Democrats Warn Donald Trump That The Mueller Investigation Must Be Protected
On Friday Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation team charged Donald Trump’s former national security advisor with a single charge of lying to the FBI. Michael Flynn appeared in court to plead guilty to a relatively minor charge, a move that clearly demonstrated that Flynn is cooperating with the Mueller investigation. Court documents then revealed that Flynn is offering Mueller his complete cooperation, he claims “for the good of his family and the country.”
For the best part of 24 hours, President Trump remained silent about Mueller’s latest and most dramatic move to date. Unsurprisingly, on Saturday, Trump unleashed his latest Twitter tirade, trying once again to undermine Mueller and the Justice Department by projecting his own legal woes onto Hillary Clinton.
As previously reported by the Inquisitr, Flynn’s court documents make clear that Flynn was acting on orders from a “very senior official” in Trump’s team when he asked Russia’s ambassador to delay a United Nations resolution on Israeli settlements on Palestinian land. As has been widely reported, that “senior official” is believed to be Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. It is now clear that Special Counsel Mueller is reaching into the heart of the Trump administration, and by definition into the heart of the Trump family.
Writing in the New York Daily News, former FBI Special Agent Frank Montoya points out that as a military man, Mike Flynn is unlikely to have been acting alone when he made overtures to the Russians. Flynn, Montoya claims, would have respected the chain of command. If Flynn had been acting as a rogue agent, why did Donald Trump attempt to protect him? In fact, as Trump’s tweets from yesterday show, the president is still claiming that Flynn acted lawfully.
The irony is that Trump has brought Robert Mueller down on his own head. Trump’s attempt to get former FBI director James Comey to back off Flynn, and the president’s subsequent sacking of Comey, led directly to Mueller’s appointment as Special Counsel.
It must be said that none of the charges laid by the Mueller investigation to date have directly linked Donald Trump to Russian interference in the 2016 election. However, Mueller’s investigation is now at the heart of Trump’s inner circle, and that has led to speculation that Trump might be preparing to fire Mueller.
So General Flynn lies to the FBI and his life is destroyed, while Crooked Hillary Clinton, on that now famous FBI holiday “interrogation” with no swearing in and no recording, lies many times…and nothing happens to her? Rigged system, or just a double standard?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2017
As reported by Newsweek, Democrats are so worried that Trump will fire Mueller that they are attempting to enact legislation that will stop him from doing so. On Friday, Senator Richard Blumenthal warned that Mueller must be protected from Trump.
“We proposed legislation that would stop [Trump] from firing the special counsel, and it would shield the special counsel from any sort of political interference, which now seems increasingly threatening.”
Bloomberg also argues that Mueller must be protected from Trump if the public is to get answers about Russia’s interference in the presidential election. They argue that if Trump attempts to interfere with the Mueller investigation then Congress must act to protect Mueller.
It is now clear that members of Trump’s inner circle were in contact with Russia. Flynn and George Papadopoulos have entered guilty pleas related to their contact with Russian officials. Both have cut plea deals which presumably means they have given up people higher up the food chain. Trump is reportedly already being investigated for obstruction of justice over his firing of James Comey, if the president were to fire Mueller then he risks further charges of obstruction.
As reported by CNN, the world waits to see the next moves by President Donald Trump and by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The only thing we can be certain of is that this story has a considerable way to run.
