likes
If you want the whole coven, you need more than one jury…
13 Likes
21 Likes
So which Grand Jury is sad, which one is very unfair, and which one is fake?
20 Likes
It really is Mueller time!
9 Likes
Okay, but what does multiple grand juries represent, multiple charges, multiple people, entirely separate cases?
4 Likes
I’m really really hoping it doesn’t take years. Where’s the disincentive for committing an impeachable offense if the investigation takes so long that you get to serve out your entire term anyway?
7 Likes
More to the point: if you give them years, the TrumpGOP are going to kill millions. Under pressure, they may do it in months.
Iranian lives matter.
8 Likes
The one in Virginia predates Mueller’s involvement, it was convened to investigate Flynn’s issues. Reports are that the new one in DC is investigating issues pertinent to the June 16th meeting in Trump Tower where the russians offered help smearing clinton in exchange for oligarch-targeted sanctions relief.
That’s all based on leaks (from people being deposed/subpoenaed by the grand juries) so it could be both wrong and or incomplete (I personally suspect the June 16th mtg is one piece of a much larger puzzle so it wouldn’t be the end focus, just part of the investigation).
10 Likes
The grand jury stage is likely to be the most drawn out stage of the entire investigation. Don’t expect any results from it for at least a year. There may be all kinds of developments in the news due to fallout from the grand jury (like the way DonJr released his own emails). But no indictments or any part of the process itself until the grand jury phase is over.
As for incentive, even if the worst thing that happens to donthecon is being forced out of office, lots of people around him are almost certain to get criminal charges. That’s what happened with Iran-Contra (sadly many of whom were pardoned by Bush and/or appealed their way out of convictions over the following two decades).
My best case scenario is that donthecon is out by midterms and then he and his entire circus of a family face criminal charges for the money laundering that went on for the ~15 years before the election. I expect Mueller to thoroughly uncover all of the money laundering because, at a minimum, its a source of kompromat on donthecon - he committed crimes and Putin has the receipts. So, even if the peepee tape is a figment (despite good reason to think its real) Putin’s got lots of other strings to pull on his trumpuppet.
10 Likes
Perhaps it is, but his response has been to threaten to turn Mueller and Sessions into toads.
My apologies in advance, I’ve been drinking.
12 Likes
And meanwhile the president’s approval rating has plummeted to 39.97%.
…what?
Kubrick is now spinning jealously in his grave.
1 Like
Actually, I kind of imagine Trump as Ferengi. Utterly anchored in the belief that when it comes to making money, if you aren’t physically shooting somebody or physically looting their cash, then you can’t really be breaking any meaningful laws.
I really do believe that he feels it is profoundly unfair that people keep bringing up all these things that aren’t “real” crimes. They’re the sort of thing that anyone who’s anybody does. Why are they picking on him?
I also believe that this disbelief is what will bring him down. Because he hasn’t internalized that these are serious crimes that could send him to jail, he keeps casually admitting to (or failing to conceal) things that are out-and-out illegal.
7 Likes
It seems to be multiple angles on the investigation. There’s already a couple of separate things getting poked at. Flynn. The Russian meeting with JR. Manafort and Kirchner. And the Trump family’s financials. Mueller seems to be treating these almost like separate investigations. Bringing in different prosecutors with expertise in each subject to work specific angles. Calling a new grand jury for a specific event seems to fit with that. It’s very FBI, for the last few decades they work on a task force model. Breaking up duties to different people, teams and organizations with expertise and jurisdiction in specific area.
I doubt we’d see that. Though with a reduction in GOP control of Congress during the midterms we could very well see something immediately after.
It’s just that without a “smoking sun” or something undeniable and obviously illegal tied directly to Trump it remains more convenient for Republican leaders to continue to ignore the problem, or spin it for politics.
So if you ask me best case scenario is major losses for the GOP and especially the Trump faction in 2016 leading to a big acceleration in how fast this moves.
Though honestly something major that changes that tomorrow wouldn’t totally shock me. Trumps people are so damn incompetent. It’s like they can’t help but violate laws, norms, And ethics. And then can’t help but reveal that and run around like a Benny Hill episode making it worse.
4 Likes
His skin is too orange.
I know. The only way I can make sense of Trump is by thinking of him as a Ferengi. A semi-competent one, at best. Through twists of fate and implausible screenwriting and a little help from the Romulans somehow he’s fullfilled his wish and become the Grand Nagus. And of course he is utterly overwhelmed by the task at hand and the scrutiny it brings.
3 Likes
