July 30, 2018: A President May Not Thwart an Investigation into His Own Conduct

 

7/30/18: The battle to bolster the crumbling credibility of President Trump continues to falter. In one poll a majority of Americans, 54 percent, now believe he acted illegally or unethically in dealing with the Russians during the 2016 campaign. Only 36 percent think he did not. 

Team Trump turns on Michael Cohen.

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“I’ve got a scoundrel on my hands.” 

Rudy Giuliani

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Sensing danger on several fronts, Horndog Rudy turns up once again on Fox News. He’s there for one reason: to trash the reputation of Michael Cohen. Rudy explains that he has been listening to dozens of tapes that Trump’s former lawyer secretly made. Suddenly, it hits him, he tells the hosts of Fox & Friends. “I’ve got a scoundrel on my hands.” 

Most rational Americans assume he means Trump. Most rational Americans aren’t watching Rudy on Fox.

 

Giuliani decides to mention a new report, which hasn’t yet appeared in print or on TV. Apparently, Cohen is prepared to tell investigators that that Don Jr., Jared, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, “and possibly two others,” attended a strategy session on June 6, 2016 [emphasis added], in which they discussed plans for the meeting scheduled for June 9, with agents of the Russian government. No one has ever heard of this June 6 meeting before. Yet, Rudy is at pains to say the president wasn’t there. Giuliani is clearly implying that the meeting did occur. Otherwise, there would be no need to stress that then-Candidate Trump wasn’t there. 

A few hours later, realizing he’s shat the bed on TV, Rudy calls Fox News and tries to explain his explanation. This time he gets Harris Faulkner on the phone. Oh, no, he tells her, he wasn’t unclear. He has been saying all along that there was no collusion. But if there was (and there wasn’t), it won’t matter. 

Because collusion is no crime!

 

How does Old Horndog know? He has been looking through the federal statutes just to be sure. 

For once, Giuliani gets his facts straight. If “collusion” is no crime, however, “fraud” and “conspiracy” are. The Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus gives this definition first, for the word “collude:” “come to an understanding or conspire together, esp. for a fraudulent purpose.” 

If we go to “conspiracy,” the Oxford Dictionary has this: “a secret plan to commit a crime or do harm, often for political ends; a plot.” 

One of the synonyms listed: “collusion.” 

Rudy insists no such meeting – as he says Cohen was about to allege occurred on June 6  – ever occurred. He tells Ms. Faulkner, who is clearly baffled by Rudy’s verbal dance, that he contacted the lawyers of four of the six men supposedly involved. All said the story, if it does come out, would be untrue. 

(Lawyers always claim their clients are innocent up to the moment juries decide they’re not, and often long after.)

 

Old Horndog goes on to say that the Mueller probe is not entitled to ask his client, the President of the United States, any questions about “obstruction of justice.” Why not? Rudy insists that the U.S. Constitution gives any president the right to remove the head of the F.B.I. 

Again, that’s true. 

The Constitution does not give a president or any other member of the federal government the right to act in such a way as to thwart an investigation into possible criminal behavior in which they are subject.