Guest Post by Patrick J. Buchanan
“If anyone is looking for a good lawyer,” said President Donald Trump ruefully, “I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen.” Michael Cohen is no Roy Cohn.
Tuesday, Trump’s ex-lawyer, staring at five years in prison, pled guilty to a campaign violation that may not even be a crime.
Cohen had fronted the cash, $130,000, to pay porn star Stormy Daniels for keeping quiet about a decade-old tryst with Trump. He had also brokered a deal whereby the National Enquirer bought the rights to a story about a Trump affair with a Playboy model, to kill it.
Cohen claims he and Trump thus conspired to violate federal law. But paying girlfriends to keep past indiscretions private is neither a crime nor a campaign violation. And Trump could legally contribute as much as he wished to his own campaign for president.
Would a Democratic House, assuming we get one, really impeach a president for paying hush money to old girlfriends?
Hence the high-fives among never-Trumpers are premature.
But if Cohen’s guilty plea and Tuesday’s conviction of campaign manager Paul Manafort do not imperil Trump today, what they portend is ominous. For Cohen handled Trump’s dealings for more than a decade and has pledged full cooperation with prosecutors from both the Southern District of New York and the Robert Mueller investigation.
Nothing that comes of this collaboration will be helpful to Trump.
Also, Manafort, now a convicted felon facing life in prison, has the most compelling of motives to “flip” and reveal anything that could be useful to Mueller and harmful to Trump.
Then there is the Mueller probe itself.
Twenty-six months after the Watergate break-in, President Nixon had resigned. Twenty-six months after the hacking of the DNC and John Podesta emails, Mueller has yet to deliver hard evidence the Trump campaign colluded with Putin’s Russia, though this was his mandate.
However, having, for a year now, been marching White House aides and campaign associates of Trump before a grand jury, Mueller has to be holding more cards than he is showing. And even if they do not directly implicate the president, more indictments may be coming down.
Mueller may not have the power to haul the president before a grand jury or indict him. After all, it is Parliament that deposes and beheads the king, not the sheriff of Nottingham. But Mueller will file a report with the Department of Justice that will be sent to the House.
And as this Congress has only weeks left before the 2018 elections, it will be the new House that meets in January, which may well be Democratic, that will receive Mueller’s report.
Still, as of now, it is hard to see how two-thirds of a new Senate would convict this president of high crimes and misdemeanors.
Thus we are in for a hellish year.
Trump is not going to resign. To do so would open him up to grand jury subpoenas, federal charges and civil suits for the rest of his life. To resign would be to give up his sword and shield, and all of his immunity. He would be crazy to leave himself naked to his enemies.
No, given his belief that he is under attack by people who hate him and believe he is an illegitimate president, and seek to bring him down, he will use all the powers of the presidency in his fight for survival. And as he has shown, these powers are considerable: the power to rally his emotional following, to challenge courts, to fire Justice officials and FBI executives, to pull security clearances, to pardon the convicted.
Democrats who have grown giddy about taking the House should consider what a campaign to bring down a president, who is supported by a huge swath of the nation and has fighting allies in the press, would be like.
Why do it? Especially if they knew in advance the Senate would not convict.
That America has no desire for a political struggle to the death over impeachment is evident. Recognition of this reality is why the Democratic Party is assuring America that impeachment is not what they have in mind.
Today, it is Republicans leaders who are under pressure to break with Trump, denounce him, and call for new investigations into alleged collusion with the Russians. But if Democrats capture the House, then they will be the ones under intolerable pressure from their own media auxiliaries to pursue impeachment.
Taking the House would put newly elected Democrats under fire from the right for forming a lynch mob, and from the mainstream media for not doing their duty and moving immediately to impeach Trump.
Democrats have been laboring for two years to win back the House. But if they discover that the first duty demanded of them, by their own rabid followers, is to impeach President Trump, they may wonder why they were so eager to win it.
Lets just cut to the chase.” Trumps enemies” They are simply his enemies because he wishes to make America Great again. Weather he can accomplish that or even if one just don’t like the man. That is why they hate him. Half the country for some reason fails to see the truth. Stupid is as stupid does I guess.
Pat says the newly elected House would be under fire from the right for unleashing a lynch mob and will be under unrelenting pressure from the MSM to impeach the President. Exactly who has the influence and power in this equation?
