The Mueller Report Will Be Big Even If It Finds No Collusion By Trump

Ken AshfordElection 2016, L'Affaire Russe, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

This graph, from Phillip Bump, shows what WE KNOW will be in the Mueller report. This is no witch hunt. That’s about 290 pages of documents detailing alleged and admitted illegal behavior, including, in most cases, broad context for the actions. (Many of those pages, particularly as they relate to Manafort, are carried over between documents.) It’s dozens of criminal … Read More

How It Might All End

Ken AshfordL'Affaire Russe, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

I’m on the record as not believing the Mueller investigation is coming to an end next week or soon thereafter, but all the media is telling me I am wrong. So assuming I am wrong, let’s look at what happens next, if anything. Wired laid out seven scenarios: 1. Mueller sends the attorney general a simple “declination letter,” telling Bill Barr … Read More

Is The Mueller Investigation Over?

Ken AshfordL'Affaire RusseLeave a Comment

From CNN: Attorney General Bill Barr is preparing to announce as early as next week the completion of Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, with plans for Barr to submit to Congress soon after a summary of Mueller’s confidential report, according to people familiar with the plans. The preparations are the clearest indication yet that Mueller is nearly done with his almost … Read More

Trump Meddled Again With DOJ Investigation

Ken AshfordConstitution, L'Affaire Russe, Stormy Daniels & Karen McDougal Affairs, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

Just out from the NY Times: As federal prosecutors in Manhattan gathered evidence late last year about President Trump’s role in silencing women with hush payments during the 2016 campaign, Mr. Trump called Matthew G. Whitaker, his newly installed attorney general, with a question. He asked whether Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New … Read More

McCabe Told Gang of Eight About Counterintelligence Investigation Into Trump

Ken AshfordCongress, Constitution, L'Affaire Russe, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

I haven’t written much, if anything about former FBI director Andrew McCabe’s series interviews promoting his upcoming new book, but the big reveal from it all is that McCabe ordered a counterintelligence investigation into Trump early in the presidency. Not surprising in one sense, given Trump’s firing of James Comey, etc. But there was an interesting wrinkle to the story. … Read More

Trump Lies About Whether He Was Cleared Of Collusion

Ken AshfordL'Affaire Russe, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

On Sunday, President Trump began boasting that he’d been cleared by the Senate Intelligence Committee of any wrongdoing in the 2016 election. “Senator Richard Burr, The Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, just announced that after almost two years, more than two hundred interviews, and thousands of documents, they have found NO COLLUSION BETWEEN TRUMP AND RUSSIA!” Trump tweeted Sunday. “Is anybody … Read More

SDNY Subpoenas The Trump Inauguration Committee

Ken AshfordPolitical Scandals, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

It looks like the Trump Administration, as we suspected, wasted no time in being corrupted, working from Day One on a clear pay-for-play scheme. That is now being investigated by the SDNY: Prosecutors in New York’s Southern District have reached out to President Donald Trump’s inauguration committee and plan to subpoena the organization for documents, sources with direct knowledge tell ABC … Read More

Trump’s NYT Interview

Ken AshfordChina, Election 2020, Emoluments Violation, L'Affaire Russe, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

A very interesting and Trumpian interview that Trump gave with the New York Times last night. Some highlights: Twice, Trump lies to Maggie Halberman of the NY Times, and she corrects him, and then he just admits he was wrong. This happens a lot: when he’s challenged, he just concedes. Trump makes a new claim about Trump Tower Moscow: he … Read More

Don Jr Didn’t Talk To Dad Before The Trump Tower Meeting

Ken AshfordL'Affaire Russe, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

Breaking on CNN: Senate investigators have obtained new information showing Donald Trump Jr.’s mysterious phone calls ahead of the 2016 Trump Tower meeting were not with his father, three sources with knowledge of the matter told CNN. Records provided to the Senate Intelligence Committee show the calls were between Trump Jr. and two of his business associates, the sources said, … Read More

Boom: Stone Indicted, Arrested

Ken AshfordCrime, L'Affaire Russe, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

AP: Roger Stone, a confidant of President Donald Trump, was arrested in the special counsel’s Russia investigation in a pre-dawn raid at his Florida home on Friday and was charged with lying to Congress and obstructing the probe. The seven-count indictment against Stone, a self-proclaimed “dirty trickster,” is the first criminal case in months from special counsel Robert Mueller. It provides … Read More