What蘑菇视频 a witch hunt?
Since special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation commenced in May 2017, Donald Trump has referred to it as a “witch hunt” more than 125 times on Twitter.
It’s anything but a witch hunt.
There’ve been 33 people and three Russian companies charged with a variety of serious crimes.
Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort (convicted of a number of serious charges, and pleading guilty to other charges), former national security advisor Michael “Lock Her Up” Flynn (lying to the FBI about conversations with a Russian ambassador), former deputy Trump campaign chairman Rick Gates (financial fraud and lying to investigators), Alex van der Zwann (lying to investigators), W. Samuel Patten (failure to register as a foreign agent), Richard Pinedo (identity fraud), Russian Konstantin Kilimnik (obstruction of justice) and former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos (making false statements to the FBI) – all have had cases made thanks to the Mueller investigation.
Now, Trump’s ex-Boy Friday, Michael Cohen, becomes the latest (but certainly not the last) Trump associate heading off to the hoosegow.
Cohen once bragged that he’d take a bullet for Trump.
In the end, he admitted his guilt, while he pointed a mighty critical finger at him.
He’d been caught.
Cohen pleaded guilty to nine counts of tax and bank charges. He also admitted doling out cash to silence two women who had affairs with Trump. Such payments, and especially right before an election, appear to be in clear violations of campaign finance laws.
He’ll begin spending three years in prison in March while he tries to come up with more than a million dollars in fines.
With these convictions and guilty pleas, Trump still doesn’t understand that this is anything but a “witch hunt.”
“Number one, it wasn’t a campaign contribution,” Trump told a reporter from Reuters last week. “It’s only civil, and even if it’s only civil, there was no violation based on what we did. OK? The stuff you’re talking about is peanut stuff.”
Peanut stuff?
Not according to Cohen’s judge before he handed down that three-year prison sentence.
Judge William H. Pauley III claimed that Cohen “pled guilty to a veritable smorgasbord of fraudulent conduct.”
And, more damning as far as the president is concerned, “Each of these crimes is a serious offense against the United States.”
That includes the criminal activity Trump calls “peanut stuff.”
It’s still too early to gauge whether the Trump administration is the most corrupt in American history.
But it is heading in that direction.
Between the rapidly filling court dockets and the constantly revolving doors among the president’s inner circle, we’ve had a doozy of an administration so far.
Last week, it was announced that White House chief of staff John Kelly would be leaving at the end of the year.
That’ll mean Kelly’s replacement will be the third chief of staff in less than TWO years.
Hilariously, Trump ridiculed Barack Obama back in 2012 for having three chiefs of staff in THREE years.
“3 Chief of Staffs in less than 3 years of being President: Part of the reason why @BarackObama can’t manage to pass his agenda,” Trump tweeted.
And Trump’s overall turnover rate far exceeded every recent president’s during his first year in office.
After one year in office (between January 2017 and January 2018), 34 percent of Trump’s high-level White House aides resigned, were fired or they moved into different White House positions, according to a Brookings Institution report.
That’s compared to only a 9 percent rate of change in the Obama administration’s first full year in office.
It could be that some folks don’t really like working for Trump.
At this rate, every man, woman and child in America might get an opportunity to serve in the Trump White House.
Imagine that?
We may all get a chance to bask in the glow of a guy whose glow basking is second to none.
In the meantime, he’ll continue to call a valid investigation a “witch hunt,” as if those people being carted off to jail don’t count.
Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter, and anchor for Entertainment Tonight and 20-year TV news veteran. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.