Impeachment proceedings against Trump

As Mueller begins investigating Russia’s interference in last year’s election and its possible links to Donald Trump’s campaign, he is quietly recruiting lawyers and staff to the team. And in recent days, Trump associates have stepped up criticism of Mueller and his team—including a report, quickly rejected by the White House, that Trump is considering firing Mueller before he even gets started.

Tuesday morning on Good Morning America, Newt Gingrich blasted Mueller and his still-forming team. “These are bad people,” Newt Gingrich told George Stephanopoulos. “I’m very dubious of the team.”

But that criticism flies in the face of widespread, bipartisan acclaim for the team. In fact, just a day earlier, on the same program, former Whitewater prosecutor Ken Starr praised Mueller at length. “I don’t think there’s a legitimate concern about Bob Mueller,” Starr said, explaining that the former FBI director was “honest as the day is long.”

From the list of hires, it’s clear, in fact, that Mueller is recruiting perhaps the most high-powered and experienced team of investigators ever assembled by the Justice Department.

Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller’s decision to personally go after Trump for possible criminal acts and obstruction of justice has marked a turning point in the Russia collusion investigation, which until recently has only focused on Russia’s meddling into the 2016 presidential election.

Now – Mueller has issued subpoenas of President Trump’s personal bank accounts, along with his phone records. Since it’s an official court order, refusal to comply can result in contempt of court charge, punishable by jail, a fine, or both.

The move is expected to put Trump’s personal finances under a microscope. So far, Trump has been the only president in recent history to refuse to divulge his tax returns.

Aides close to the president indicated he’s “furious,” and is threatening to fire Mueller. Trump doesn’t believe Mueller is conducting an impartial investigation of him and accused Mueller of conducting a “witch hunt.” Everyone close to the president is strongly advising against the move, and say that it would prompt a “nuclear bomb” to go off in Washington, making Trump’s impeachment for obstruction of justice that much more likely.

Trump is preparing his base not to believe whatever's coming. Fine. He can keep 30%. The rest of us know he's a traitorous scumbag.

Of those from whom little is expected, much is forgiven. And of those from whom much is expected, little is forgiven. Such are the standards by which Donald Trump’s deliberate assaults on the news media need to be understood and feared.

CNN’s sin is to have published a story, based on anonymous sourcing, which alleged that New York financier and Trump ally Anthony Scaramucci had ties to a Russian investment fund supposedly under investigation by the Senate.

The story failed to undergo CNN’s usual vetting procedures and was later retracted. For good measure, the three journalists behind the story resigned and the network apologized to Scaramucci, who was gracious in accepting it.

As for this White House, graciousness becomes it about as well as napalm becomes an igloo. Yet before dismissing Trump’s rants as evidence of his mental state, it’s worth taking them seriously as proof of political acumen. On Monday, Gallup released its latest annual survey on confidence in institutions: It found that confidence in the presidency had fallen since last summer, to 32 percent from 36 percent.

That may be bad news for Trump, but it compares well against the 24 percent confidence level in TV news and 27 percent newspapers (though both are a bit up over a year ago). Among Republicans, just 14 percent of respondents had confidence in TV news, and just 12 percent in newspapers, but 60 percent had confidence in the presidency.

If nothing else, Trump has the bully’s cunning to pick on a target more unpopular than he is.

The lawyer gave Donald Trump a note, written in Trump’s own handwriting. He asked Trump to read it aloud.

Trump may not have realized it yet, but he had walked into a trap.

For the first of many times that day, Trump was about to be caught saying something that wasn’t true.

Trump had brought it on himself. He had sued a reporter, accusing him of being reckless and dishonest in a book that raised questions about Trump’s net worth. The reporter’s attorneys turned the tables and brought Trump in for a deposition.

For two straight days, they asked Trump question after question that touched on the same theme: Trump’s honesty.

The lawyers confronted the mogul with his past statements — and with his company’s internal documents, which often showed those statements had been incorrect or invented. The lawyers were relentless. Trump, the bigger-than-life mogul, was vulnerable — cornered, out-prepared and under oath.

Thirty times, they caught him.

As a federal prosecutor in the 1990s, Andrew Weissmann persuaded mobsters to break the Mafia code and testify against their brothers in crime, winning a conviction against Genovese family boss Vincent “the Chin” Gigante.

Later, as he headed the Justice Department’s Enron task force, his ability to persuade key witnesses to testify about what they saw on the inside helped secure a series of convictions.

Ten of the 12 lawyers on Mr. Mueller’s team have been revealed... analysts say the team is full of legal stars, including Mr. Weissmann, who have the skills and experience to handle the investigation fairly — wherever it leads.

They include a former Watergate prosecutor, an experienced Supreme Court litigator, a former FBI counterterrorism agent, a prosecutor with experience in organized crime cases and the head of the Justice Department’s public corruption unit in Manhattan.