Donald Trump Can Be Prosecuted For Russia Collusion As Soon As He Leaves Office, Conservative Pundit Claims
With President Donald Trump apparently admitting on Twitter that his son, Donald Trump, Jr., met with Russian officials at Trump Tower in 2016 to get “information” on then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin said in a recent interview that the president could be prosecuted for collusion once he leaves office.
According to Law and Crime, Rubin, who is known for her Right Turn blog on the Washington Post, suggested on MSNBC’s AM Joy that Trump should step down as president before he is forced out, and possibly ask Vice President Mike Pence to “pardon” him.
“Because he’s going to be prosecutable as soon as he leaves office, so put a pin in that,” she added.
As reported earlier on Sunday by CNBC, Donald Trump took to Twitter on Sunday to defend his son and namesake’s meeting at Trump Tower from two years ago, noting that the talks between Donald Trump, Jr. and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya were “totally legal” and acknowledging that the purpose of the meeting was to gather derogatory information about Hillary Clinton ahead of the 2016 presidential elections. The president also referred to the reports that he is concerned about the potential legal problems his son might face as “fake news” and a “complete fabrication.”
President Trump's tweet showed that the Trump team had not been forthright when Donald Trump Jr. claimed the meeting had been primarily about the adoption of Russian children https://t.co/an1fDoBBSU
— NYT Politics (@nytpolitics) August 5, 2018
Fake News reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower. This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics – and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 5, 2018
Meanwhile, Jennifer Rubin’s latest Right Turn column on the Washington Post featured even more comments about Donald Trump’s recent Twitter admission, and how it could lead to his prosecution. She referred to the president as a “lawyer’s client from hell,” adding that he is someone who is incapable of telling the truth and doesn’t have enough self-control to prevent himself from saying potentially incriminating things.
According to Rubin, Trump’s acknowledgment of the purpose of the 2016 meeting was worse than his previous remarks to Lester Holt, where he told the NBC anchor that he fired FBI Director James Comey because he was thinking about Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing probe into Russia’s alleged involvement in the 2016 elections.
“The tweet was awful for Trump and a gift to prosecutors in several respects,” Rubin opined.
“Most important, Trump confirmed that the meeting with Russians was designed to obtain something valuable — previously undisclosed dirt on Hillary Clinton. That arguably would violate federal law prohibiting a candidate from asking for or receiving something of value from a foreign national.”
Regarding the possibility that Donald Trump, Jr. violated campaign laws, Rubin wrote that Trump, Jr.’s use of the words “I love it” in an email about the “dirt-finding meeting” at Trump Tower is the “most powerful” piece of evidence against him. She also posited that the president’s claim on Twitter that he was not aware of the Trump Tower meeting could be inessential to Mueller’s probe in the light of the “false” statement from last year that claimed the meeting’s purpose was to discuss the adoption of Russian children.
Referring to Donald Trump’s claim that the 2016 meeting was legal and “normal,” Rubin stressed that the president is “wrong on both counts,” as meeting with a foreign country’s officials isn’t just unprecedented in U.S. history, but also contrary to the ideals of democracy as a system where people can choose their own leaders. She suggested, however, that Trump’s supporters in the Republican Party just might choose to defend him if it is proven that his campaign did indeed collude with Russian officials ahead of the 2016 presidential elections.
