Wrap It Up, Mr. Mueller Democratic dilemma: Impeach Trump for lying about sex? By The Editorial Board Dec. 9, 2018 6:35 p.m. ET Last week was supposed to be earth-shaking in Robert Mueller’s special counsel probe, with the release of sentencing memos on three former members of the Trump universe—Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen. Yet Americans learned little new and nothing decisive about the allegations of Russia-Trump collusion that triggered this long investigation. The main Russia-related news is the disclosure, in Mr. Mueller’s memo on Mr. Cohen, of a previously unknown attempt by an unidentified Russian to reach out to the Trump presidential campaign. “In or around November 2015, Cohen received the contact information for, and spoke with, a Russian national who claimed to be a ‘trusted person’ in the Russian Federation who could offer the campaign ‘political synergy’ and ‘synergy on a government level,’” the memo says. The Russian also offered the possibility of a meeting between Mr. Trump and Vladimir Putin. Alas for conspiracy hopefuls, Mr. Cohen “did not follow up on this invitation,” the memo says, because Mr. Cohen says he was already talking to other Russians about a Trump Tower hotel project that has been previously disclosed. Mr. Trump has said he shut down that hotel negotiation in 2016 because he was running for President. So a Russian wanted to insinuate himself into the Trump orbit but nothing happened. Why drop this into a sentencing memo? The press is breathing heavily that it signals Mr. Mueller’s intention to promote a narrative that the Trumpians were all too willing, for commercial and political reasons, to hear Russian solicitations. This would make Trump officials look dumb or naive, as Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner were when they took that famous meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016. Such a narrative would be politically embarrassing, but it’s not conspiring to hack and release the email of Democratic Party officials. The Manafort memo is even less revealing. The memo says Mr. Manafort lied about his contacts with a Ukrainian business partner, Konstantin Kilimnik. But the memo redacts the details about those lies, so it’s impossible to know if they concern Russia or the tax and other violations that Mr. Manafort has pleaded guilty to. We are left again with media speculation about what else Mr. Mueller knows, not with evidence of any attempt to steal an election. More legally troubling is the separate sentencing memo on Mr. Cohen from the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Mr. Mueller handed off the probe into Mr. Cohen’s business practices, including the legal grifter’s payoffs to porn actress Stormy Daniels and another woman who claim to have had affairs with Donald Trump and threatened to go public during the 2016 campaign. This was another example of dumb and dumber, since any sentient voter knew Mr. Trump had a bad history with women. Voters ignored it in 2016 because Hillary Clinton spent years apologizing for worse behavior by her husband. But the payoffs are now a political problem for Mr. Trump because Mr. Cohen has pleaded guilty to violating campaign-finance laws and implicated Mr. Trump. Campaign violations are often treated as civil, not criminal, violations, and the Justice Department dropped criminal charges against Democrat John Edwards in 2012 for payments made by campaign donors to his mistress. But acting U.S. Attorney Robert Khuzami is playing up Mr. Trump’s role, saying in the memo that Mr. Cohen “acted in coordination with and at the direction of Individual-1” (Mr. Trump). The memo waxes on about the importance of campaign-finance law to American democracy, which suggests Mr. Khuzami would indict Mr. Trump if he could. Justice Department guidelines advise against indicting a sitting President, so Mr. Khuzami’s memo looks more like a road map for House Democrats. So much for all the media handwringing that Mr. Trump has interfered with the independence of the Justice Department. He has less influence at Justice than any President since Richard Nixon in his final days. The political dilemma for Democrats is that lying about sex and paying to cover it up are wrong, but they’re a long way from collaborating with the Kremlin to beat Mrs. Clinton. Mr. Trump lied to the public about his dealings with Mr. Cohen. Bill Clinton lied to the public and under oath in a legal proceeding, yet Democrats defended him. Good luck trying to impeach Mr. Trump for campaign-finance violations. All of this argues for Mr. Mueller to wrap up his probe and let America get on with the political debate over its meaning for Mr. Trump’s Presidency. Mr. Mueller has been investigating for 19 months, and the FBI’s counterintelligence probe into the Trump campaign began in July 2016, if not earlier. The country deserves an account of what Mr. Mueller knows, not more factual dribs and drabs in sentencing memos. https://www.wsj.com/articles/wrap-it-up-mr-mueller-1544398545
Don't look for anything until Jan. when the new congress shows up and starts the 2020 campaign season. Don't expect anything of substance criminally, just the petty political "crimes" that every single politician engages in. We'll see how well orange man bad does as a platform for dems to run on.
I would urge you to look at the 2018 County or District voting map by party. If this was the 2020 presidential election based on Electoral votes... Trump would win. https://www.270towin.com/2018-house-election/
Dont forge that a lot of that red space is cattle, lakes, mountains and most importantly...no people. The election map gives a distorted view for both GOP and Dems. For example take Virginia, with a small sliver of blue in that sea of red. Well the population of the blue there is maybe hundreds of thousands bigger than the rest of the red portions. Los Angeles alone has more people than those square northern states combined. The key for 2020 is who is going to maintain the lead in the southern cities and mid west.
He won the EC by 80,000 votes in 3 states.I suggest you look at the 2018 map.Not only did democrats win by 8.6 million votes,a popular vote margin that is practically impossible for The EC to overcome and democrats won The EC deciding states big. In PA Dems took the Senate and Governors races. In MI Dems took the Senate and Governors races. In WI Dems took the Senate and Governors races. Democrats won the senate races in Pennsylvania,Wisconsin,Michigan,Navada,Virginia ,Minnesota ,Arizona and Ohio,the states that will decide 2020. Democrats came within 2.5 points in Texas after Bush and Hutchinson won it by 23 and 25,Romney and Cruz by 16 than Trump by 9.Considering how fast the margins have been dropping in Texas it might be ready to go blue as early as 2020. Ex felons will be allowed to vote in Florida in 2020.After that passed in Virginia Ralph Northem won the governorship by 9 points,which was four points higher than Obama and Hillary and Kaine won the 2018 senate race by 15 points.Dont know the difference it will make in Florida but it will make a positive difference for democrats who lost both statewide races by less than half a point and less than 40,000 votes.
Republicans need to be reviewing between now and 2020 the voting rolls and having dead people and illegals (foreigners) purged from the voting rolls in all the 50 states. Democrats in California managed to sweep out of power all Republican Congressmen from overwhelmingly, Republican areas of Orange County with late absentee and provisional ballots. Remember absentee ballots are submitted weeks ahead of the midterm elections so, how could there be late absentee ballots? Also, you have to submit your absentee ballots by a certain date to be valid! Republicans in California are asleep at the wheel when they do not even bother to check the voting rolls and compare the total registered voters with the actual votes cast? If the actual votes cast is more, you have outright fraud! It should always be less than the registered voters. Chances are good, ballot stuffing happened too! Didn't anyone notice a pattern in the disputed elections which Republicans won in Ohio, Utah, Nevada and Florida that the Democrat election officials kept finding new ballots to count? Eventually, Democrats found enough votes to win in Utah and Nevada. Came close to doing the same in Florida. What are the odds of that happening? Too suspicious on multiple levels! Do not wait till 2020 but, start investigating election fraud now!
Election fraud is now rampant in the US. Common sense would tell one that. We are very close right now to losing the country forever. All we have standing between us now and this loss is Donald Trump, a few conservative senators and a slightly traditional leaning Supreme Court. God , help us.