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Speaking of Pence …

Published by digby on September 3, 2017

Speaking of Pence …

by digby

Daily Kos’s ursulafaw caught some interesting commentary on Pence’s exposure in the Russia investigation:

Law Professor Jed Shugerman was a guest on Lawrence O’Donnell’s show Friday and he explained the “original memo” written by Steven Miller which was the source of stories by both the New York Times and the Washington Post. Shugerman told O’Donnell that Mike Pence is in legal jeopardy and explained why:

“Let me explain why this timeline puts him in legal jeopardy,” Shugerman began. “So, we know that this letter was drafted on one day, and then after Steven Miller came back with that draft, it was read in a room of people, including Vice President Pence. And when that letter was read, it had, quote, The New York Times talks about a screed, and it identified all of these other connections to the Russian probe for why Trump had decided to fire Jim Comey. Then after this letter is edited, Mike Pence then tells the media that the Comey firing was not connected to the Russian probe, and he said it was due to Rod Rosenstein’s recommendation. Those statements are untrue.”

Mike Pence told an untruth. And what an untruth. An untruth that made this Fordham University School of Law Professor declare that the letter:

“implicates Mike Pence now in a combination of conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice, aiding and abetting obstruction of justice, and also a relatively less known felony called misprision of a felony, which is when someone has knowledge of a felony and then conceals and does not make it known to the legal authorities.”

Shugarman also shot out of the water the theory that Trump’s attorneys are pushing that Trump has the power to fire Comey, therefore doing so can’t be obstruction of justice. Sugarman says that’s not true.

“That basic argument is so wrong that it shows why there’s so little that the Trump lawyers have to argue,” Shugerman said. “A president has the power to order a military strike, but if the president is ordering that military strike with the intent of, let’s say, killing someone who slept with his wife, that’s still murder. A president can pardon someone, but if the president pardons someone because he received a million dollar bribe, that’s still a felony of bribery. Just because the president has the power to do something, it doesn’t mean that it excuses any exercise of that power because intent matters.”

I think it’s pretty clear by now that Mueller’s Russia investigation has been moving faster than we thought. If you look back over the summer you see that there have been unexplained spasm’s of action among the Trumpies. The president himself inexplicably went nuts on twitter in the month of July lashing out at everyone including his loyal Attorney General suggesting that something specific had alarmed him and he couldn’t contain his anger that Sessions had recused himself. In early and mid-August he was reported to have railed at congressional leaders and individual Senators for failing to “protect” him.

And last June, Mike Pence lawyered up for what appeared to be no reason:

Vice President Pence has hired outside legal counsel to help with both congressional committee inquiries and the special counsel investigation into possible collusion between President Trump’s campaign and Russia.

The vice president’s office said Thursday that Pence has retained Richard Cullen, a Richmond-based lawyer and chairman of McGuireWoods who previously served as a U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia.

Pence’s decision comes less than a month after Trump hired his own private attorney, Marc E. Kasowitz, to help navigate the investigations related to the Russia probe, and a day after The Washington Post reported that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is widening his investigation to examine whether the president attempted to obstruct justice.

“I can confirm that the Vice President has retained Richard Cullen of McGuireWoods to assist him in responding to inquiries by the special counsel,” said Jarrod Agen, a Pence spokesman, in an emailed statement.

Now we know what those “inquiries” probably were — Pence’s involvement in obstruction of justice.

Meanwhile, get a load of how the president’s one allegedly sane, professional attorney responds to the media:

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