As Mueller prepares to go public with criminal charges, the Trump administration goes into full meltdown mode, demanding that Hillary Clinton be arrested for their crimes

I’m trying not to get my hopes up about what might happen tomorrow, when the first indictments resulting from Robert Mueller’s investigation are made public. While I’d love to see Paul Manafort, Mike Flynn, Carter Page, or Jared Kushner get pulled our of bed by federal agents tomorrow morning, and marched before television cameras in handcuffs, I suspect it’ll be somewhat less dramatic. Still, though, I’m happy to know that, tomorrow morning, we’ll officially turn a corner, and, at long last, we’ll be talking criminal prosecution. And, for what it’s worth, I’m really enjoying watching Donald Trump and his supporters lose their shit, trying their best to divert attention away from themselves by reviving the thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory about Hillary Clinton selling uranium to the Russians. Here, in case you missed them, are a few of my favorites.

Trump demanding that law enforcement officials “do something,” and lock up Hillary Clinton for her imagined crimes:

Sarah Huckabee Sanders saying that, if anyone colluded with the Russians, it was the Clintons, which, I suppose, might make sense, if you believe that it was all part of Hillary Clinton’s master plan to lose the presidency to Donald Trump:

Trump advisor Roger Stone calling CNN’s Don Lemon a “cocksucker” for not telling the truth about the Clintons and Russia, and getting himself thrown off Twitter in the process:

Sebastian Gorka suggesting that Clinton is guilty of treason “like the Rosenbergs” and, like them, should be put to death:

Simply put, they know the end is near, and this is all they’ve got – a hail mary appeal to the conspiracy theorists who now form the base of the Republican party.

I could go on, but, as everything will change tomorrow morning, I think I’ll just call it a night… One last thing, though. If Trump moves to either fire Robert Mueller, or pardon those being brought up on charges, we need to drop everything and head to D.C. en masse.

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41 Comments

  1. Meta
    Posted October 29, 2017 at 10:52 pm | Permalink

    Benjamin Wittes‏ of the Lawfare blog, who is a friend of Comey’s, says that standard operating procedure in the Bureau is to make arrests around 6:00 AM.

  2. Anonymous
    Posted October 30, 2017 at 6:24 am | Permalink

    The news crews are gathering outside Manafort’s condo in VA.

    https://twitter.com/3l3v3nth/status/924958259869634560

  3. Demetrius
    Posted October 30, 2017 at 7:01 am | Permalink

    What happens if Trump simply fires Mueller and/or pardons (or promises to pardon) anyone he decides to indict?

    Given the current climate, would the Supreme Court – or anybody else – stop him?

  4. EOS
    Posted October 30, 2017 at 7:27 am | Permalink

    Paul Manafort and Rick Gates – money laundering – years before any Trump association.

  5. M
    Posted October 30, 2017 at 7:56 am | Permalink

    You have no idea how these things work, do you, EOS? These are not the only indictments. These are the first indictments. At this point, Mueller is just setting the stage. By coming out against Manafort on money laundering, he opens up the possibility of flipping him against Trump and others in the administration. Be patient, my son.

  6. M
    Posted October 30, 2017 at 8:06 am | Permalink

    Demetrius, my assumption is that Trump knows, if he fires Mueller, especially now that initial charges have been filed, that the calls for impeachment would intensify, not just among Democrats, but among his fellow Republicans as well. They know he’s dirty, and I suspect they’re all waiting for the right time to jump ship. With that said, though, the closer Mueller gets, the more tempted Trump will be to fire him by way of tweet. We shall see.

  7. EOS
    Posted October 30, 2017 at 8:06 am | Permalink

    I know how these work. Rather than flipping him against Trump, it’s more likely he will flip against the Podesta brothers, Hillary Clinton and her State Department. I’m trying to be patient, but we’ve been waiting since the eighties.

  8. Chris Buhalis
    Posted October 30, 2017 at 8:32 am | Permalink

    $5 says someone brings up Vince Foster today.

  9. M
    Posted October 30, 2017 at 8:33 am | Permalink

    Chris, I heard that they used his body to smuggle enriched uranium into Russia.

  10. Meta
    Posted October 30, 2017 at 8:43 am | Permalink

    Washington Post: “With money laundering charges against Paul Manafort, Trump’s ‘fake news’ claim is harder to defend”

    The independent investigation into Trump-Russia collusion just made its most serious move since it began in May. The Washington Post reported Monday morning that Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and his former business partner, Rick Gates, have been ordered to surrender to federal authorities.

    The Justice Department announced that both men are charged with 12 counts relating to financial crimes, including conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money and making false statements.

    In other words, this Russia investigation is very real. Neither President Trump nor the White House has commented on the indictments yet. But given that Trump has consistently claimed that this investigation is fake and a hoax, it’s possible — even likely — he’ll try to rebut this escalation of the investigation in similarly absolute terms. Over the weekend, as news organizations reported charges were coming, Trump fired off nearly half a dozen tweets trying to pivot to Hillary Clinton.

