Robert Mueller’s smoking gun
Donald Trump is on borrowed time. While smoking gun evidence of his crimes remain out of public view, you know it exists. Whether we are talking about foreign intelligence intercepts, electronic wire transfers, or emails and encrypted apps, Special Counsel Robert Mueller is sitting on information that proves Trump’s guilt.
While the wait seems interminable and Trump works to undermine the investigation, Mueller quietly and methodically prepares for the dramatic moment when his investigation is completed. That is a wise approach. Prematurely releasing damaging materials about Trump will lead to a constitutional crisis. Trump is not going down without a fight, so firings and blanket pardons would become inevitable as a last-ditch effort to stop the floodgate of incriminating details being made public (even though those pardons would likely fail and backfire). Mueller is playing a justice system game of poker with Trump. He wants to put all his cards on the table at once to ensure he wins.
When Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein receives Mueller’s final report, we could have a replay of what happened with President Richard Nixon. The transcripts of his secret Oval Office recordings were released on August 5, 1974. They proved Nixon ordered White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman to halt the FBI’s Watergate investigation, thus proving his obstruction of justice. The smoking gun revelation made Republican Congressional support collapse and three days later the President resigned.
Trump is in a more powerful position than Nixon. Congressional Republicans are craven cowards who fear their political careers will end if they even say a discouraging word about the Donald Trump. Many Republican voters worship Trump like cult followers who believe his lies, which are echoed by conservative media. Therefore, you can only break that stranglehold with irrefutable evidence about what happened before the election.
J.H. Norton is a communications professional, life-long Democrat, and married father of two boys living in Washington, D.C.