Elder Patriot’s Opinion – Well, well, well. What’s this?
A previously sealed court transcript from January 22, 2018, of Special Counsel Robert Mueller fighting to prevent the release of former FBI Director James Comey’s memos, was released yesterday.
January 22nd was eleven months prior to the midterm election. The corrupt elements within the DOJ and FBI might’ve failed to stop Donald Trump in 2016 but they were successful at flipping the House in 2018.
With Democrats in control of the House, Mueller’s exit strategy following the appointment of Attorney General William Barr became clear.
The transcript is of lawyers from the special counsel’s office telling Obama appointee, Judge James Boasberg why it was imperative to keep James Comey’s memos from being released.
The courtroom was sealed during the legal proceedings. Had the proceedings been opened to the public it’s possible that the entire 22-month long witch-hunt would have been avoided.
That’s because an attorney for the Special Counsel, Michael Dreeben told the judge that the special counsel was, from the beginning, specifically charged with investigating an obstruction case against President Trump.
Now follow the sequence of events that led to Robert Mueller’s appointment as special counsel.
Mueller was appointed to serve as special counsel on May 17, 2017. By this point the FBI, after more than a year of investigation, knew there had been no collusion between Donald Trump, the Trump campaign, and Russia.
McCabe and Rosenstein realized they needed to shift gears from Russia, Russia, Russia, and find another avenue of prosecution for President Trump
Follow the events of this critical week.
On May 12, 2017, McCabe and Rosenstein, growing desperate, met to discuss future action. This was when the discussion of invoking the Twenty-Fifth Amendment was first held.
Three days later on May 15th, they met again, this time to discuss appointing a special counsel. The predicate, according to the recently released transcript, was that the president had committed obstruction of justice.
But, only four days earlier, on May 11th, McCabe had given this testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee:
Senator Marco Rubio: “Has the dismissal of Mr. Comey in any way impeded, interrupted, stopped, or negatively impacted any of the work, any investigation, or any ongoing projects at the Federal Bureau of Investigation?”
Acting Director McCabe: “So there has been no effort to impede our investigation to date.”
Here’s the entire timeline of events for the period from Tuesday, May 9th, 2017 to Wednesday May 17th, 2017:
- Tuesday, May 9, 2017 – Comey Fired;
- Wednesday, May 10, 2017 – McCabe launches criminal ‘obstruction’ case;
- Thursday, May 11, 2017 – McCabe testifies to Senate that Trump had made “no effort to impede”;
- Friday, May 12, 2017 – McCabe and Rosenstein consider appointing a special counsel:
- Monday, May 15, 2017 – Rosenstein likely commits to the special counsel;
- Tuesday, May 16, 2017 – Rosenstein gives Mueller a chance to interview President Trump;
- Wednesday, May 17, 2017 – Rosenstein appoints Robert Mueller as special counsel with the understanding he was to construct/create a case for impeachment based on obstruction of justice
The conclusion that Mueller had been appointed solely to construct an obstruction case is supported by the actions of the actions of the special counsel.
To begin with the team of lawyers and investigators that Mueller assembled were largely the same people who were involved in the original investigation while they were at the DOJ and the FBI.
FBI Agent Peter Strzok texted FBI attorney Lisa Page:
…”you and I both know the odds are nothing. If I thought it was likely, I’d be there no question. I hesitate in part because of my gut sense and concern there’s no big there there.”
What were they going to discover that they hadn’t already failed to uncover?
Mueller’s team shared a common bond – their own self-interest in protecting their criminally corrupt liability derived from spying on U.S. persons for political reasons.
While they had nothing on collusion, they had time on their side and the determination to create an obstruction charge.
The entire Mueller team were working to goad President Trump into something Mueller could then color/construe as obstruction and then open House impeachment grounds; and they were having fun doing it.
The manner of the pre-dawn raid on Paul Manafort, and the way they treated him, along with the manner of the raid on Michael Cohen was all done purposefully hoping to draw a reaction from Trump, which they would add to the obstruction file. Simultaneously they had to keep the ‘Muh Russia’ narrative going to help Democrats win the House in 2018.
Once Rosenstein and Mueller had the mid-term election goal secure (Dec ’18), then they set about enhancing the impeachment narrative with even stronger ‘obstruction‘ provocations.
The outrageous manner of arrest of Roger Stone is an example. The scale of it; heavily armed swat teams, tanks etc; and the fact that Weissmann enlisted CNN for the purpose of intentionally broadcasting the outrageous nature of the arrest, was by design. Mueller and Rosenstein were trying to provoke a response from Trump:
When we realize that a Trump-Russia collusion/conspiracy was known by investigators to be demonstrably ridiculous in mid-2017 (no ‘there’ there); and the Mueller/Rosenstein goal was always to establish an obstruction/impeachment result; then everything starts to make sense.
Everything was done to goad and bait President Trump into a response. None of this was happenstance. The goal of structuring the obstruction case and subsequent impeachment was designed into each event. The unnecessary postponement of Flynn sentencing, the financial death by 1,000 legal cuts, is another example.
After the 2018 election the type of provocations increased. From all appearances they had no intention of not continuing to ramp up the provocation. It’s likely Andrew Weissmann has prepared indictments for Trump’s family, including Donald Trump-Jr and Jared Kushner, that have absolutely nothing to do with Russia. All designed to make Trump lash out and give the appearance needed for obstruction.
All of that stuff assembled for use against other members of Trump’s family and social orbit is likely inside the Mueller report. None of it has anything to do with Russia because investigating Trump and Russia was never the real purpose of the past twenty months.
The reason why Mueller’s team ended up stopping the scheme is because William Barr showed up and refused to participate.
This would explain why a disgruntled Weissmann and Mueller team punted on the obstruction decision to AG William Barr. It was their last desperate effort, amid a failure to construct a solid legal case, to politicize the possibility and innuendo, and force Barr to be the one to say: “no obstruction.”
