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Watergate Journalist Suggests Mueller Report Holds Dire News for Trump

Watergate Journalist Suggests Mueller Report Holds Dire News for Trump

Last updated on: January 14, 2019 at 11:26 am by Susan Wright

Watergate Journalist Suggests Mueller Report Holds Dire News for Trump 2019-01-14T11:26:18-05:00 Susan Wright

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We’re going to call this one a theory, right now, because while I’m not opposed to sources being kept secret, for obvious reasons, I’m unsure of how Bernstein got this kind of scoop. Special counsel Robert Mueller has kept a very professional, very tight lid on his work.

The “Bernstein” I’m talking about is Carl Bernstein, the legendary journalist who was one half of the team that busted the Watergate scandal wide open, forcing the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

The veteran reporter appeared on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” on Sunday, in order to discuss the two major reports that dropped over the weekend, in regards to President Trump and the ongoing Russia probe.

The first report was out of The New York Times.

According to that piece, federal law enforcement was so alarmed at Donald Trump’s activities, after the firing of then-FBI Director James Comey, that they opened an investigation to explore the possibility of Trump being an agent of Russia, actively working to damage our nation.

I mean, why wouldn’t they think that?

Comey may have handled the Hillary Clinton email investigation horribly, but he was otherwise respected by his colleagues, and the firing could have happened on the first day of Trump’s presidency.

Instead, Trump waited until May of 2017, after several private meetings with Comey, where the director claims the new president had asked him for his “loyalty,” and also asked him to let Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser, off the hook, as far as his part in the probe into Russian activities during the 2016 election.

Flynn was forced out after only three weeks on the job, when it was discovered he was deceptive about his contacts with Russian officials, as well as lobbying work he was doing for Turkey.

Trump initially wanted to release a letter, regarding Comey’s firing, that mentioned the Russia probe, but was stopped by White House counsel Don McGahn.

The second draft of the letter was put out by Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, with no mention of Russia, and stating that Comey had failed in his duties, surrounding the Clinton investigation.

Perfectly legit reason – keeping in mind that no reason was needed, at all.

It could have been so clean and unremarkable.

Then, of course, Trump was put in front of a camera with NBC News’ Lester Holt, and blew everything up by stating that he fired Comey because of the “Russia thing.”

It was shortly after that that special counsel was appointed.

The second bombshell to drop over the weekend was the report from the Washington Post that revealed that no one knows what has been discussed between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in the five private huddles they’ve engaged in, over the past 2 years.

That would be the meetings we know of.

In fact, according to WaPo’s reporting, Trump has gone out of his way to assure that no one knows what they talked about, to the point of confiscating notes from translators and instructing them to speak of it to no one, including senior administration members.

That Trump has actively parroted, again and again, the pro-Russia script, as if he were reading from a teleprompter straight out of the Kremlin should really make people uncomfortable, but far too many who think MAGA is an actual, legitimate strategy are content to forget what history tells us is true, and pretend this is ok.

How would a Russian asset act any differently?

According to Carl Bernstein, he has sources with knowledge of what special counsel’s report, possibly coming at the end of February, will contain: President Trump has worked to destabilize the United States, in an effort to support the goals of Vladimir Putin and Russia.

“This is about the most serious counterintelligence people we have in the U.S. government saying, ‘Oh, my God, the president’s words and actions lead us to conclude that somehow he has become a witting, unwitting, or half-witting pawn, certainly in some regards, to Vladimir Putin,’” Bernstein explained during his appearance on Reliable Sources .

“From a point of view of strength… rather, he has done what appears to be Putin’s goals. He has helped Putin destabilize the United States and interfere in the election, no matter whether it was purposeful or not,” the journalist added. He then explained that he knew from his own high-level sources that Mueller’s report would discuss this assessment.

“And that is part of what the draft of Mueller’s report, I’m told, is to be about,” he said. “We know there has been collusion by [former national security adviser Michael] Flynn. We know there has been collusion of some sort by [Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul] Manafort. The question is, yes, what did the president know and when did he know it?”

So what do we know about what Trump has done, besides the secret huddling and parroting the pro-Russia line?

He’s began trade wars that weaken the U.S. economy.

He routinely makes bold, chaotic announcements that cause the markets to plunge.

He’s actively sought to diminish the public trust in the media (and they’ve actually helped, to some extent).

He’s embraced dictators (Putin, Kim, Erdogan, MSB), and alienated our allies.

He’s worked to inflame already heated relations between segments of the U.S. public, making it an “us versus them” situation.

Did I forget anything?

Regardless, Trump has pushed back against the reports, claiming himself to be something he is so obviously not, which would be, tough on Russia.

“I have been FAR tougher on Russia than Obama, Bush or Clinton. Maybe tougher than any other President. At the same time, & as I have often said, getting along with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing. I fully expect that someday we will have good relations with Russia again! [sic],” he wrote on Twitter on Saturday.

So softening the language in the GOP platform towards Russia and their aggressive actions in the region, at the 2016 RNC convention was “tough”?

Fighting against sanctions and refusing to sign those sanctions, approved by the Senate, also tough?

The more recent move by the Trump administration to remove sanctions from a Russian oligarch, who happens to be a pal of Putin’s – also “tough”?

I think maybe the man-baby in the Oval Office has a distorted definition for what “tough” actually means.

Now the question that remains is two-fold.

First of all, how much truth is there to what Bernstein’s sources are saying?

Secondly, how does this ultimately hit Trump, and will anyone in Congress actually take it seriously?

I don’t have the answers, but I know none of this should be a scenario where Americans grow complacent, or remain uninterested in getting to the truth.

And as I have to occasionally remind folks:

Russia is not our friend.

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January 12, 2019

Transparency Fail: Trump Won't Allow Anyone to Know What He and Putin Discuss

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January 14, 2019 AG Nominee William Barr Will Not Stop Mueller's Work

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