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Seeing daylight? by @BloggersRUs

Published by Tom Sullivan on October 30, 2017

Seeing daylight?
by Tom Sullivan

Are we starting to see some daylight between GOP regulars and the man in the white castle?

House Oversight Committee chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) on Sunday said he would encourage Republican colleagues who are calling for an end to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election to “give the guy a chance to do his job.”

“Do you support any effort to either curtail or end the Mueller investigation?” Chris Wallace asked Gowdy on “Fox News Sunday.”

“I don’t, and I readily concede I’m in an increasingly small group of Republicans,” Gowdy said. “I think Bob Mueller has a really distinguished career of service to our country.”

Maybe Gowdy is just hedging his bets in case things look as if they are headed south today. The charges expected today might not be related in any way to the sitting president, even if they are filed against current or former colleagues. If arrests come today, they will still ruin his Monday. And probably Gowdy’s, whoever ends up in custody. Then we’ll see if any others in his caucus put daylight between themselves and the White House.

The odds are the indictment today will not be on charges central to the collusion investigation. But it might be. Paul Manafort’s financial dealings with the Russians are clearly drawing attention. Money laundering has long been suspected. Buzzfeed reports that several of his wire transfers from overseas have come under scrutiny:

These transactions — which have not been previously reported — drew the attention of federal law enforcement officials as far back as 2012, when they began to examine wire transfers to determine if Manafort hid money from tax authorities or helped the Ukrainian regime close to Russian President Vladimir Putin launder some of the millions it plundered through corrupt dealings.

The new revelations come as special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation is tightening, with reports that an indictment may already have been issued. It is not known if Manafort has been charged, or if he ever will be. Manafort has been the subject of multiple law enforcement and congressional inquiries. A spokesperson for Manafort would not comment for this story about the investigation or any of the specific transactions, but Manafort has previously denied wrongdoing.

David Atkins notes there was no other reason for the Trump campaign to hire Manafort in the first place:

Manafort was a terrible choice for campaign manager, both in terms of competence and optics. It was neither a pick designed to buoy his populist credentials, nor was it a sop to the GOP establishment that Trump desperately needed at the time. The only thing Manafort had in his favor was his close ties to Putin, and there is no conceivable reason to have hired him except to leverage those ties.

The president and the White House worked hard(?!) last week and over the weekend both at redirecting the public narrative away from the president. That, in addition suggesting the allegations his campaign had dealings with the same Russian government behind the hacking of the DNC are without merit.

The question, of course, is what a “malevolent toddler” might do in response to public charges against one of his close associates. Firing Mueller would be beyond the pale, which is why it is not beyond him.

Milano’s tweet above is likely a reference to MoveOn’s preparing its members for rapid response (complete with printable placards) in the event of a Mueller firing:

Donald Trump is publicly considering firing special counsel Robert Mueller, the person leading the Department of Justice investigation of possible illegal actions by Donald Trump and members of his presidential campaign, and the efforts to conceal those activities.

This would be a constitutional crisis for our country. It would demand an immediate and unequivocal response to show that we will not tolerate abuse of power from Donald Trump.

Our response in the minutes and hours following a power grab will dictate what happens next, and whether Congress—the only body with the constitutional power and obligation to rein Trump in from his rampage—will do anything to stand up to him.

That’s why we’re preparing to hold emergency “Nobody is Above the Law” rallies around the country in the event they are needed.

(Honestly, I’ve been carrying around a cheap pot and wooden spoon in the back of the car for weeks should a “pots and pans revolution” suddenly break out.)

That’s when this reality show will really have jumped the shark.

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