Little did Donald Trump know that his campaign chant, hollered out in chorus, rally after rally “Lock her up”, would be profoundly prophetic in relation to Team Trump. Several of his cabal have been “locked up” while others await trial and/or sentencing. Trump, his son and his current cohorts including William Barr, Donald McGahn and Mnuchin are at risk of legal sanctions even though they are acting as if they are omnipotent. Anyone remotely connected to Trump would be well served by to delve into the Watergate precedent where a whole slew of close to fifty Nixon acolytes were indicted.
Besides the sideshow of wanting, again, to launch yet another investigation into “Crooked Hillary - Lock her up”, The POTUS and his Administration are obstructing the lawful oversight function of the House of Representatives. This is being effected by refusing point blank to provide documentation to the Committees as well as instructing anyone associated with his Administration not to give evidence. The POTUS has extended his authority even more instructing his banks and his auditors to ignore Congress’s subpoenas.
Trump, his family and his Administration are relying on the Supreme Court to back them up in their defiance of Congress. The POTUS’S argument that he is akin to Louis XIV, an argument that Richard Nixon tried and which spectacularly failed. He is all but said his Supreme Court will rule in his favor.
They would all be advised to look up what happened to the Nixon team. Willian Barr, for example, has to be mindful, that the Richard Nixon’s Attorney General was “locked up” as well. Donald Trump, whose knowledge of American History is demonstrably limited, must nevertheless have come across the fact that Richard Nixon escaped being “locked up” because Gerald Ford pardoned him. Eight hundred prosecutors have already agreed that only the fact that he is currently President protected him from being charged with egregious violations of obstruction of justice. So far there has not been a counter petition from prosecutors backing up William Barr’s rush to judgement that the POTUS was not guilty of that charge. The POTUS has a string of nearly 20 litigations pending which will descend upon him on leaving office as well as civil litigation which the courts have proceeded with while he is still the incumbent.
TRUMP’S TEAM MEMBERS WHO HAVE ALREADY BEEN “LOCKED UP” AND/OR AWAITING SENTENCING.
So far Paul Manafort his Campaign Manager is serving a seven and a half year sentence with several court challenges ahead. Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, just started a three year term for lying to Congress and breaking campaign laws. Cohen has alleged and the prosecutors support him that he committed these crimes at the behest of the President Donald J. Trump. The Trump National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, has pled guilty to “making false, fictitious and fraudulent” statements to the FBI in connection with his contacts with Russian operatives. At his sentencing hearing the Judge refused point black not to send him to prison asking the prosecutors why he hadn’t been charged with treason.
Rick Gates, Trump’s assistant campaign manager, is still cooperating with prosecutors and is yet to be sentenced for the plea he copped for making false statements and conspiracy against the United States of America. Roger Stone, Trump’s long time advisor, has been charged with seven counts of obstruction, witness tampering and lying to Congress. He was being investigated for far more serious crimes which miraculously were halted. The irresistible belief is that these investigations as was the Mueller probe were stopped by Trump’s appointee to head the Justice Department, William Barr.
Then there are twelve other sealed indictments that Mueller has farmed out to other prosecutors that may well result in those who screamed “lock her up” to be at risk themselves .
Michael Cohen is wailing at being selectively “victimized.
Michael Cohen who like Michael Flynn failed to convince the Court that spilling the beans was enough to keep him from being “locked up” has wailed, with justification, that those who have done exactly what he did are getting off scot free, starting with Trump himself. The prosecutors referred to the POTUS in Cohen’s guilty to plea as “Individual 1”, aka The President, alleging he was a co conspirator in the cover up of the crime of subverting campaign finance laws. Trump is sitting pretty in the WhiteHouse.
William Barr, who spun and is still spinning the Mueller probe is guilty of outright lying to Congress, the other reason that Cohen is going to jail. Barr responded, under oath, to a question in Congress whether Mueller’s team had contacted him in relation to the characterization of his report. Barr denied that he had when in fact he had received two letters from the Special Counsel who was furious at the Barr cover up. The missives to Barr stated that he had failed to capture the context, nature and substance of the probe and failed to make the probe’s executive summaries public.
Then just one more notable example of lying to Congress that has to stick in Cohen’s craw. The Republican Senate Intelligence Committee want to hear from Donald Trump Jnr. who allegedly lied to them under oath about the notorious Trump Tower meeting which the first son had convened with Russian operatives to “get dirt on Hillary Clinton”. Apparently included under purview in his suspect testimony are lies about the Moscow Trump Tower Project. The Donald Jnr. was additionally involved in his daddy’s and his attorney’s cover up in the Stormy Daniels’s affair as he signed the checks. While Cohen is languishing in jail for the crime the First Son is sounding off against the Senate Committee.
