I'm sure the Trump line will be, "this was after the election, so....NO COLLUSION!" (they should write NO COLLUSION on his tombstone). If true, this is not normal operating procedure. The United States is supposed to have one foreign policy at a time. The report says that not only Trump, but his family and White House officials, 'a small circle of senior advisors' were involved.
Even all of this, while suspicious, could perhaps be written off as political newbie mistakes, if it were not for the fact that everyone has tried to cover it up. Again, every news day feels like reading dispatches from the battlefield. It truly feels like the pace of revelations is beginning to quicken, but most important questions are yet to be answered. Can Trump be subpoenaed to answer questions at the Grand Jury? If he refuses to answer, what then? And what happens if Trump fires Rosenstein and stifles Mueller?
Manafort's trial date is set for September 17th. Expect the halls of Congress to sound like a
Busby Berkeley musical in WestWorld as members of the GOP try to find a way to tap dance between Paul Manafort, The President and their constituents.
Between the midterms, the possibility of a President being subpoenaed before a Grand Jury, The President, his old lawyer (Cohen) and his new lawyer (Giuliani) having (ahem) shall we say, different versions of the truth, things are getting complicated. Everything said about the transaction [with Stormy Daniels] “has been said incorrectly,” President Trump told reporters. “It’s actually very simple." What was this simple transaction? The President declined to say.
It was probably too simple to explain.
Meanwhile, it feels like Mueller is a submarine commander. The only thing you see is the wake of his periscope as he glides back into the DOJ. There have been a few leaks, but remarkably few. It will be fascinating to hear the stories of those involved after this is all over. These are some of the great legal minds in the country there. How is the information being compiled? Was their dissension among Mueller's team?
When considering firing Mueller and attempting to De-legitimize the investigation, Trump may be facing a cold calculus: the legal fallout of Trump does not block him, and the political fallout if he does.