Things aren’t looking so good for Trump’s little Kushball right now:
WashPo reports:
-person of interest is a "WH official"
– 3 officials had confirmed Russia contact
– 1 of them works at WH, Jared Kushner
— Ari Melber (@AriMelber) May 19, 2017
Nothing suspicious about this:
Within hours of Mueller’s appointment on Wednesday, the White House began reviewing the Code of Federal Regulations, which restricts newly hired government lawyers from investigating their prior law firm’s clients for one year after their hiring, the sources said.
An executive order signed by Trump in January extended that period to two years.
Mueller’s former law firm, WilmerHale, represents Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who met with a Russian bank executive in December, and the president’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, who is a subject of a federal investigation.
I like Jared the best of Trump’s entourage. I like the skinny ties, I like the fact he never speaks on camera. Tough to see Trump letting the kid do hard time, so I guess he’ll be around for a while.
lahke
Can’t stand Kushner’s clothes–I know the too-tight suit is all trendy, but it makes him look like Pee Wee Herman.
Actually, maybe that’s why he doesn’t talk…..
Villago Delenda Est
I want this vile shit to rot forever in a dank cell.
Bailey
Well, that’s probably the best strategy they have at this point. I don’t blame them for trying.
Omnes Omnibus
@Bailey: Trying to be a non-troll?
hovercraft
One of the million lawyers/ former federal prosecutors on TV tonight pointed out that not issuing a waiver which is what’s normally done in cases like this, would be a huge mistake. Firing Comey got them, Mueller, forcing the Mueller issue, i.e. his having worked at a law firm that represented Kushner, would just get him two Special Counselors, one for Jared and Mueller.
marcion
Is J Kush really an “official”, though? What’s his job title?
efgoldman
Easy peasy: Mueller hires a lawyer with no connection to his firm, and gives him the Kushkie investigation to run.
dmsilev
Mueller’s bringing in a team with him, isn’t he? If he doesn’t want to respond with whatever the lawyerly equivalent of a raised middle finger might be in this context, the obvious counter would be to publicly state that any and all investigations of Jared Kushner will be carried out by $OTHER_LAWYER, oh and by the way thank you for mentioning that Mr. Kushner would be a potentially fruitful subject of investigation.
efgoldman
@marcion:
First assistant son in law toady.
Bailey
@Omnes Omnibus:
Trying to be a non-ass?
Adam L Silverman
@hovercraft: Correct. If they try to use this to end run Mueller, it is going to get uglier real fast.
JCJ
@Omnes Omnibus:
Did your JD enjoy the drink you bought for it?
piratedan
well.. if Mueller can’t touch Jared, perhaps the Senate can… I hold out hope that we’ll find out wtf happened, but suspect I’ll be outraged about just how deep and heinous it all turns out to be
hovercraft
@marcion:
Senior Advisor to the President, Lucretia is only an Advisor to the President.
Another Scott
@marcion: He’s “Senior Advisor” to the President.
(spit)
Cheers,
Scott.
efgoldman
@Bailey:
You trolled this blog for many hours not so many nights ago. Can you blame anybody for not taking you seriously?
Omnes Omnibus
@JCJ: Well, I hope so, but i wouldn’t intrude into its privacy to ask.
Bailey
@efgoldman:
Yes. I can.
hovercraft
@Adam L Silverman:
Okay we need to stop talking about it, quick tweet at him that he should get Mueller bumped off of the person close to the president, tell him that’s the way to go, protect Javanka.
dmsilev
Another fun question to ask, which is a perennial one these days, is who leaked this and why? Was it leaked by someone who thought it was a really stupid idea and that the only way to have any hope of getting that through to Trump was by having it plastered on CNN with a bunch of talking heads calling it a stupid idea?
Adam L Silverman
@dmsilev: Think of the leaks as PSYOPS. They’re intended to increase stress. They’re intended to turn everyone against everyone because no one knows who they can trust. They’re intended to increase pressure on anyone and everyone involved. Scared people make mistakes. These people were sloppy to begin with. This will all make them sloppier.
Calouste
@Bailey: Getting bored in the Embassy Hotel, Julian?
Mike in NC
Kush is the epitome of a sniveling douchebag. On taxpayer payroll.
