End of the road?
It was revealed this week that Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort had lied to federal prosecutors and thus voided a plea deal he had with Mueller's team. This means instead of serving in the neighborhood of ten years in prison, he might be in prison for the rest of his life. Paul Manafort has an interesting history. He has worked for several republican campaigns, lobbying for strongmen and dictators and even working for the former Ukrainian president, Victor Yanukovych.
A day later, it was revealed that Manafort's lawyers briefed Trump's counterparts on what Manafort was talking to Mueller about. A week ago Trump answered Mueller's written questions with his team of attorneys. Mueller probably knew for a while that Manafort was lying to him. He might have waited for Trump to make false statements in the questionnaire with what Manafort told him he was telling Mueller.
If Trump did provably lie to Mueller, that would amount to perjury. Whether this is enough for impeachment is a different matter. The delicate game of politics in Washington is where you need to look to for that answer. Are republicans still loyal enough to Trump that impeaching him, even with overwhelming evidence of crimes committed, would hurt republican politicians.
The problem is that Trump has been let to break any and all conventions of "good conduct" and has gotten away with almost any kind of shady action. Pathological lying, unprecedented nepotism, refusing to implement sanctions on Russia for months on end and a litany of conflicts of interest with his business interests. Trump is the perfect example of why rules need to be written down. Eventually someone who doesn't care about conventions will show up.
Conclusion
I'm very curious of what will happen with the Mueller probe in the end. Will it be enough to bring down Trump? I think Trump has done a myriad of crimes during his years in business and there should be enough evidence to put him in jail. This is not a matter of legality anymore though, just a matter of politics. Impeaching a president is a political question.
Other things that happened:
Trumps government releases devastating report on climate change. Trump: "I don't believe it."
Russia captured some Ukrainian ships. Ukrainian soldiers record a "confession" video.
Trump deregulates lettuce farming. Lettuce related E. coli outbreak. I wonder why regulations exist?
Thanks for reading.
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