Bonkers un- indicted co-conspirator Donald "Rump" Trump had an impromptu news conference this morning on the White House grounds. We didn't do a calibration, but his lie rate was certainly up there with some of his more fantasy- infused efforts.
Looking only at Rump's increasingly desperate attempts to smear the investigation into what Putin has on him, he made statements that one could not imagine coming out of the mouth of a person who was secure in his innocence. Rather, they show a clear consciousness of guilt:
I think that the report yesterday, maybe more importantly than anything, it totally exonerates me. There was no collusion. There was no obstruction. And if you read the report, you’ll see that. [snip]
Now, here’s the good news: I did nothing wrong. There was no collusion. There was no obstruction. The IG report yesterday went a long way to show that. And I think that the Mueller investigation has been totally discredited.At one point, reality intrudes:
Q Thank you, sir. On the IG report, you’ve said twice now that it exonerated you and it proved there’s no collusion. The IG report —
THE PRESIDENT: Look, if you read the IG report, I’ve been totally exonerated. As far as I’m concerned —
Q It had nothing to do with collusion. It had nothing to do with that.Then he dangles the pardon option as subtly as he's capable of:
Q You say that you feel badly. Is there any consideration at any point of a pardon for any of the people that you —
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t want to talk about that. No, I don’t want to talk about that. They’ll (inaudible). But look, I do want to see people treated fairly. That’s what it’s all about.On using pardons to obstruct justice, thing- with- no- filter Rudy "Ghouliani" Giuliani channels Rump's inner voice today:
President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani suggested Friday that Trump could issue pardons for those caught up in the special counsel probe.
Giuliani made the comments to the New York Daily News hours after a judge revoked bail for Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort over alleged witness tampering, sending him to jail pending his trial in September.
“When the whole thing is over, things might get cleaned up with some presidential pardons,” Giuliani told the Daily News.Last night, Ghouliani also suggested a more direct way to obstruct justice:
... Just hours after the report was released, Giuliani went on the attack. “I believe Jeff Sessions and Rod Rosenstein have a chance to redeem themselves, and that chance comes about tomorrow,” he told Hannity. “Tomorrow, Mueller should be suspended and honest people should be brought in, impartial people, to investigate these people like Strzok. Strzok should be in jail by the end of next week.”Yeah. None of that is going to happen, Ghouliani. And, of course, he also knows that's not going to happen. It's merely chum for the knuckle- draggers that watch Fox "News." He's admitted they're going to try to discredit the Mueller investigation so that, when the obstruction of justice report comes out, and the indictments fly on money laundering for Russian oligarchs, etc., the knuckle- draggers will have been fully primed to discount all the evidence, even if there's a video of Rump and Putin in flagrante delicto.
Rump and his Republican cult would see the institutions of American justice and democracy torn down before they'd give up power. Every damn one of them is complicit and needs to go.
In the meantime, we'd like to see Ghouliani get served for obstruction of justice himself.
