February 20, 2020: The Fishy Smell of Corrupt Trump Pardons

 

2/20/20: Today was a miserable day for the rule of law. Our justice system is under sustained attack by a president with the instincts of a famished Doberman. With Sen. Milksop Mitch McConnell trembling in his Nikes, there’s a possibility we’re going to end up corrupted, like Brazil. 

Wednesday, the attorney for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a man currently under indictment in multiple jurisdictions, alleged that his client was offered a pardon by… go ahead …try to guess. 

Righto! It was Trump! 

As reported by CNN, or “Fake News” if you don’t like dealing with uncomfortable facts, 

Lawyer Edward Fitzgerald told a court on Wednesday that a witness statement application [in his client’s case] claimed that then-California representative Dana Rohrabacher went to visit Assange at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London on the instruction of the “President.”

 

According to the statement…Rohrabacher’s mission was to offer Assange a U.S. pardon [emphasis added], if he would “play ball” by saying the Russians had nothing to do with the leak [of stolen Democratic National Committee documents during the 2016 campaign].

 

In August 2017, the Washington Times began reporting that after Rohrabacher met with Assange, he rushed home to let everyone know. It would soon be proven. The Russians did not hack the DNC! 

For all Rohrabacher could tell, the hacking might have been the work of a gang of lesbian midgets. 

But Assange had told him, it wasn’t Russians!

 

____________________ 

“At no time did I offer a deal made by the President, nor did I say I was representing the President.” 

Former Congressman Dana Rohrabacher

____________________

  

Now, with Assange’s lawyer talking, Rohrabacher has some serious explaining to do – and ends up offering one of the stupidest denials in the history of stupid denials. He says he didn’t really offer a pardon from the president. It just sounded like he did. “When speaking with Julian Assange, I told him that if he could provide me information and evidence about who actually gave him the DNC emails, I would then call on President Trump to pardon him,” the former congressman said Wednesday. 

“At no time did I offer a deal made by the President, nor did I say I was representing the President.” 

He said he’d talk to the president – if Assange did what the president would clearly want Assange to do – and they’d talk about, maybe, the Houston Astros’ chances of winning the World Series. 

Or Rohrabacher and Trump might talk about what a sleazebag former F.B.I. Director James Comey was for investigating Roger Stone who also denied he ever met with Assange before or after the 2016 election. 

But a pardon deal! Who would think it?

 

* 

“He knew I could get to the president.” 

THURSDAY MORNING, Rohrabacher elaborated on his denial and, if possible, sounded even stupider. 

Okay. He had contacted White House Chief of Staff John Kelly to inquire about a possible pardon for Mr. Assange. 

“I spoke to Julian Assange and told him if he would provide evidence about who gave WikiLeaks the emails I would petition the president to give him a pardon,” Rohrabacher said. “He knew I could get to the president.” 

He admits he got to the White House Chief of Staff. 

For now, put aside the fact Rohrabacher was once known as “Putin’s favorite congressman.” Pretend we never knew he hung out with Maria Butina, an attractive young Russian, who posed as a student attending a U.S. college and a gun rights advocate, during the lead up to the 2016 election. Pretend Butina never got sent to prison for secretly serving the interests of the Russian Federation. Forget that Ms. Butina used her charms to gain entry to leading conservative circles – and that she sometimes gave access to some of her most luscious body parts in return for such access.

 

Let’s just go with what GOP Rep. Kevin McCarthy had to say about Rohrabacher and Trump, back in the day. It was the summer of 2016, a time when no one thought a shady operator like Donald would ever have a chance to become the next President of the United States. 

McCarthy said what he said on tape (see below). But McCarthy didn’t know he’d been taped by another Republican in the meeting. When the free press broke the story, Rep. McCarthy insisted he never said what the free press said he said. 

Well, the “Fake News” folks pointed out, “We’ve got a recording of what you said; and our source will verify.” 

McCarthy suddenly remembered that he did say what reporters said he said, but now he remembered that he was joking all along, when he said he thought the two men, Dana and Don, were paid by Vladimir Putin.

 

And there, in a nutshell, we see the outlines of a budding threat to the rule of law that has metastasized in the interim. You had McCarthy lying about what he said, until he heard there was tape. You had Rohrabacher floating the idea of a pardon. This week, you had the White House Press Secretary saying none of this ever happened. Then Rohrabacher admitted it had. 

These are the kinds of shady friends who always orbit President Trump, and we need to face facts, before it’s too late. 

Trump is happy to bend the rule of law when it serves his purpose, and ready to break it if he has the chance.

 

* 

SPEAKING OF shady friends of President Trump, on Thursday, Roger Stone was sentenced to 40 months in jail. 

Again, Stone’s story is not hard to grasp. We’ve laid it out before. So, today, the capsule version: Stone meets in secret with a Russian in May 2016. Russian guy offers dirt on Hillary. Guy wants $2 million. Stone says no, too much moola! Stone forgets having meeting! So does pal, Michael Caputo, who helped set meeting up. Stone tells Senate committee he never met with Russians. Stone soon admits he did because he realizes he’s facing a perjury rap if he doesn’t. 

Stone starts threatening a witness in his trial, which involves seven felony charges. A jury convicts Stone on all seven. 

The president then says, Stone got a raw deal – and, who knows, maybe he’ll have to grant him a pardon! 

But no, we’re supposed to believe that when Rohrabacher said he’d offer to get Assange a pardon, that wasn’t fishy. He never told Assange he had a deal with the president to help him out. What would ever give Assange, or now the American public, that wrong idea?????

 

And when Trump pals signaled Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal lawyer, that he too might be up for a tasty little pardon – if he kept his mouth shut about criminal doings by his old boss, Donald J. Trump? 

And when Paul Manafort got convicted on eight felony counts – by a jury – and then admitted to more – and then Manafort started tampering with a witness – and then the authorities got wise – but the witness Manafort was tampering with fled to Russia – and then Trump said this?

  

Sure. 

We can totally trust this crew.

 

* 

MEANWHILE, John Rood, a top official at the Defense Department, who did tell the truth, and warned the White House against withholding military aid to Ukraine, announced he was resigning. That resignation came at the express request of President Trump. 

Why was Rood asked to leave? 

As UPI explains, “Rood informed the U.S. Congress in May 2019 that Ukraine had made adequate progress in combating corruption to receive a promised $250 million in military assistance.” 

According to Rood, there was no reason to hold up the aid.

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE: Michael Caputo, who “forgot” he helped set up a meeting between Roger Stone and a Russian, bringing frankincense and myrrh and dirt on Hillary, is rewarded for his forgetfulness with a cushy government job in April 2020. He becomes spokesperson for the Dept. of Health and Human Services. 

That job lasts until September, when he has a meltdown, and takes a leave of absence (with pay, of course).