The right has strong emotional support over what is happening to the US. What it lacks is funding, leadership and organization. This is not 1860 where both sides had leadership and organization but one side had over whelming resources. It ends safely and quietly.
Evil eventually wins. Things will continue to get worse…forever.
I am reminded of what Doctor Leonard McCoy of Start rek fame said in the episode, “The Omega Glory”, Spock, I’ve found that evil usually triumphs – unless good is very, very careful. .
If the democrats take the House, they will impeach Trump. That’s been known since Nov 9, 2016. The only thing that’s surprised me so far is that the Brennan wing of the CIA hasn’t killed Trump yet. I don’t think the Dems will take the House.
So what happens if Trump is impeached and removed from office? Will his base rise up, take to the streets and lay siege to D.C.? Highly doubtful….as long as there’s food in the fridge, a device to plug into and a car in the driveway, the right/conservatives/middle America/etc. will just keep on bending over and taking it in the “back hole” like they have since the mid 1960’s.
Eh,with so many on edge feel a few folks will snap,will it help the country,probably not but sure they will feel a little better spaying/neutering some progressive libs and their masters.
Those that snap woll be treated very harshly,thus,creating martyrs,will be the start I believe of some endless insanity.
I will say the chipmunk came up again today for his morning peanut whileI had me coffee,usually a good sign for the day.
The day he does not show up will be sure and post here,time for that final stockup!
Lurker-The only possible answer to your query is they will watch it all on tv, prolly FOX NEWS where it is fair and balanced. Then when they get bored, they will flip over to regular programming.
Democrats are so stupid that they believe Democrats are clean and only Republicans associated with Trump are the criminals in America needing prosecutions. For the good citizens, it shows just how powerful and corrupt the Leftist have become and how close we are to the last straw, the breaking point of no Constitutional legal recourse for good people, and good people having to fight for their lives not to see another National Election stolen by the Democrats that empowers a Marxist like Chavez.
Maybe he’ll take a hint from Abraham Lincoln….suspend Habeus Corpus, arrest and hold without hearing hundreds or thousands of reporters who are against the President, and otherwise shred the Bill of Rights? Na. He’ll just cancel some secret clearances of long time DC swamp creatures.
Trump needs to talk to Hillary about how to plug leaks. Now there is a lady with a body count!
cuntlery is NOT a lady
“Now there is a lady with a body count!” Now there is a bitch with a body count!…there fixed it for ya!
Let’s suppose they start an impeachment proceeding. Remember, Trump apparently has the NSA on his side, watching all communications.
Congresswoman Waters introduces the Resolution for Impeachment. That night, she is arrested in her office for fraud, campaign finance irregularities and lying on Federal loan documents. She calls her lawyer to arrange bail – but he is under arrest as well, for lying on documents and tax avoidance. She calls her lawyer’s lawyer – who cannot be reached. She is sent to Guantanamo to await trial.
She gets off the Navy plane at Gitmo and walks (limps, staggers) to her cell. Along the way she sees Pelosi, Schiff, three dozen others all bemoaning their various illnesses and complaining about “lack of due process”. Somewhere about Cell Block 3 she realizes something – the House cannot convene a quorum any more, too many of them are in Cuba! Voting to pass a Resolution of Impeachment is rather pointless if you cannot implement it –
But Senator Schumer has her back! He introduces a motion to hold the trial in the Senate despite no formal writ from the House. He is ecstatic at defeating the Donald – until he is arrested for fraud, lying on documents and kiddy-diddling. Along with about half the Senate, also with abundant evidence (paper and video) for their crimes. Gitmo is going to be crowded –
Unsealing indictments across the land spell trouble for those who would count coup – so many liars, fraudsters, kiddy-diddlers and thieves! It’s hard to find an incumbent, Demo or Repub, who isn’t implicated – and the evidence is spilling (leaking) out. The MSM would try to ignore it, but so few of their “anchors” are left unindicted that it cannot be done – and the local stations, along with the Internet, are making hay while the sun shines. Things grind to a halt, legislatively speaking, while the evil get incarcerated. The military makes target practice out of Antifa and the DSA, while the membership of subversives becomes decimated.
It might happen, might not, but those Democrats with a brain will be against it – because while there is little to gain with an impeachment proceedings at this point, there’s an awful lot to lose: everything.
That’s a nice dream. Too bad it won’t happen. I think a civil war would happen before that did.