December 1, 2018
THERE'S A REASON YOUR JOINT-DEFENDERS ARE GUILTY:
MEMO: HOW RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IMPACT OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE RUSSIA INVESTIGATION (The Moscow Project, November 30, 2018)
Here are the four key developments we learned about this week:Mueller has identified collusion. In the draft plea agreement provided to Jerome Corsi, Mueller details how Roger Stone, who Mueller notes was in frequent contact with Donald Trump and senior campaign officials, directed Corsi to connect with WikiLeaks about the trove of stolen materials it received from Russia. Corsi subsequently communicated back to Stone WikiLeaks' release plan. Laid bare, this means that a Trump associate engaged with a Russian-affiliated organization to learn about its plans to disseminate information the Trump campaign knew had been stolen by a foreign adversary, all for the purpose of benefitting Trump. That is collusion.Key takeaway: Mueller has evidence that the Trump team in fact colluded with Russia. They coordinated with WikiLeaks, which they knew was a Russian front, about the release of the emails, which they knew had been stolen by Russia.Trump is compromised by a hostile foreign power. Michael Cohen's plea revealed that Trump repeatedly lied during the campaign about Russia's financial leverage over him. While Trump falsely claimed to have no business ties to Russia during the campaign, the Trump Organization was having discussions with high-ranking Kremlin officials to build a lucrative Trump Tower in Moscow. Trump's team even tried to bribe Russian President Vladimir Putin by offering him a $50 million penthouse. Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, then lied to Congress about the discussions to hide them from investigators.Key takeaway: Trump knowingly and repeatedly lied to the American people about a business deal he was negotiating with the Kremlin during the campaign. Worse, Trump gave the Russians leverage over him because they knew he was lying and helped him do so. We now have direct evidence that the president of the United States is compromised by a hostile foreign power. People have wondered why the American president has kowtowed to Putin rather than standing up for America's interests. Now we know.Trump is engaged in a vast cover-up. The events of this week further demonstrate that Trump is engaged in a vast effort to cover up his actions during the campaign and is working aggressively to obstruct and undermine the investigation. We now know that:Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress to protect Trump.Trump illegally put in charge of the Justice Department a political crony who had previously outlined a strategy to shut down the investigation.Trump's legal team sought to use Paul Manafort's cooperation with the Mueller investigation to gain information on the direction of the investigation.Trump's legal team has established joint-defense agreements with 32 individuals, indicating the breadth of their concern. Trump has encouraged others to lie and deceive investigators, dangling pardons to those who obstruct the investigation.Key takeaway: Trump is acting guilty. You don't work this hard to obstruct an investigation and engineer a vast cover-up if you're innocent. Trump is trying to hide even more damning evidence that he and his campaign conspired with the Russian attack on our democracy.
Posted by Orrin Judd at December 1, 2018 9:24 AM
