Whitaker hearing confirms it: On Mueller probe, Democrats have already won

I read this and I had to laugh. Mainly because I’ve got an OP going about the gall of Shifty hiring someone to ‘administer’ Trump & Co. I understand it’s the WP and they’re congenital liars, but the hubris displayed in this article really really really pisses me off. And it IS how the Dims have to fight this now. Using the media to constantly gaslight the dimwits who still think there’s and ounce of decency and ethics left in their Party and to declare Victory while continuing to hope they maintain control over all these ‘investigations’.

Whitaker hearing confirms it: On Mueller probe, Democrats have already won

Democrats are trying to do two things simultaneously with this hearing in particular and their broader efforts with regard to the Mueller investigation. The first is to discover whether there has been any improper interference from the White House to limit the probe. The second is to apply enough pressure that even if Whitaker — or the White House, or William Barr — wanted to hinder Mueller, they'd decide that doing so would be too much of a risk.

The truth is that Democrats have probably succeeded in the latter goal, which must be spectacularly frustrating for Trump. He has made no bones about the fact that he he expects his Justice Department appointees to protect him from accountability when it comes to Russia (and anything else). He repeatedly belittled his first attorney general for recusing himself from the investigation, saying that without Jeff Sessions overseeing it and therefore able to quash it or scale it back, “I don’t have an attorney general. It’s very sad.”

All evidence suggests that after pushing Sessions out, he appointed Whitaker in an acting capacity precisely because Whitaker had been publicly critical of the Mueller investigation. Yet Whitaker was under so much scrutiny on this question from the moment he took that position, he was almost certainly prevented from doing anything significant to impede Mueller. The same is likely to be true of Barr, who despite being critical of the investigation before his appointment now knows that if he really tries to protect Trump, eventually everyone will know and he’ll be disgraced.

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If Trump had actually persuaded anyone to obstruct the Mueller probe on his behalf, he wouldn’t be tweeting “Witch hunt!!!” every few days. Those are the desperate cries of a man who wishes his underlings would obstruct justice on his behalf, but isn’t getting what he wants.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/opinions/2019/02/08/whitaker-hear...

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Alligator Ed's picture

Trump could have personal;y fired Mueller as Mueller is technically part of the Executive branch of government. Of course, this would have raised enormous furor and increased the already numerous cries for impeachment by the Dims. Likewise, Trump could personally have fired Rosenstein but again didn't. Ostensibly the reason he doesn't fire them is because of fear of political fallout, which is true. But there is another possibility here. Both the Swan and Rosenrat have plenty of felonies they personally have committed, with a conceivable treason charge against Mueller and a sedition charge against Rosenrat.

A view popular amongst Q fans, and which deserves further study, is that Trump has co-opted both of them, in view of each's potential legal jeopardy, to throw up a smokescreen paliaiting the Dims.
The thought is that the Special Counsel is working on matters deleterious to the Dems, not Trump. I find this difficult to believe, especially with pitfall Andrew Weismann on the squad. He leaks like a sieve, including to Schiff about confidential House judicial committee information.

Unless Mueller has a second panel of prosecutors, independent of the "thirteen angry Democrats", any non-Trump directed inquiries would be front page news (for those who still purchase fish wrap).

No deals says Q--but deals likely have already been made with scores of malevolent politicians, including Paul Ryan, who quietly cashed in his Stay Out of Gitmo Free pass by resigning.

The Dims have not won. They should consider the polls (if you can rely on any of these) showing 80% of Independents approved of Trump's SOTU--let alone the 96% Repugnant approval rating of said speech. Realistically, unless Putin is discovered in bed, screwing Melania, Trump is destroying the Dims, INCREMENTALLY.

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snoopydawg's picture

when Barr is waiting in the wings to be confirmed? I read something about his confirmation yesterday, but today it's all about Whittaker. Apparently he ruffled some congress critters when he told a member that his 5 minutes were up. Big time hissy fit.

What will the democrats do after they see Trump's taxes? What can they possibly do? Anyone know?

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

WoodsDweller's picture

@snoopydawg
Option 1: hold endless hearings, look for minor mistakes, look for embarrassing items, generate political theater to keep El Trumpo tied up in knots, but never actually bring any charges.

Option 2: take advantage of the fact that EVERY RICH MAN (and woman) IS A CROOK. No exceptions. How many white collar crimes are fully documented in those tax forms, and how many clues to kick off yet more investigations? How many hundreds of cases of tax evasion? How many thousands of cases of fraud, or money laundering, or questionable payoffs, or other white collar crimes?

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone