THE MUELLER REPORT TELLS THE TRUTH ABOUT THE “MAN IN THE WHITE HOUSE”

…Don McGahn, the former White House lawyer that would not lie for the president.

Former prosecutors state that the redacted Mueller Report, still shows enough evidence for the impeachment of the President.

OK, even though the awaited report is here, and it is heavily redacted, the special counsel, Robert Mueller III’s Russian Election Interference Report, is in one way a step for making Trump’s former Oval Office declaration coming true.  The declaration that Trump made when he heard about there being a Russian investigation was: “This is the end of my presidency.”

Obviously, that isn’t true…..for today.  But as I said, “It is a step” in the right direction.

It is true that Mueller’s focus was very narrow when he was given his directions to only focus on the Russian election interference.  However, he was also told that if he came across other areas where the law was possibly being broken, he could pass these investigations off to other districts.  Just as he had passed the Michael Cohen investigation off to the Southern District of New York (SDNY), which ended-up in Cohen being given a 3 year prison sentence, Mueller has also passed along to other districts, 12 additional investigations that are still on-going.  The definition of what those investigations are about is totally redacted in the new report.  Therefore, we and the US Congress will only know what those investigations concern once they become public, or when an un-redacted report is provided to the public.

Will that happen in our lifetime…..God only knows?

Trump has nearly made his former declaration a self-fulfilling prophecy.  That is because, Trump plotted for months in trying to stop the probe.  He literally has developed a culture of corruption inside the White House.  Early on, Trump’s advisers rarely challenged him and his attempts of absolute corruption.  In fact, many times they willingly did his bidding.  This was made very clear in the un-redacted parts of the special counsel’s report.  But in some cases, they did refuse when Trump pushed them to the brink of, or in their actually committing outright crimes.

Trump had ordered Donald McGahn to instigate the firing of the special counsel, Robert Mueller III.  However, the White House lawyer decided he would resign from representing the president, rather than follow through with Trump’s demand

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Even that jerk of the first Trump Campaign Manager, Corey Lewandowski, he was asked by Trump to ask the then-Attorney General, Jeff Sessions to curtail the whole Russian investigation.  However, even Lewandowski would only delivered the message through an intermediary.

Trump had even demanded that Reince Priebus, the then Chief-of-Staff, to procure Jeff Session's resignation.  But that White House Chief of Staff did not carry out Trump’s directive.

The very clear portrait that comes from Mueller’s 448-page report is of a paranoid president that was insecure and could only think of scheming.  In addition, Trump’s inner circle was continually gripped by fear of Trump’s tantrums and bazaar and illegal demands.  Again, and again, Trump tried to pressure his aides to lie to the public, to deny real news stories and to fabricate a false record.

Mueller’s report is very clear when it states: “If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state,” the report says. “Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment.”

Because of the rule within the Justice Department that a sitting president cannot be indicted, and because it was possible that the obstruction of justice might not be found to be: “guilty beyond a shadow of doubt,” Mueller appears to have left that decision to the US Congress to see if Trump was considered as being appropriate to continue being the President of the United States.

In addition, Mueller’s charter was not to specifically investigate the US President, except in the areas of his possibly colluding with the Russians, not to investigate his possible obstruction of justice.

Mueller’s report is a perfect examination of the events, and it will not easily be dismissed by Trump and his aides as his so called, “fake news.”  The main actors are now under oath and on the record, and the narrative they laid bare stands as an historical product from a former FBI director who attained a cult status for his impartiality.  The political impact will remain unsettled as it was not his focus to go after the president.  Republicans were eager to turn the page once the report was announced, as they continued to repeat and repeat the Trump refrain and Attorney General William Barr’s: “No collusion, No collusion, No collusion.”

But Democratic leaders insisted that Trump’s conduct amounted to obstruction of justice and necessitated further inquiry, including calling on Mueller to testify before Congress.

Regardless, the Mueller Report revealed how an “on fire president” developed an atmosphere of total chaos, dishonesty and wrongdoing, at the top levels of government.  This has not been seen since the Richard Nixon administration.

Trump officials frequently were pulled into the president’s plans to develop false story lines.

In one instance, while he was watching Fox News, Trump asked Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, to hold a news conference and claim that Trump fired James Comey as FBI director based on Rosenstein’s recommendation.

Rosenstein declined that request and told Trump that he would tell the truth.  That truth was that firing Comey was not Rosenstein’s idea, it was Trump’s, if he were asked about it.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders attempted to support Trump’s cover story.  She said at a news conference that a number members of the FBI were seeking Comey’s removal.  However, that was a false item from Trump that she later admitted to Mueller’s team.  She told them that her comment had been completely fabricated.  She called it a “slip of the tongue” that was not founded on any real evidence.

In another example, Trump had dictated to communications director Hope Hicks a misleading statement for the media about Donald Trump Jr.’s 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower.

President Trump’s quest to end the Mueller investigation was driven by his belief that the US intelligence community’s determination of Russian interference threatened the legitimacy of his election.  It was, as Hicks told Mueller’s investigators, his “Achilles Heel.”  (Trump hates anyone that says he didn’t win because he was the best choice, and that no one had: “helped him win”, especially not the Russians.”) 

The report says that Trump was at Camp David when he called Lawyer McGahn twice at home and told him to call Rosenstein, who supervised the Mueller probe, and to explain that Mueller had conflicts of interest and could not serve.  “You gotta do this. You gotta call Rod,” Trump said on the first call, according to the account McGahn gave Mueller’s  investigators.  McGahn did not act on the request, but Trump called a second time.

“Call Rod, tell Rod that Mueller has conflicts and can’t be the special counsel,” Trump said, according to McGahn’s testimony. The president told him, “Mueller has to go,” and “Call me back when you do it.”

McGahn told investigators that he felt trapped and decided to resign. He drove to the office to pack up his belongings and prepare to submit a resignation letter. He also called Priebus and chief White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon and told them of his intentions, but they urged him to stay, and McGahn returned to work that Monday.

Trump’s claim that Mueller had “conflicts”,  was a former dispute over Mueller’s membership fees at a Trump golf course in Virginia.  This was called “ridiculous” by Bannon and “silly” by McGahn.  The report is peppered with similar examples of aides grousing behind Trump’s back about his impulsive directives.

Seven months later, after the New York Times reported that Trump had ordered McGahn to have Mueller fired and that McGahn had refused, Trump instructed the White House counsel to deny it, but McGahn said he would not rebut the article.

The president became furious. Staff secretary Rob Porter told investigators that Trump told him the story was “bullshit” and that McGahn was “a lying bastard.”  Trump directed Porter to tell McGahn to create a written record stating that the president never directed the White House counsel to fire Mueller.  “If he doesn’t write a letter, then maybe I’ll have to get rid of him,” Porter recalled Trump telling him.

The next day, Trump met with McGahn to discuss the article. The president insisted he never told McGahn to “fire” Mueller, but McGahn said that he had told him, “Mueller has to go.” Trump then harangued McGahn about there being a record of their discussions.

“Why do you take notes? Lawyers don’t take notes. I never had a lawyer who took notes,” Trump told McGahn, according to McGahn’s account to investigators.

McGahn responded that he was a “real lawyer.”

“I’ve had a lot of great lawyers, like Roy Cohn. He did not take notes,” Trump replied, referencing his former lawyer and mentor who was an attorney for mob bosses and who was eventually disbarred for unethical conduct.

In the meantime, as Trump’s bad feelings with Sessions continued into the summer of 2017, he tried several times to push the attorney general to either step down or limit the scope of the probe.

In between bursts of angry tweets about Sessions that June, he told Lewandowski he had a mission for him.  “Write this down,” Trump instructed his former campaign manager, who is described in the report by Trump officials as a “devotee” who would do almost anything for the president.

Trump told Lewandowski to quietly approach Sessions, far outside of the usual chain of command, and suggest that the president would prefer that the Justice Department investigate only foreign interference in “future elections” and to stop its probe of the 2016 campaign.

Lewandowski never delivered that message directly, reflecting his unease with the president’s request. He instead turned to Rick Dearborn, a veteran Sessions aide then working as a deputy White House chief of staff, to take the message to the attorney general.  Dearborn, too, declined to do so, later telling investigators that the idea of being a presidential messenger to Sessions made him highly uncomfortable.

Trump tried other ways to remove Sessions. In early July 2017, he asked Porter whether Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand was “on the team” and instructed him to sound her out about taking over responsibility for the Mueller probe and becoming US Attorney General.  Porter told investigators that he understood Trump wanted to find someone to end the investigation and Porter did not contact her because he was uncomfortable with the task.

That same month, after The Washington Post reported that US intelligence intercepts showed Sessions had discussed Trump campaign-related matters with the Russian ambassador, Trump erupted and demanded the attorney general’s resignation.

Trump told Priebus that he needed “a letter of resignation on [his] desk immediately,” according to the account Priebus gave investigators. He said the attorney general had “no choice” and “must immediately resign.”

Trump said Sessions had to resign because of negative publicity, but Priebus told investigators he believed the president was driven because of his hatred over Sessions’s recusal from the Russia investigation.

Priebus consulted McGahn and they discussed the possibility that they would both resign rather than carry out Trump’s order to fire Sessions, according to Mueller’s Report.

The president followed up: “Did you get it?” he asked Priebus. “Are you working on it?”

Priebus explained that firing Sessions would be a calamity, and Trump agreed to hold off and eventually relented, although he tweeted for the next several days about the attorney general, including calling him “beleaguered.”

McGahn, Priebus and Porter have all since left the administration. Sessions stayed on the job until November 2018, but his experience was reflective of the torment laid on him by the president.

The attorney general Jeff Session’s, Chief of Staff, he told investigators that after the president tried to oust him in July 2017, Sessions carried a resignation letter in his pocket every time he went to the White House.

After the Mueller report was released, 5 lawyers, former prosecutors, appeared on an MSNBC program and all agreed that what was in the redacted investigation report was enough for the Congress to start impeachment actions against Donald Trump.  In addition, Robert Mueller and Rod Rosenstein are both expected to be subpoenaed to testify before multiple Congressional Executive Oversight Committees.

Everyone in DC today is saying that the situation with the Senate is similar to what occurred when the Republican House convicted Bill Clinton of impeachment.  However, the then Democratic Senate refused to convict, so Bill Clinton remained in office.  It must be noted that the evidence against Clinton was no where near as bad as what is against the current US President.  But the following ten Republican Senators still voted for Bill Clinton to be removed from office.  John Chaffee, Susan Collins, Slade Gorton, Jim Jeffords, Olympia Snow, Richard Shelby, Arlyn Spector, Thad Stevens, Fred Thompson and John Warner, they all voted to remove Bill Clinton.

It is estimated that in the current Republican Senate, even though some of the above are no longer Republican US Senators, those that are still GOP Senators, and many other GOP Senators will not do their duty if President Trump is impeached by the House.  They would therefore most likely vote for Trump to stay in office, regardless of what might be proven against the president.

Of the few times that a president has been impeached by the House, a US Senate has never removed a sitting president from office. 

Will they change if the House impeaches Trump?  At this time, it is highly doubtful.

So, prepare to get used to it folks. 

This is just the Commander in Chief that we have today in the US White House and one that considers himself above the law.

Copyright G.Ater 2019.