Mnemosyne
Man, am I enjoying the vision of Kushner trapped on an aluminum tube hurtling through the sky with an enraged Trump with about, what, another 8 hours to go?
kbuttle
Nah, Trump’ll throw Kushner under the bus. Partly to protect himself, partly because he’s empty inside, and partly because he half respects but half loathes Kushner for fking Ivanka.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Oh, crap, I forgot to go back and reply to him for the umpteenth time, and now he’s jumped the baby gate.
I tell you guys that I engage the trolls for you, to keep them busy while the adults talk, but does anyone believe me? No. And now we have a jumper.
janelle
@Mnemosyne: About three hours before they touch down in Riyadh. But it still would have been fun to be a fly on the fuselage for the 12+ hours they were stuck in that plane together.
hovercraft
@Adam L Silverman:
I almost feel sorry for them, this is the gang who couldn’t shoot straight going up against MENSA.
Mnemosyne
@janelle:
I really, really hope someone dropped the news that Jared’s under investigation right before they sealed the door for takeoff.
efgoldman
@hovercraft:
I’d hate to be some poor E-5 tasked with cleaning up the blood.
Bailey
@kbuttle:
Jared will get thrown under the bus but mostly because Trump is categorically and psychologically unable to respond in any other way. When it came down to it, I doubt he’d put too much of a fight over his own kids if his hide were in danger.
feebog
I still can’t figure out how these morons thought they would get away with this shit. They didn’t just leave a trail of breadcrumbs, more like hundreds of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. No doubt in my mind this was about funneling money from Russian sources into the Trump campaign and various supportive dark money PACs. And in the end there will still be 27% of our citizens saying, but Clinton visited Lynch at an airport!
Mnemosyne
@feebog:
QFT.
hovercraft
@efgoldman:
The only thing they have going for them is that I don’t think he’s the type to go back to the pool to shoot the breeze with the press. Can you imagine if he went back, oh my, it would be something to behold. You just know he’s watching cable right now and his BP is going higher and higher.
MikeEss
Jared K is the most Damien Thorne character in that goddamed White House…shave his head and I bet you’d find the proverbial 666 of the Antichrist. No sympathy for any of them…
??? Martin
@Adam L Silverman: I accept that for some of this, but does that explain the leaks from within the WH? That’s usually people CYA to make sure blame doesn’t land on them, but it could also be people whistleblowing.
Adam L Silverman
@hovercraft: PSYOPS: Because physical wounds heal…
Aleta
Even if not investigate-able now, he could be indicted for crimes, such as international money laundering in NYS, and lose his clearance.
It would be a strange fate for his family if the feds asked him to willingly testify against (someone who can implicate) Trump in exchange for a plea and for keeping Ivan. out of it.
Or perhaps making him a person of interest is a warning that they might bring a case in a year or two, a threat that might convince him to cooperate instead.
To me he looks hard hearted and immoral, and overconfident enough to be unable to weigh his risks accurately. He looks like his reasoning power is weaker than his greed, and habituated to getting by on bravado. Though maybe fear of jail time and the effect on his kids will have the most power over him.
But then again, he’s probably got great lawyers.
I don’t think it’s certain that The Family members will be indicted though. At the least they will have to turn some of the loot over to lawyers and, I hope, to the IRS.
Mnemosyne
@feebog:
Also, too, I think everyone is right and they never thought that Trump would win. They assumed that we would have a damaged President Clinton with a Republican Congress that would immediately start investigating her.
I still say that the hidden factor no one talks about here is that Karl Rove planned exactly this result for 2012. That’s why he had his famous Fox News meltdown when Wisconsin came back for Obama, not Romney. So Rove went back to his evil drawing board and tightened up all of the voter suppression so he could be sure that Jeb Bush would win against Hillary in 2016.
And then Jeb flamed out early, and every other Republican flamed out, and now Trump was the nominee, but it was too late to dismantle the dead-man switch that Rove had so carefully set over the past 4 years and look out, everyone, she’s gonna blow! as the mine car races faster and faster towards the dynamite.
One of my favorite authors is Lois McMaster Bujold, and one of her villains is particularly creepy and evil because, as the hero figures out in time, the doom the villain has planned for you will be simple and elegant and you will do it to yourself.
That’s exactly what happened here. Rove set up a boobytrap, and caught the wrong nominee with it.
