Hal Brown blog late Feb. 2019
Title : Hal Brown blog late Feb. 2019
Link : Hal Brown blog late Feb. 2019
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This blog contains links to my Capitol Hill Blue columns plus selected news items of the day. Feb. 20, 2019
In progress for CHB later in day
Donald Trump has a reflective defense against charges of wrongdoing, "it's fake news" and when things get too hot he accuses the accusers of being enemies of the people, biased, or corrupt.
Then in the midst of these attacks, his thought process sometimes rerails and the president throws in an unrelated attack against other enemies, for example this tweet was sandwiched between the attacks against the press this morning.
Even during this morning's tweetstorm against the media, Trump demonstrated that he was abusing presidential power to exact revenge against California for leading the state lawsuits against him: "Trump Administration Says It Will Rescind $929 Million In Funds For California High-Speed Rail. The announcement comes one day after California joined a 16-state lawsuit challenging the president’s emergency declaration to fund a border wall. HUFFPOST”
He connected the two in a tweet (top) which was later deleted and replaced with another tweet (bottom).
Considering the evidence against him these diversionary tactics would be either laughable or pathetic if they weren't effective with his brainwashed sycophants who demonstrate the same ability for rational thought as a colony of migrating lemmings.
We expect Trump's White House shills to lie for him when they are forced to respond to the press. As for as those who rely on Fox to get their news this is their website's front page as of 10:30 AM Wednesday morning:
You have to scroll down the sidebar to number eight to find a video about the the most important news of the week: Andrew McCabe believes 'it's possible' President Trump is a Russia asset and number nine a Tucker Calrson interview with Richard Painter ,who is highlycritical of Trump, Former Bush ethics attorney wants President Trump removed from office using the 25th Amendment.
The fact that GOP members of Congress are still backing President Trump has moved into the realm of being accessories after the fact in crimes up to and possibly including treason.
18 U.S. Code § 3 - Accessory after the fact
Whoever, knowing that an offenseagainst the United Stateshas been committed, receives, relieves, comforts or assists the offender in order to hinder or prevent his apprehension, trial or punishment, is an accessory after the fact.
Except as otherwise expressly provided by any Act of Congress, an accessory after the fact shall be imprisoned not more than one-half the maximum term of imprisonment or (notwithstanding section 3571) fined not more than one-half the maximum fine prescribed for the punishment of the principal, or both; or if the principal is punishable by life imprisonment or death, the accessory shall be imprisoned not more than 15 years.
While congressional Republicans can never be literally charged with this crime, as long as they persist in protecting the president they are ethically and morally culpable. Eventually, they will be judged in the court of public opinion and many won't be in office two and four years from now.
Feb. 19, 2019
7 bombshells from the NYT’s devastating report of Trump’s ‘war’ on the investigations into him
In a new in-depth report Monday on Trump’s efforts to intimidate and defame the investigators, the New York Times documented many new and revealing details of this campaign. While some of the information has been made public before, its narrative account gives new life to both familiar and previously unknown facts that may one day provide the basis for an obstruction of justice charge against the president. Here are 7 key claims from the report. Click above to read details.
- 1. Trump pressured Whitaker to install a crony to oversee the SDNY investigation.
- 2. Attorneys for the president dangled pardons to both Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn.
- 3. Even though Michael Flynn resigned voluntarily, Trump pushed the falsehood that he asked for Flynn’s resignation.
- 4. White House lawyers warned about Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s spreading of misinformation.
- 5. Trump claims Rod Rosenstein told him the Michael Cohen investigation had nothing to do with him.
- 6. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and other Trump allies decided in July 2017 to actively undermine Mueller.
- 7. Trump has gone after Mueller and the Russia investigation more than 1,100 times in public.
NOT IN MCCABE BOOK: Former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe said he briefed a bipartisan group of congressional leaders about the FBI’s counterintelligence operation into President Donald Trump in May 2017, and that none of them objected.
“No one objected — not on legal grounds, not on constitutional grounds, and not based on the facts,” he said Tuesday in an interview on NBC’s “Today,” ahead of the release of his book about his time at the FBI under Trump.
MORE:
On CNN Tuesday, national security expert Samantha Vinograd wondered if the investigation is still ongoing and what that could mean for potential Russian interference in US policy.
“Is that investigation still ongoing? McCabe has said that the President’s moves to undercut investigations, to believe Vladimir Putin over his own intelligence officials, to make personnel decisions based on Russia related matters, all led to this investigation,” Vinograd observed.
“McCabe would have laid that out before the Gang of Eight. But just in the past few days, the counterintelligence red flags are flying a lot higher than they did arguably than when this investigation was first launched,” she pointed out.
“And that this investigation is continuing and there is still a chance that Vladimir Putin is controlling the White House.
“Four out of ten Americans are still okay with the lies every day, the racism every day,” Joe Scarborough today.
Feb. 18, 2019
CHB story still highly relevant, now updated with video and transcript link to McCabe "60 Minutes" interview. New comments below.
This is what I added to my Feb. 16th story:
McCabe said Rosenstein raised the idea of using the 25th Amendment to remove Trump out of concern about the president’s “capacity and about his intent at that point in time.”
The key words, above, from a mental health perspective, are “capacity” and from the concern over President Trump’s loyalty, “intent.”
For once I agree with Lindsay Graham (on CBS “Face the Nation”):
Indeed, the very idea that Trump’s psychological impairment might justify removal from office is beyond stunning. That there was evidence being taken seriously by experienced intelligence experts to ponder taking such a step is staggering and mind-boggling.
Then, there’s this:
Trump insisted intelligence reports that North Korea had launched an ICBM were incorrect because Putin had told him that North Korea did not have that capability, the book says, per The Washington Post.
The most innocent explanation of this is that Trump does not have the judgment to think rationally about an issue vital to national security, that he took the word of the leader of a nation which is an adversary over his own intelligence experts. Is it any wonder that those aware of this were considering invoking the 25th Amendment because of mental incapacity?
Jeremy Bash, former chief of staff for the Defense Department and the CIA under Barack Obama told Michelle Wallace on MSNBC today: “Think about this, Putin says to an American president, ’I don’t want you to take seriously the threat of an ICBM from North Korea.’” He said that Putin’s motives would be to “undermine U.S. intelligence. More fundamentally, the Russian Federation has had a long-standing agenda to stop the United States from building national missile defenses because those defenses could defend our territory from Russian ICBMs.” He said that Trump heeding Putin’s advice represents a “very dangerous situation.”
Watch Ivanka Trump sit in stony silence as Germany’s Angela Merkel rips her father’s trade war with Europe
Hal Brown blog late Feb. 2019
Enough news articles Hal Brown blog late Feb. 2019 this time, hopefully can benefit for you all. Well, see you in other article postings.
Hal Brown blog late Feb. 2019
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