The Trump Death March

I don't remember where I saw the expression "The Trump Death March", but it is exactly where we stand today.  Former FBI Director Comey's testimony in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee was an indictment that Trump did engage in obstruction of Justice by asking Comey to drop the criminal investigation in Michael Flynn.  That he asked the Attorney general and the  Vice-President to leave the room makes it quite clear that he did not want any witnesses to this.

Did you notice that the one thing that was missing in all of Trump's conversations with Comey is that he never asked once about the seriousness of the Russian attack on American Institutions. That is what this investigation is all about no matter how much Trump denies it. It is also clear that the investigation is going to lead into areas of financial dealing with Trump business and Russia. Hint. Why is he so insistent about refusing to release his taxes?

White House: Trump is NOT a liar.  White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday that President Trump is “not a liar” hours after ousted FBI Director James Comey said the president had lied about the FBI.

Good luck with that. It should be clear to everyone by now that Trump is a liar, a bully and a criminal. He knows nothing of how government is supposed to function. He cares nothing for policy or for anyone other than himself. This is the most comprehensive and compelling case thus far that Trump did indeed engage in obstruction of justice.

Comey testified under oath. Trump's credibility has taken a nose dive (Pinocchio analogy anyone?) with all the lies he has made since taking office. I'm not counting all the lies during the campaign. Those are on the voters who believed his promises. 

The investigation is going to continue with the drip, drip, drip of details being reported as we learn the full extent of what happened. Collusion with Russia's attempt to interfere with our elections, The cover-up, financial irregularities with the Trump business and more that we don't know yet.

The Republican Congress will NOT move forward with impeachment hearings. That will be left to the Democratic Congress that will, hopefully, be elected in 2018. Because, for the next year and a half NOTHNG will get accomplished concerning all the campaign promises and major issues faced by the country.  

The only way to break that logjam will be to remove Trump from office. But that could take a year or more from Jan 2019 of impeachment proceedings and a trial in the Senate.  ALL that time Trump will be sitting in the White House angry and petulant. The most powerful person in the world, powerless to affect any legislative change. We will need the defense secretary (among others) to make sure he does not do anything dangerous. 

Can a President be indicted for a crime? The prevailing view among most legal experts is no. They say the president is immune from prosecution so long as he is in office. Richard Nixon was a non-indicted co-conspirator during the Watergate affair. 

Article Two of the United States Constitution: "The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors."  The US House of Representative will decide what that means in this case (Abuse of Power, for example) if impeachment articles ever get out of the judiciary committee. 

What we learned: (As per NBC NEWS)

1. Special Counsel Bob Mueller could very well be looking at whether Trump engaged in obstruction of justice in the Michael Flynn case. Comey said he couldn’t answer the question if there was obstruction of justice, but added: “I took it as a very disturbing thing, very concerning but that’s a conclusion I’m sure the special counsel will work towards to try to understand what the intention was there and whether that’s an offense.”
2. Comey interpreted Trump’s Let-Flynn-Go comment as a direction. RISCH: Did Trump *direct* you to let to let go of the Flynn matter? COMEY: “Not in his words, no… I took it as a direction.”
3. Team Trump didn’t tell the truth about Comey’s firing. “The explanations, the shifting explanations confused me and concerned me.” More: “Those were lies, plain and simple.”
4. Comey couldn’t discuss in an open setting facts regarding Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Russians. "We were also aware of facts that I can't discuss in an open setting that would make his continued engagement in a Russia-related investigation problematic."
5. Comey leaked the Let-Flynn-Go conversation to the New York Times, knowing it would probably trigger a special counsel.
6. Comey dinged Loretta Lynch and said her instructions in the Hillary email probe forced him to intervene in his July 5 announcement
7. “Release the tapes!” “Lordy, I hope there are tapes.”

James Clapper, former US intelligence chief, states that what we are confronting makes Watergate pale in significance.

“Watergate pales really, in my view, compared to what we’re confronting now,” said Clapper, a former lieutenant general with a long career in intelligence under Republican and Democratic presidents alike. He added: “I am very concerned about the assault on our institutions coming from both an external source — read Russia — and an internal source — the president himself.”

As Clapper suggested, Trump has been undermining the institutions and mores that undergird our political process; whether or not his conduct was felonious, it has been profoundly subversive.

Apart from Comey and the Russia investigation, Trump has systematically attacked the institutions of American life that he sees as impediments. He denounced judges and the courts. He has attacked journalists as “the enemy of the people,” and urged that some be jailed for publishing classified information. He has publicly savaged Democrats and Republicans who stand up to him.

More broadly, Trump has ignored longstanding democratic norms, such as that a presidential candidate release tax returns and obey certain ethics rules. He flouts conventions against nepotism. And perhaps most fundamentally, he simply lies at every turn: Politicians often spin and exaggerate, they even lie in extremis to escape scandal. But Trump is different. He lies on autopilot, on something as banal as the size of inauguration crowds.