MikeEss
@feebog: They think their money is proof they are superior, so superior that they are not bound by laws that affect ordinary folks. I really hope they get nailed to the wall…
Adam L Silverman
@??? Martin: The internal leaks from the White House are attempts to curry favor, push pet ideas via cable news and social media, and settle scores.
hovercraft
@feebog: @Mnemosyne:
A pollster broke it down the other day, registered republicans are about 32-33% of voters, so when you consider that Nixon and Shrub even at their worst still maintained an approval rating in the high seventies or low eighties within the party, so when you translate that as a percentage of the total voters you get somewhere around 27%. I don’t think I explained it very well, sorry, I’ll try to find it tomorrow.
Chet Murthy
@Bailey: AHAHAHAHAHAHA! Nice try!
??? Martin
@feebog: Because Trump has no grand strategy. He’s just a bumbling idiot that has enough money and fame to get into the office. Attached to that idiot are a whole slew of others that range from idiot to evil villain because they saw their chance for greatness. There was no super awesome plan, just an electorate too aggrieved to give a shit if they wound up living under an overpass so long as… you know the rest.
efgoldman
@hovercraft:
Is the press even on the plane?
hovercraft
@Adam L Silverman:
Oy vey! Twitler has still not recovered from the mental/emotional wounds he got in childhood, perhaps we should tell them to easy on him/them, not!
mapaghimagsik
Please don’t feed the non-trolls.
Wait, what? Oh fuck ya all for confusing me.
Morzer
@Mnemosyne:
I kinda like the idea of sentencing them to share a two-person bicycle for all eternity.
hovercraft
@efgoldman:
Yes the pool is with him, the rest of the WHC are on a separate press plane. I don’t think he could have kept them off the plane, it’s the people’s plane.
fixed
Percysowner
I have zero problem picturing Trump letting Jared rot in jail, as long as it keep Trump out. Especially with Bannon whispering that Jared is a Jew and Ivanka only converted, so she can convert back and be “pure” again.
Morzer
@Adam L Silverman:
Not if you do the impaling properly.
Aleta
@hovercraft: I assume they’ve been trusting that their lawyers are smarter than the government ones for years, and that they don’t have to be that smart, just obedient. Too bad Trump is blurting like a loose garden hose. I hope he’s driving their lawyers bananas.
Aleta
@Percysowner: It would be funny if Ivanka had to play the storybook version of Pocahontas and beg Trump to spare Jared.
efgoldman
@Aleta:
I don’t know about his lawyers, but the crime family has only ever dealt with civil actions, not criminal. It’s a whole different world. Also the prosecutor’s office, unlike the attorney for some subcontractor, has pretty much the same unlimited resources that the crime family’s lawyers do.
Mnemosyne
@hovercraft:
Jesus. Have you ever been stuck at the table at a family Thanksgiving where Grandpa and Uncle Mike start screaming at each other and bringing up every grievance since the day Mike was born?
Now imagine you’re trapped on an airplane with those people, and you have a 16-hour flight still ahead of you.
How many parachutes does Air Force One carry, anyway?
Sab
@Mnemosyne: Glad you are here after I was so annoying in the last thread. I meant well but you meant better.
Morzer
@Mnemosyne:
That’s ok. The smartest president ever just jumped out of the plane with my school-bag.
efgoldman
@Morzer:
If I recall, Bugs Bunny used that dodge multiple times. The maroons always fall for it.
Aleta
@efgoldman: Good point.
But if one believes that they have been money laundering, committing white collar bank crime, making agreements with or borrowing from organizations with Russian mob ties, wouldn’t they be using lawyers whose job is anticipating prosecution and erecting barriers?
efgoldman
@Aleta:
IANAL, but when you’re dealing with actual criminal investigations, the efficacy of those barriers isn’t the same. The prosecutors not only have the power of subpoena (as civil lawyers do) but also the power of search warrants, arrest warrants, putting defendants in custody, confiscation of assets, attachment… all kinds of tools.
How long do you think the delicate snowflakes of the crime family would last after a couple of nights in Riker’s Island, or whatever the federal detention facility is?
hovercraft
@Mnemosyne:
They are not together thank dog. They said there are bedrooms in the nose, then a cabinet room and I guess seats and a oval office, and then there’s a separate cabin for the pool. If they were in the same section, I think there would be a blood bath.
