The Trump Impeachment Thread

Quote: terapined

Huh?
Speak for yourself
Pretty obvious its Trump

Well, if unnamed sources say Trump's not being investigated, that's the gospel truth.

If any sources say Trump is being investigated, we have no way of knowing if there is even an investigation of any kind going on. Maybe someone just asked Trump for the time, and people are blowing it out of proportion.

Donald has been tweeting this afternoon (shouldn't he be doing..... other stuff?).

Pointing fingers at the Clintons. Whining about witch hunts. Yada yada.

It's clear this obstruction news has really gotten under his orange skin. Usually he doesn't tweet during the afternoon.

I hope they find those leaking information and prosecute them.

I wish Trump would stay off of Twitter.

Quote: ams288

Donald has been tweeting this afternoon (shouldn't he be doing..... other stuff?).

He doesn't know how to do any of the other stuff. If he did, he'd have been doing it since January.

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Pointing fingers at the Clintons. Whining about witch hunts. Yada yada.

What about his stunning popular vote loss?

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It's clear this obstruction news has really gotten under his orange skin. Usually he doesn't tweet during the afternoon.

It's actually quite delicious to his many enemies. it's very likely Golden boy wasn't guilty of any crime, or even any improper actions, regarding Russian interference in the election. None whatsoever. But when he began a cover-up, people naturally started asking questions and the FBI and congress opened investigations. then in his mad zeal to sweep his own mess under the rug, and to be declared innocent, he committed obstruction of justice, which just happens to be a felony.

It gets even better.

Obstruction of justice is almost by definition an unsuccessful attempt to interfere with any aspect of the justice process (investigation, trial, etc.) So the defense of "but the investigation went on regardless," is no defense at all.

But wait. There's more.

The obstruction didn't take place during the campaign, it happened once he was in office. And the genius who is so smart he advices himself, didn't even have a surrogate or stooge do it indirectly, but went and did it himself directly.

Now, it's quote likely the House won't impeach, or if it does the Senate won't convict. Hell, if I were Speaker of the House, I'd try to get trump impeached and tried as quickly as possible, when the votes are in the Senate to acquit. If the Democrats can't remove Golden Boy via impeachment, they should wait for his term to be over and then have him tried in a Federal court.

I think that in some situations, leaks, even illegal ones, serve the public interest.

Quote: Dalex64

I think that in some situations, leaks, even illegal ones, serve the public interest.

Yeah, I've been meaning to ask Republicans a hypothetical question if they were in the Clinton or Obama White House as left over staff from the previous administration and came across damaging information about the President but not illegal would they leak it?

There's no reason to go to law enforcement agencies because my hypothetical is only about damaging information to the President.

So, they have chance to damage someone they don't approve of, would they do it?

Real world, I suspect more than few complaining about leaks about Trump would do it.

Quote: Dalex64

I think that in some situations, leaks, even illegal ones, serve the public interest.

Many of the leaks coming from the White House these days are most emphatically not illegal.

You can classify prime numbers as essential to national security if you want, but no court is going to buy it. The existence of an investigation, the infighting between political appointees, criminal activity by Golden Boy, etc. are not leaks of classified material. Making the occupant of the Oval Office look foolish, idiotic, ridiculous,
or incompetent (he didn't need any help), is not illegal, either.

The bit about Golden Boy passing classified information to the Russians might be, given it identified part of that information. I'm not sure the mere mention of it would be illegal.

In short, if the Trumpkins want the FBI to go after the leakers, they're going to be disappointed. Trump can do it on his own dime (two hours of government expenses on his properties ought to cover it).

Quote: RonC

I said this incorrectly before, so I am editing it...

That someone is being investigated means very little unless evidence of an actual illegal action is found. Trump being "under investigation"does not prove anything. I thought we long ago decided that there actually had to be something done that was wrong for being investigated to matter. Once an allegation, indictment, article of impeachment, etc. comes out, then it means something...but even then, it still unproven until it goes to court or Congress.

Innocent until proven guilty. Not guilty because the media says so or someone leaks that they think he may be guilty...when an anonymous person leaks something, you have to look at their motivation for doing so.

The media is playing games by trying to make the story whatever they want it to be.

We're being played. The media wants to try this in the court of public opinion, not in the Congress.

I agree with Ron. We are being played. However, WaPo has yet to be wrong on its stories and its sources appear to be bang on. There are a lot of people in the WhiteHouse staff who don't like what is going on in their democracy and there are likely many direct lines from WH Staffers to WaPO and the NYT.

And yes, the president being investigated doesn't prove anything, but the fact that there is an investigation is much bigger than President Trump's witchhunt of Obama's birth certificate, and there was no official investigation into *that*.

Russia influenced the election. Trump encouraged the meddling in his campaigning. Several members of his campaign had meetings with Russian officials before and after the election which were inappropriate at best. The fact that Sessions states "I do not recall" when in fact there were documented cases of Sessions meeting with Russian diplomats is troubling at better.

There is a great deal of smouldering going on.

It is poetic justice for a president who claimed Obama was illegitimate, to lock up the other presidential candidate, to accuse rivals of being in on the Kennedy assassination, inciting violence at his own rallies, and encouraging Russia to find emails, of praising WikiLeaks, and so on...

Irony is lost on this administration.

Frankly, I hope that Trump survives this and goes on to make America Great Again. I would really like to see that. The Democrats power lies in its limited ability to thwart passages of bills in the Senate. That's it. Make it happen. Please.

Very very odd press release sent out by deputy AG Rod Rosenstein tonight:



I've seen two competing theories:

1) Donald told him to release a statement saying he wasn't under investigation, and this was the best he could do without lying

2) This is about a story that hasn't broke yet (aka grab the popcorn)

Theory 2 is my favorite. Of particular note is the "country" line, which may indicate we are about to get some juicy intel from another country's intelligence community.

Yeah, I'll be surprised if reporters aren't asking him to clarify why exactly he said that.