    Read more:
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/10/30/with-this-paul-manafort-indictment-trumps-fake-news-defense-has-zero-credibility/

  11. Ryan Lizza by proxy
    Posted October 30, 2017 at 8:47 am | Permalink

    Unlike Manafort, who was forced out last year, Gates continued to work on the Trump campaign and even the inaugural committee.

  12. site admin
    Posted October 30, 2017 at 8:48 am | Permalink

    Here’s the indictment.

    https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4163373/Manafort-Gates-Indictment-OCR.pdf

  13. Jean Henry
    Posted October 30, 2017 at 12:27 pm | Permalink

    It’s going to get messier… and the closer it gets to Trump and co over the next few months or years, the more spastic and obvious their attempts at diversion will get. Grab popcorn.
    https://mobile.twitter.com/ddale8/status/925029460142944258

  14. Lynne
    Posted October 30, 2017 at 2:19 pm | Permalink

    It is worth noting that Trump can only pardon people for federal crimes. The DOJ may be working with states to hold state charges over them during this phase when they are certainly going to be bargaining for testimony in exchange for leniency.

  15. Iron Lung
    Posted October 30, 2017 at 2:26 pm | Permalink

    It is also worth nothing that Trump can only pardon people who have been convicted of a crime. Pardons are a reprieve from punishment, not from conviction.

  16. Jean Henry
    Posted October 30, 2017 at 2:59 pm | Permalink

    Papadopoulos indictment:
    https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4163402/Papadopoulos-Statement-Offense.pdf

  17. Jean Henry
    Posted October 30, 2017 at 3:05 pm | Permalink

    Interesting…
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-campaign-adviser-pleaded-guilty-to-lying-about-russian-contacts/2017/10/30/d525e712-bd7d-11e7-97d9-bdab5a0ab381_story.html

  18. wobblie
    Posted October 30, 2017 at 3:59 pm | Permalink

    Four more indictments on the way.

  19. Lynne
    Posted October 30, 2017 at 4:42 pm | Permalink

    Oh man. I guess I have just been confronted with my Anglican bias. I have spent the whole day wondering how George Stephanopoulos could possibly be involved in all this. Ugh. **Papadopoulos** /smacks forehead.

  20. Jean Henry
    Posted October 30, 2017 at 6:02 pm | Permalink

    Unfortunately, despite their claims of independent thought, EOS and HW can always be relied upon to repeat the party propagandist line:
    https://www.newyorker.com/current/former-trump-campaign-manager-paul-manafort-is-first-person-charged-in-the-mueller-investigation

    “All week, Republican politicians and media figures, from the fringes to the establishment, had arranged themselves around a peculiar misdirection, an effort to relieve the heat from the President. The idea was to insist that the Russia scandal emanates solely from an anti-Trump dossier, prepared by the private intelligence firm Fusion GPS, and then to insist that the “real scandal” was that Clinton’s campaign had paid for it.
    In truth, investigative reports connecting senior Trump figures with Russian oligarchs, financially and politically, and the F.B.I.’s interest in those connections both predate the dossier. (It is also the case that the work that led to the dossier itself was initially funded during the primary by an anti-Trump Republican billionaire, Paul Singer, before Democrats paid for further work during the general election.) But the fever surrounding this notion, as it consumed Breitbart and Fox News, raised the depressing idea that the politics of the Russia affair, as it unfurls, might simply follow the basic political line of scrimmage, in which Republicans believe one version of events and Democrats another. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board weighed in with an astonishing call for Mueller to resign, arguing that the F.B.I. had failed to probe the Russia dossier, and that Mueller, who once ran the F.B.I., was too close to the Bureau to effectively police it.

    “It is no slur against Mr. Mueller’s integrity,” insisted the Journal, “to say that he lacks the critical distance to conduct a credible probe of the bureau he ran for a dozen years.”
    Of course it is a slur. It is also a bet on the omnipotence of partisan politics. It is nearly a year since the 2016 election ended, but it often seems as if we have not really moved past it. One reason that the President keeps turning to Hillary Clinton as a foil, and to Barack Obama, is that he does not understand whom he is presently fighting with, or what he is fighting for.”

  21. wobblie
    Posted October 30, 2017 at 6:15 pm | Permalink

    EOS, don’t worry Muelller will get Tony, but Donald looks truly desperate. He knows how guilty he is. Money laundering by the President perhaps. But he’ll probably do something stupid and end up being impeached for obstruction of justice.
    Remember a lie by the President over a private matter is sufficient for an article of impeachment.

