The Russia scandal continues to unfold as the weeks and months of this new year go on, with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe making its way closer and closer to the president himself. Recently, following announcements of the cooperation of not just former Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos but also former national security adviser Michael Flynn, talk has turned to the president himself possibly soon being interviewed by Mueller’s team.
Trump has claimed that he’s happy to sit down with the Special Counsel’s team, a position that squares with his longtime claim that he’s innocent.
That’s not all there is to the story, though. Rather than Trump’s willingness to sit down with Mueller being indicative of a president who is doing their best to cooperate with the Russia investigation, Trump’s willingness to sit down with Mueller is the result of the president being driven to, essentially, his wit’s end.
All of his efforts to avoid facing accountability for any possible crimes of his and/or his associates have failed.
Last week, The New York Times revealed that according to insider accounts, Trump’s efforts to avoid scrutiny went well beyond what was previously known. According to the publication, within months of Special Counsel Mueller’s initial appointment last year, Trump revealed to his inner circle that he wanted him fired.
Trump was steered away from seeing that threat through to reality by top White House lawyer Don McGahn threatening to quit.
Considering this development, Senator Richard Blumenthal says that Trump will be going into any potential interview with Mueller’s team with a “credible case of obstruction of justice” hanging over his head.
Appearing on CNN this week, Blumenthal commented:
‘There’s a credible case of obstruction of justice against the president of the United States. What we’re seeing, in fact, extraordinarily, is obstruction of justice in a sense unfolding right before us in real time with the actions and statements that [Trump] is making… He has no right to misuse the powers of his office to intimidate witnesses, to fire prosecutors, to withhold documents or destroy them, and that is a very clear line that evidently he doesn’t respect.’
Check out the video below.
“Are you saying that based on what you’ve seen, the President obstructed justice,” asks @jimsciutto. “There’s a credible case of obstruction of justice against the President of the United States,” says Sen. Richard Blumenthal https://t.co/ibxX3xnSMu pic.twitter.com/asUPBit02i
— OutFrontCNN (@OutFrontCNN) January 27, 2018
Besides the report about the president moving to fire Mueller, the president has also very publicly taken other moves that together form a credible case of obstruction of justice against him.
Among perhaps the most infamous of these moves is Trump’s abrupt firing of FBI Director James Comey in May of last year.
Comey was, at the time of his firing, leading the Russia investigation; his firing led to the eventual appointment of Special Counsel Mueller.
Trump has also committed completely public acts that constitute witness intimidation.
He claimed on Twitter to have tapes of White House conversations of his with Comey ahead of one of the latter’s appearances before Congress.
He had no tapes; his claims were just to try and make Comey uncomfortable, something he failed to do.
Besides that incident, ahead of an appearance of former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates before Congress, Trump tweeted in a similar strain. He suggested that she had been leaking to the press and that he had evidence of such, evidence which has, of course, never materialized.
Featured Image via Screenshot from the Video
