Trump Happy-Feet Dance: No Collusion, No Obstruction Says 100 Percent Cleared

Trump Tweet “Plagiarizes” Game of Thrones Movie Title

No Trump “Obstruction” Right? Not quite – cite from Mueller the buzz (and celebrating) from Trump and his sycophants:

Lead-in Introduction: “Last week’s release of Robert Mueller’s report, even in redacted form, highlights a president and his regime typified by disdain for the rule of law, democratic norms, and any principles…”

Part of Barr’s rationale for exonerating Trump on obstruction, even though Mueller hadn’t, was that Mueller had cleared Trump of conspiracy as Barr wrote in in initial summary: 

“In making this determination, we noted that the Special Counsel recognized that 'the evidence does not establish that the President was involved in an underlying crime related to Russian election interference,’ and that, while not determinative, the absence of such evidence bears upon the President’s intent with respect to obstruction.”

It’s correct that the lack of an underlying crime can be a mitigating circumstance when it comes to obstruction; if you don’t have something to cover up, after all, it suggests your intent wasn’t so corrupt but, in this case, there were underlying crimes — lots of them.

* Trump’s own aides pleaded guilty to lying at various junctures.

* Trump Campaign Chairman, Paul Manafort, was convicted of a series of crimes.

* Trump’s personal lawyer and so-called “Fixer” Michael Cohen is ready to start his 3-year prison term.

* Trump himself has even been implicated in Cohen-related crimes, e.g., campaign finance violations (checks as proof).

Trump rather obviously didn’t like the story line that Russia made the difference in electing him, so he also had a political motive to want to hamper the investigation. 

When Trump was told Mueller had been appointed a special counsel, Trump said: “I’m f—ked” and “This is end of my presidency.”

So the idea that Trump had nothing to hide — including crimes — by obstructing the investigation is pretty far-fetched.

Trump accused of crimes in the Cohen case: An offshoot of the above is the argument that not only are there underlying crimes, but also that Trump himself has been accused of one. But that’s just not true.

FYI: Trump has indeed been named by the SDNY as a participant in Cohen’s campaign finance violations, which relate to the hush-money payments made to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal.

However, being named as part of a scheme isn’t the same as being accused of a crime. Routine fact twisting ala Trump: He argues that he didn’t direct Cohen to do anything illegal, even trusted him not to, all the while tasking Cohen with handling the hush money payments.

How ironic is that – the worst part and SOP for Trump: He expects and demands to be believed and trusted.

As it was with Mueller, it’s not clear whether the SDNY isn’t accusing Trump of a crime because he’s a sitting president or because it hasn’t established that his conduct was criminal, or just as with Mueller, it’s possible the SDNY thinks Trump committed a crime but just can’t or won’t say so. 

But we simply don’t know at this point, so to say Trump has been accused of a crime is wrong. To say he’s been implicated in one is more accurate.

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