Special Counsel for the Russia investigation Robert Mueller’s inquiry into the Trump team is approaching the one year mark; the former FBI director was appointed to his current position on May 17 of last year. In the time since, his team has handed out an array of charges, drawing in four former associates of the president in the process. Only one of those — former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort — has refused to cooperate and will be going to trial.
Considering these developments, the president and his closest associates remain staunchly opposed to the continuation of the Mueller probe. In their estimation, the fact that the investigation is approaching the one year mark is ample reason to end it soon. It’s not as though you see authorities rushing to end criminal investigations other than those into the Trump team just because the targets and their allies sought to put pressure on prosecutors, and yet even still here we have the president and his associates trying out mob-style tactics on the nation’s justice system.
Recent addition to the Trump legal team Rudy Giuliani has assumed a position — taking after Trump lawyers who came before him — of staunch opposition to the Mueller probe. The Washington Post quoted Giuliani, speaking of himself and the president, as saying:
‘We’re on the same wavelength. We’ve gone from defense to offense.’
Despite his best intentions, Giuliani has at times majorly fumbled his defense of the president. Infamously, he went on Fox and proclaimed to the world that the president had, actually, repaid his lawyer Michael Cohen for a hush money payment he dished out to adult film star Stormy Daniels covering an affair with Trump. In so doing, he upended longstanding claims from the president’s team.
Concurrently, individuals in the president’s orbit report to The Post that he has taken to whining that he needs new and better “TV lawyers” to defend his presidency against the Mueller investigation. One particular source for the publication adds that the president has ended up angrily bringing up a recently unveiled new federal probe into Michael Cohen as many as 20 times a day. That criminal probe was revealed after authorities raided Cohen’s home, office, and hotel room recently, a move that the president has long made his anger with known.
Despite the president’s personal belligerent rantings and seeming convenient and willful ignorance of the facts of the situation surrounding his team, The Post reported one White House official as having commented:
‘Everyone seems resigned to just buckle up and get through whatever we’ve got to get through for it to reach its conclusion.’
Despite the reported “resignation” to dig in and brace for the impact of the end of the Mueller probe, The Post reports that there remains “worry” on the part of individuals in the president’s orbit that the investigation could ensnare Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and even Donald Trump Jr.
These individuals seem aware of the legitimacy of the Mueller investigation and are not exactly seemingly supportive of the “war” plan against Mueller being enacted by the president and his associates.
Even still, the president and his allies are pressing on anyway. In a disturbing parallel to comments offered by Richard Nixon while he was still in office, Vice President Mike Pence recently went on NBC and said that, considering the length of time the Mueller probe has been active, he believes the special counsel should quickly close up shop.
Morning Joe put together clip of Pence using Nixon’s old talking points to call for end of Mueller investigation ? pic.twitter.com/u343CweV4e
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 10, 2018
The president, meanwhile, continues to rant and rave on Twitter, but the Mueller probe is continuing whether he likes it or not.
Featured Image via Alex Edelman-Pool/Getty Images
