Monday! Monday! Monday!
by Tom Sullivan
All hell could break loose on Monday.
NBC News reports that indictments are due on Monday in the probe by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 election:
Mueller’s Special Counsel’s Office will make public an indictment on Monday, a U.S. official with firsthand knowledge of the process confirmed to NBC News, without disclosing the name of the target or the nature of the charges. The timing was confirmed by a second source familiar with the matter.
Sean Hannity is already melting down (#BonfireoftheHannity). Twitter banned Roger Stone after a blizzard of vile tweets threatening CNN anchors late Friday. CNN broke the news Friday night that special counsel Robert Mueller had filed the first (sealed) indictments in his investigation into Russian election meddling. And/or money laundering. And/or obstruction of justice. And/or who-knows-what. There are no other details. Only speculation:
The lack of information, on a case that could have major ramifications for the president, left many current and former Trump advisers livid, focusing their rage on how the information leaked and on a forever target: Hillary Clinton.
“It is unusual for prosecutors to file indictments under seal and then have it leak out,” said Mark Corallo, a former spokesman for Trump’s legal team, noting that the only people in the loop would be the prosecutors and agents on Mueller’s team, the grand jurors and the judge. “This was an ill-advised leak of information,” Corallo added. “I’m disgusted by the tactics of the prosecutors to leak the information.”
But Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago, told Politico his “gut” read is that the news came from a defense attorney “who was told to have his client in court on Monday.”
Saturday night, Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro demanded the investigation be shut down and Hillary Clinton jailed over Fox’s nth made-for-TV scandal. The ever-diabolical Clinton was not so diabolical she couldn’t engineer a win last fall, but Fox would never let that get in the way of a rant. Especially when they are desperate to divert public attention from what may or may not be White House-connected arrests this week. Studio walls must be plastered with new and old scandals in hopes that one or more will stick with Fox viewers.
It would be comical if it were not so pathological. But distraction has worked before for Fox.
Just off the phone with my third reader of the day who says she (all have been women) never heard of "grab em by the p—y," or allegations against Trump. "You're making that up," last one told me, explaining that she listens to Fox every day, so she's up on the news.— Monica Hesse (@MonicaHesse) October 27, 2017
But the level of venom from the right has gotten out of hand, going from outrage to outright incitement. More people are going to get hurt.
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