As Sherlock Holmes was wont to say, “The game is afoot Watson!” While the last week or sao may have been a helter skelter, we’ve worked our way through the serpentine line, and now we get to take a ride on the 45 day roller coaster.
Why 45 days? Because, for once, it isn’t just Trump who is hearing a clock ticking in his ear, Robert Mueller is getting a tick-tock two minute warning in his ear as well. And no, I am not talking abut any kind of forced deadline on Robert Mueller to complete his investigation, I’m talking about something much simpler.
Thankfully, Robert Mueller is not James Comey. The general consensus is that sometime right around Labor Day, Mueller will make like a submarine, and “run silent, run deep,” to avoid any hint of interference in the 2018 midterm elections. So, the next 45 days or so could be among the busiest we’ve seen so far. Here’s some of the things I think we might be seeing over the next 6 weeks, along with one of my dark horse predictions.
Watch for things to spread out – There is a reason why Mueller hired so many top flight prosecutors, with such varied areas expertise. It was obvious to Mueller early on that this was going to be a multi platform investigation. Mueller has already started farming out parts of his investigation fro prosecution, the SDNY has been handed the Michael Cohen investigation and probable prosecution, the federal courts in Virginia and Washington DC are playing whack-a-mole with Paul Manafort, and it was the DC US attorney who just charged Mariia Butina. This serves two purposes. For one, it allows Mueller to remain concentrated on the master investigation itself, and two, it keeps springing more heads on the Hydra, making it increasingly difficult for Trump to stop Mueller just by firing either him or Rosenstein. Get ready for more farming out, especially since it was recently announced that Mueller had just drafted agents and lawyers from districts that hadn’t been used before.
There will be no “final report” on obstruction of justice – t was a popular belief for a while, especially for Rudy Ghouliani, that Mueller planned to have a final report on any possible obstruction of justice by the Trump campaign by Labor Day. To put it in Rudy the Rube’s native tongue, “Fuggedabouddit!” For one thging, Fhouliani is not Mueller’s admin, he doesn’t keep his social schedule. But more importantly, whether Michael Cohen turns turtle or not, the FBI and DOJ just got a treasure trove of a couple of million documents and audio files. Mueller is not going to want to release a final report on obstruction without finding out first wherther there are any golden nuggets from the Cohen front to pursue.
Mueller will be unable to completely disappear – Everything seems to be coming in pairs for me today, so why should this be any different? Batting lead off, It was only a week ago or so that the Michael Flynn prosecutors asked his court to delay his moving on to the sentencing phase of his plea for another 60 days. The next court appearance on this will be right up against the window for going dark for the midterms. No matter what the result is, it’s going to dominate the news. If Mueller lets it go to sentencing, everybody will know that Mueller has wrung Flynn dry. And if the prosecution delays again, speculation will be rampant that they are saving him to testify at an upcoming trial. Either way, the Trump-Russia investigation dominates at least one news cycle.
And batting cleanup, Paul Manafort. Manafort is scheduled to go to trial in Washington DC on September 17th. One can count on this trial, if Manafort doesn’t trumpet like a whoopie cushion, going on at least a week, if not longer. It will be headline news every night, and none of those headlines are going to be good news for His Lowness or the rest of the Trumpcakes. And they can’t blame Robert Mueller because the justice system is performing exactly as intended.
Indictments, indictments, indictments – This is the real grist for the Trump-Russia rumor mill. In a week or so from now, the Trump-Russia investigation will be two years old, We have already seen multiple indictments and guilty pleas, and that pace should only accelerate. I’m sure that somewhere there are office pools on who gets nicked next with a perp walk on national TV. Personally, I find it hard to believe that another round of indictments won’t precede the halftime show, and yes, I believe Americans will be indicted shortly.
The odds on favorite is of course, Roger “Rabbit” Stone. He’s just such a natural! A blowhard wise ass who thinks he’s indestructible, just like his boss. And he’s even tipping his hand, saying publicly that he intends to be indicted soon. besides, who doesn’t want to see him show off that wicked kewl Nixon tattoo in the prison showers?
It is no mystery to me at all why Sam Nunberg was such a close protege to Roger Stone, they’re both delusional imbeciles. Nunberg tried to steer Mueller’s grand jury questions by threatening to go to jail rather than roll over on Stone, and now Stone is demanding that the Clinton e-mail server be seized and examined prior to his trial. Like prosecutors normally do the defendant’s investigative work for them. And don’t ask me what Hillary’s server has to do with Stone playing footsies with Guccifer 2.0, I’m as stumped as you are.
But there’s somebody that I’m going to be watching like a hawk for the next 45 days, my dark horse indictment. And that’s Robert Mercer. Like Stone, Mercer has yet to be questioned, or dragged before the grand jury. And everywhere you turn,, Cambridge Analytica keeps seeing its footprint enlarge on this investigation. Mercer’s Cambridge Analytica got the improperly mined data from Facebook, and was working illegally on US campaigns. It was Cambridge Analytica that contacted Wikileaks, offering assistance in preparing the stolen Russian e-mails for distribution, with advice on timing for impact. And let’s not forget that Sloppy Steve Bannon swears that he testified “truthfully” to Mueller’s investigators. Bannon was tasked with most of the day to day running of Cambridge operations, and since Mercer cut Bannon off of the cash teat after the release of Fire and Fury, Bannon may not be well disposed to risk his own skin by covering for Mercer.
So, there you have it. The clock is running, at least for this phase, and these are some of the things that I think we can watch out for. Either way, you’re gonna watch out how much cotton candy you eat before you get on this ride.
It will be interesting to see what kind of reality show stunts the yellow-bellied sh*t gibbon and his gang of clown car stooges will cook up to distract his sheeple when the indictments of his American collaborators drop.