Mnemosyne
@Sab:
It’s okay. I was looking to see if there’s an easy way to cancel, but there isn’t. Worst case scenario, I call and leave a voicemail early tomorrow morning.
But it’s about the Georgian Era! Which is the era my novel is about! And it’s only going to be offered once!
Stupid flu virus.
Mnemosyne
@hovercraft:
This is a guy who bragged on a hot mic that he grabs women by the crotch and they can’t complain because he’s famous. He has very little self-control, and even less when he’s angry.
There’s only so loud that the aides are going to be able to turn up the TVs in the press room to cover the sounds of the screaming match.
Of course, it may just be that I’m enjoying the image of our supine press corps trapped in that awkward situation. Too bad Maggie Haberman couldn’t be with her hero at this special moment. ?
efgoldman
@Mnemosyne:
You’ve been sick long enough that you shouldn’t be contagious any more.
Mnemosyne
@Aleta:
As efgoldman said, I wonder if the usual precautions that gangsters take would be sufficient to hold up to espionage charges. Whole different ballgame.
Mnemosyne
@efgoldman:
It’s that magical time compression that’s making you think that. I just got sick on Wednesday, and I still have a temperature (99.5). My normal temperature is actually 97.9, not 98.6, so it’s a mild fever for me.
ETA: Daycares don’t let the kids back in until their temperature has been normal for 24 hours, which seems sensible to me.
efgoldman
@Mnemosyne:
I still think the immediate family is most likely to get tagged on financial improprieties, rather than any kind of espionage or charges like that. Same with all of the campaign crooks, who have been under the radar lately.
Flynn, Pence, those guys, OTOH? Federal charges for sure. And after Mueller’s office is done with Flynn, the military can call him back to active duty, court martial him, and take away/reduce his rank and pension. Serve the bastard right
patrick II
@feebog:
This can’t be right because the U.S. Supreme Court said that money is the equivalent of speech, that politicians won’t do a quid pro quo for money, and that all of those 501’s would never take foreign money. I even remember Alito shaking his head no when Obama suggested they might.
OGLiberal
I hate Jared as much as I hate Trump but could it end up that Jared, probably more wealthy than Trump, throws FIL under the bus in self preservation, with Ivanka OK with it because dad was a shitty dad? They’re all bad people but I’d rather the autocrat in waiting end up on the losing end than some trust fund fancy lad who wasn’t elected. It’s not like Jared would become president.
Of course, then there’s Pence…
Aleta
@efgoldman: @Mnemosyne: OK, I see. I guess I’m so used to most politicians and most white collar criminals avoiding charges that I’m not expecting time served in the lower class prisons or espionage charges for the top tier of these criminals. Maybe it’s from seeing too many “I don’t recall” “I had no idea” defenses work, when I had believed the politicians and govt contractors were clearly guilty. These characters are cold blooded killers and I don’t want to underestimate them. They make mistakes but so do prosecutors. Also used to seeing the charges that are brought being fewer and less serious than the crimes. But you’ve made me see I should keep an opem mind.
Aleta
@efgoldman: You think Pence, federal charges? I would be so relieved.
SWMBO
@Aleta:
@efgoldman: Jared’s family (and lawyers) have, ahem, experience with criminal law vs. civil law. It didn’t exactly end the way they’d planned tho.
TenguPhule
@Morzer:
I think they should be condemned to read Balloon Juice threads for all eternity without the ability to reply.
Aimai
@Mnemosyne: im a HUGE vorkisigan fan!
chopper
@Mnemosyne:
why do you think he’s a teetotaler? dude has no self-control when he’s sober.
rachel
@Mnemosyne: Ryoval?
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
I’m guessing I’m not the first one to say this, but I think he’s on his own if something begins to stick to him. Czar Manbaby might risk something to help Ivanka or even Mike Flynn (for whatever weird reason), but it’s hard for me to see him sticking his neck out for this guy. He doesn’t care about anybody else. If he thinks throwing Kushner overboard might buy him a little peace of mind, he won’t give it another thought. That’s who he is.
misterpuff
@MikeEss: No, Barron is the Antichrist, and Poppa will be proud. “My Son is the best Antichrist you’ve ever seen!”