As we sit, rather helpless, feeling sorry for ourselves and our country as we see the most basic presumptions about fairness, decency, truth and due process ripped from our possession, we should take heart in one thing – for now – Robert Mueller is still doing his job, and not a single person that anyone (really) can name, could do it better.
Trump is no match for Robert Mueller. He is not only in the wrong weight-class punching up, he’s a ballet dancer going against the heavy weight champion of the world. The only problem is that Robert Mueller has over 40 years experience putting away bad guys in a world with rules, and one of the most important rules is that all people play by the rules, and the jury follows the legal instructions given by the judge.
Right now, Trump is so far beyond “the rules” of government we’re far closer to government familiar to the average Russian than the average American, and that’s a problem. It’s a problem for us as citizens, it’s a problem for Mueller as investigator/prosecutor. To say that Trump is tampering with the jury is akin to saying you’re most likely to find fish in water.
“Spygate” is real, it is dogma, it has been decided because it has been decreed. Far too many of the jury pool, including the never-to-be-damned-enough Paul Ryan are playing along in this charade. Paul Ryan supports the investigation of the investigation, despite knowing it is fundamentally unconstitutional, indeed likely grounds for impeachment in and of itself had Nixon attempted it – back when Republicans still possessed an ounce of dignity.
It’s that first meeting, the one in which the classified information will be shared with Congressman Trey Gowdy and the execrable Devin Nunes, that is the main event. That’s the meeting that will provide the carefully barbered leaks that will send the conservative media into what my mother used to call “HIGH-sterics” for as long as it takes to devalue whatever Mueller comes up with in the minds of the rubes and goobers of the Republican base.
Those leaks are 100% illegal, or would be had the president not demanded to see the evidence against him (and no, there is no difference between demanding that it be shown to Nunes and Gowdy as shared directly with him) and by doing so, essentially “de-classified the material. It was done, as Charlie notes, for the express purpose of “tainting the jury pool.” Trump already has most of the Right whipped-up to the point they are expecting Clinton and Obama to be jailed. If the defense in any other case attempted to “speak to the public” prior to jury selection, there would be a gag order within the hour. Trump won’t be gagged, he is president, and he hasn’t been charged – yet, and he can give fk all about your rules or anyone’s rules, including the constitution. The only rule Trump follows is Trump first and only. Thus, he’s got almost half the country believing something wholly untrue.
This is the jury that Mueller faces, in a presidential setting, it is Congress and their constituents. Robert Mueller knows that his case now must not only concretely ensnare every target of the investigation, but do so in a way that demonstrates that the “spy” stuff is all concocted bullshit by a desperate man. Mueller will present a case tailored to convince that 20% of people between the 30% that will always support Trump through anything, and the 50% that will believe Mueller reports the facts as fact, whatever the facts happen to be.
As I’ve reported before, Robert Mueller is a decorated war hero for bravery in Vietnam, MaCain-level hero, he is 74 years old and has grandkids he surely adores. He has never practiced for big dollars except a couple stints here and there, and led the FBI after 9-11. He doesn’t need this.
But, he’s been called to duty. He knows his duty, and we should all be grateful that he accepted it. In our darkest hours, as we hear how embedded “spygate” has become as the “real scandal,” we should all give thanks that Robert Mueller works for “us” – all American citizens, because Trump is no match for the man. It will take time, but someday he surely will realize it.