  22. Jean Henry
    Posted October 30, 2017 at 6:43 pm | Permalink

    Couldn’t resist going over to the Intercept to see how the Russia denialist lefty camp was handling the news. Apparently it’s no longer fake news. This piece points to Sessions as at risk for perjury.
    https://theintercept.com/2017/10/30/jeff-sessions-indictment-bad-news-for-attorney-general/

    Meanwhile, Mr Greenwald is on twitter dialing back his claims that it was all made up by the media/Dems (to justify war-mongering or neoliberalism or whatever) and digging up that one time he said maybe they’ll get Page or Manafort on money laundering, and then saying, after months of passionate certainty, let’s allow all the evidence to be heard…
    Tonight he’ll be on the news talking about Kevin Spacey…

    You just remaindered yourself, Mr Greenwald and bro-sheep.

  23. Jean Henry
    Posted October 30, 2017 at 6:45 pm | Permalink

    Mr Greenwald’s most recent post on Russia, from mid-Sept: https://theintercept.com/2017/09/28/yet-another-major-russia-story-falls-apart-is-skepticism-permissible-yet/

    Mr Greenwald is skeptical of everyone but himself. Bro-dom defined.

  24. Taco Farts
    Posted October 30, 2017 at 6:58 pm | Permalink

    Papa been wearing a wire for a LOOONG time…

  25. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted October 30, 2017 at 7:07 pm | Permalink

    Huh! Nothing on Russian collusion; oblique.

  26. wobblie
    Posted October 30, 2017 at 9:20 pm | Permalink

    HW, there is no crime called “collusion”. Rather there are the crimes associated with hiding ones collusion with another. To lie to the FBI is the crime (many a Viet Nam war resister were charged with this crime) they have a guilty plea. Obstruction of Justice is the next set of criminal charges. Privileged white collar criminals almost always role on their friends and associates (50 plus convicted or plead guilty in Watergate).

    This is how guilt by association works. Flynn and Kushner are probably next to be charged. But who know maybe smaller fish who lied to cover for their bosses.

    The underlying crime of course is failing to register as an agent for a foreign government. Trump associates are agents of the Kremlin–get it.

  27. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted October 30, 2017 at 10:30 pm | Permalink

    But that kid was barely associated with Trump at all. An unpaid “advisor” who went to one meeting? He kept trying to offer Russian info but one of the files shows Trump did not take him up on it.

    I didn’t know guilt by association is a thing in our legal system.

    …amidst news of being under investigation Tony Podesta stepped down from the Podesta Group…

  28. Iron Lung
    Posted October 30, 2017 at 11:31 pm | Permalink

    The Mr. Warlord believes that it is not in the country’s interest to pursue cases which have the potential to involve a sitting President.

    Very odd.

  29. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted October 30, 2017 at 11:47 pm | Permalink

    Why do you just bullshit around every day without ever saying anything meaningful? It’s so boring. I mean what is the point for real?

  30. Iron Lung
    Posted October 31, 2017 at 2:19 am | Permalink

    I find the Mr. Warlord’s outlook to be odd.

    Do people like Donald Trump really need people to stand up for them on local blogs? Very strange.

    I have never gone on a conservative blog and stood up for Hillary Clinton on a daily basis.

    Very strange.

  31. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted October 31, 2017 at 6:40 am | Permalink

    You should try it. It would be entertaining to see what happens.

  32. Sad
    Posted October 31, 2017 at 7:52 am | Permalink

    He does go on a local blog daily to do battle with a Warlord.

  33. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted October 31, 2017 at 8:59 am | Permalink

    Too bad for you his comments don’t do shit. It’s just “Let’s try to annoy Hyborian Warlord so much he stops destroying our narrative”.

  34. EOS
    Posted October 31, 2017 at 9:08 am | Permalink

    Wobblie,

    Sorry, I missed your earlier comment. Impeachment would require a majority vote in the House, and a subsequent trial in the Senate, where it would also require a majority vote to convict. With a majority in both houses, there would need to be substantial evidence of criminal wrongdoing. If that is actually the case, then Pence would be our next President.

  35. Iron lung
    Posted October 31, 2017 at 10:03 am | Permalink

    The Mr. Warlord is a strange individual.

    I feel somewhat sorry for him.

  36. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted October 31, 2017 at 10:48 am | Permalink

    Lol at a miserable nihilist with nothing to say feeling sorry for me.

  37. wobblie
    Posted October 31, 2017 at 4:39 pm | Permalink

    EOS, a very scary result given how our VP recently told our nuclear launch crews to be ready to receive a LAUNCH order soon.

  38. Iron Lung
    Posted November 1, 2017 at 4:34 am | Permalink

    Conservative America would be elated to see the US use nuclear weapons again.

  39. EOS
    Posted November 1, 2017 at 4:45 am | Permalink

    It’s really amazing how the two halfs of America see different realities.

    https://www.cato.org/blog/poll-71-americans-say-political-correctness-has-silenced-discussions-society-needs-have-58-have

  40. Sad
    Posted November 1, 2017 at 7:33 am | Permalink

    EOS – you find this amazing even after your experience on this blog?

  41. Jean Henry
    Posted November 1, 2017 at 9:31 am | Permalink

    EOS– here’s a clue: http://money.cnn.com/2017/10/31/media/russia-facebook-violence/index.html

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