End of the Beginning for Trump Investigations

It’s not unusual for people to get upset when a District Attorney declines to prosecute someone that many, often including the prosecutor and police, believe is guilty. It’s frustrating and we often want to blame the system. That’s a mistake, we as a nation set a high bar for a guilty verdict and prosecutors don’t often want to waste their limited resources trying a case when they don’t believe they can prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Declining to prosecute is not exoneration; it is an admission that they have been unable to find sufficient evidence to support a guilty verdict. Often that simply means the guilty party has done a good job hiding the evidence or that there is no fingerprint or DNA left at the scene of the crime that provides conclusive proof.

In the case of Trump or a member of his family or campaign leadership possibly conspiring the Russians to influence the 2016 election there’s plenty of suspicious activity but without someone on the inside confessing or providing documentation there is no way to know for sure and certainly no way to prove such a conspiracy in court.

On the topic of Obstruction of Justice Attorney General William Barr’s letter to congress specifically says: “The Special Counsel states that ‘while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.’" This is another case of suspicious activity but not enough concrete evidence to prove guilt. Remember Eliot Ness never proved Al Capone was a gangster or bootlegger or that he’d committed numerous murders. Ness’ teammate Frank Wilson of the Treasury Department proved tax evasion which is why Capone finally went to jail.

There are still half a dozen prosecutions and investigations going on in the US Attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York which specializes in financial crimes and where Donald Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen is cooperating. Some of the investigations that may lead to prosecuting Donald Trump include a pair of campaign-finance violations for hush payments that Cohen says he made to two women at Trump's direction shortly before the 2016 election to keep them from talking about alleged affairs with the then-presidential candidate, as well as the financial irregularities of the Trump Organization and Trump's inaugural committee.

Based on Michael Cohen’s public testimony before congress we already know that Trump overstated the value of various assets in order to get a loan, that’s bank fraud – a felony. He also understated the value of assets when reporting his taxable income, that’s tax evasion – another felony. In fact those two crimes are some of what Paul Manafort and his partner Rick Gates pleaded guilty to have gone to prison for.

It’s been reported that there are as many other investigations ongoing into Trump, the Trump Organization and the Trump campaign in other venues as there are in the Southern District of New York. Then there are the various House committees looking into Trump’s taxes and various other activities, so Mueller handing in his final report isn’t the end, it’s just the end of the beginning.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - March 29. 2019

Kavanaugh Nomination Tainted by Conspiracy with Foreign Adversaries

There are a host of reasons to reject Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court. From the purely partisan point of view there’s the theft of a seat in the last year of President Obama’s second term. From power perspective Kavanaugh has expressed some dangerous ideas such as his belief that a sitting President should be insulated from justice unless dispensed by congress through impeachment. From an issues point of view Kavanaugh’s decisions and dissents in numerous cases in ways that show his deference to corporate power over workers’ rights, religious bigotry over religious diversity, and the use of wealth to achieve political power in order to enhance that wealth.

I could write pages on how Kavanaugh could be one of the very worst possible choices for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court but Kavanaugh’s views and rulings are not the only reasons to object. We should also consider that the man occupying the White House and nominated Kavanaugh has been all but named as an unindicted co-conspirator to felony crimes involving campaign finance violations that have a penalty of 5 years in prison attached. Michael Cohen who infamously organized the payoff of porn star Stormy Daniels testified in open court as he plead guilty to 8 counts that he acted at the instruction of the “candidate”. That means that Cohen not only committed a violation of campaign finance laws he was involved in a conspiracy with Donald Trump to do so.

In addition other Trump associates have been given immunity from prosecution for testimony that at present we can only propose educated guesses given their positions and what we already know about them through leaks. The publisher of the National Enquirer, David Pecker, kept a safe full of documents which tell a tale of Trump’s cover-ups and possibly other illegal acts and he is prepared to testify. The Trump Organization’s Chief Financial Officer, Allen Weisselberg, who served in that capacity for over 20 years has also received immunity from prosecution for his testimony. That makes three of Trump’s closest associates, people who know “where the bodies are buried”, willing to testify against Trump.

Perhaps the most import of all the Cohen revelations is his statement that he witnessed the discussion Donald Trump denies having with his son in advance the meeting with Russian’s to collect dirt they claimed to have on Hillary Clinton. This provides evidence that Trump did indeed conspire with a foreign power against the United States.

Of course Trump hasn’t been convicted, but his legitimacy has definitely been called into question and while it is still too early to talk about impeachment it isn’t too early to put a stop to every judicial nominee’s appointment until such time as all the evidence has been presented and assessed. Most especially no President tainted by dalliances with foreign adversaries should be allowed to place their appointees on the federal bench for their lifetimes. The legitimacy of every single one of the judges he’s already appointed is also tainted.

The allegations against Trump are too significant to allow him to continue to reshape the federal judiciary unless and until the allegations are put to rest after a thorough review of the evidence presented. That won’t happen for months and likely not until after the election and only if his enablers on congress are defeated at the polls in November.

Trump Deepens the Swamp

As if it isn’t enough that within the lifetime of many here today rising temperatures and sea levels will change Texas dramatically now the Trump administration seeks to roll back fuel mileage requirements set to go into effect in the next couple of years. The roll back that Trump appointee Scott Pruitt, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, is pushing will just make matters worse for our children and grandchildren. Pruitt is the former Attorney General of Oklahoma who made a name for himself as the go to guy for oil and gas companies that wanted official help in suing the federal government to relax pollution standards so they could increase profits. Pruitt acted like a lobbyist and put their model letters on official Oklahoma government stationary then signed them in his official capacity as the state’s Attorney General in attempts to effect federal regulatory efforts.

Pruitt sued the Environmental Protection Agency at least 14 times while in office and most of those cases are still in the courts. Unfortunately for our children and grand-children Trump put him in charge of the agency he spent so much times suing and is now using that office to make those lawsuits moot by rolling back the regulations he once sued over. While he’s doing that he’s also making trips around the world on the taxpayers dime to sightsee in places like Rome and Morocco with his own 20 person body guard detail.

Pruitt is now under eleven different investigations for a wide range of financial misdeeds such as having a $43,000 sound proof phone booth built into his office in violation of regulations on how much people in his position are allowed to spend on office renovations. Then there is the investigations into him giving out raises to staffers who were ineligible for them by improperly using funding that belonged to other projects and his lavish travel spending on private planes and use of military aircraft. On top of all that his million dollar 20 member personal body guard detail and questionable security measures which are also under investigation for out of budget spending is all predicated on purported threats of violence but records released through Freedom of Information Act requests show that there were only cases, one of which is someone drew a mustache on a picture of him and another was a threat of violence by a man who has been in prison for years and will continue to be so for years to come.

Pruitt is a lot like Mick Mulvaney, currently director of the Office of Management and Budget, who openly admitted to only listening to those who donated to his campaign. Both continue to serve their corporate and billionaire masters.

While never a Trump appointee long time fixer Michael Cohen seems to be drowning in investigations into sketchy dealing as well. Last week we learned that he’s been billed for back taxes to the tune of $280,000 on his taxi businesses. Earlier this week it was revealed that he’s been collected millions of dollars from the likes of AT&T and drug giant Novartis. That’s on top of the questionable payments from Trump for arranging hush money to porn stars and Playboy playmates.

Candidate Trump claimed he’d be different but when he told Americans he would drain the swamp either he lied or he meant some other swamp.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - May 11, 2018