If the Nixon precedent is anything to go these three should be “locked up”. All the other witnesses including past members of Trump’s revolving door Administration and Campaign should take note of their potential legal liability. This includes Rudi Giuliani, Trump’s TV lawyer, who openly wants to conspire with the Ukrainians as to how to intervene on Trump’s behalf in the 2020 Presidential election.
HOW THE WATERGATE AND RUSSIAGATE INDICTMENTS STACK UP
There were 40 US Government officials, in the Watergate scandal, that were indicted some of whom were jailed. In addition NIxon’s whole campaign committee, (Committee to Re Elect the President - CREEP), except one, were indicted. So far there have been 37 indictments in Russiagate but at least 20 of those are Russians. At least Nixon had no Russians campaigning for him. Nevertheless everyone associated with Trump is in legal jeopardy particularly if they cover up or have covered up for the Boss or subsequently lie under oath.
Bear in mind that the majority of the Nixon indictments and convictions were as a result of Congressional Investigations which haven’t even begun yet. This was where the real action was as the Congressional testimony was riveting ultimately swinging public opinion against the 37th POTUS. If the response to Cohen's testomony is anything to go by Trump has to be really worried. Two out of three Americans thought Cohen was telling the truth while only one of three believed his boss.
The Nixon "locked up" crowd included a Secretary of Justice, John Mitchell, so William Barr take note as should Steve Mnuchin. The Watergate Chief of Staff HR Haldeman as well as the Chief Advisor John Ehrlichman both did time in a Federal Penitentiary. The whole POTUS brigade of former Chiefs of Staff as well as advisors such as Steve Bannon beware. Bannon is already being sort after as a witness to Democratic Congressional hearings. There are hints of Bannon’s alleged earlier perjury being bandied about. Nixon WhiteHouse Counsel John Dean went to jail for four months so Don McGahn beware of ignoring subpoenas and document requests. Nixon Special Counsel, Charles Colson, was convicted and the closest 45th POTUS counterpart to him is TV lawyer Rudi Giuliani. Jeb Magruder, WhiteHouse communications director also was jailed - it might be fascinating to hear what KellyAnne Conway or Sean Spicer would have to tell a congressional committee.
Then there were those involved in the Watergate burglary and or on Nixon's CREEP. They included James McCord, Howard Hunt, Gordon Liddy and Donald Segretti - all served time. There were innumerable witnesses to the Mueller grand jury who might want to defy the Congressional Committee subpoenas. Beware.
THE TRUMP STRATEGY - BUT WILL THE SUPREME COURT PLAY BALL?
So Trump knows where the Congressional investigations could lead to. Even he knows that It was those that turned public opinion against Nixon, Nixon started with the overwhelming majority of the public behind him. He had been reelected in the middle of the scandal, winning 49 of the 50 States, while Trump is desperately hanging on to his 40 percent base.
POTUSES 37 and 45 share the same defense ignore subpoenas. Number 45 has gone one gigantic step further instructing anybody and everybody not to respond to subpoenas. He is convinced that at the end of the day the conservative Supreme Court, two of whom are his handpicked choices, will reverse the unanimous Nixon decision that forced the then President of the United States to respond to subpoenas.
Chief Justice Roberts has already publicly admonished the POTUS for criticizing judges and alleging that their decisions were politically motivated depending on whether they were appointed by a Republican or a Democrat President. More significantly recently retired Supreme Court Justice, John Paul Stevens who was a Republican appointee, has opined, on the modern political landscape, “I think there are things we should be concerned about…. The President is exercising powers that don’t really belong to him. I mean, he has to comply with subpoenas and things like that”.
Stevens when pressed as to how the Supreme Court might rule in a matter between Trump and the House of Representatives, opined, “I wouldn’t want to predict that anyone is going to take the incorrect view. But certainly the correct view is pretty clear”.
Trump’s other hope is that the court cases devolving around the subpoena question will take years to resolve. Well the precedent in the Nixon case was that the courts put the dispute on fast track, reaching their unanimous decision in months. Already In a case relating to Trump trying to prevent financial documents from receiving legislative purview the Judge has put her decision as to whether Congress’s subpoena must be obeyed on expedited track.
AT THE END OF THE DAY
Hang onto your seats this is all going to turn ugly very fast and the outcome is not going to be that Hillary Clinton is going to be “locked up”.
There are now 800 prosectors that have signed onto the letter that Trump should be criminally charged with obstruction of justice and not one that has that has publicly sent a letter agreeing with Barr.
Even without hearings and Democratic Speaker Pelosi nixing any possibility of impeachment now, the latest polls indicate increasing public acceptance for the process. The numbers have moved from the 30 percent range to the mid 40’s.
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