Here’s the thing about that newly released “roadmap” for Robert Mueller to take down Donald Trump
In a remarkable fit of timing, yesterday we saw the release of the legendary “roadmap” that would have been used to impeach Richard Nixon if he hadn’t resigned first. The document in question had been under seal for decades, and now it finally reveals how Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski was planning to use a grand jury in combination with Congress to take Nixon down. Funnily enough, yesterday we also saw what appears to be evidence that Mueller has already secretly subpoenaed Trump. What are these odds that these two things are coincidence?
Actually, it’s quite possible. Sometimes these things just happen. Legal experts had long been pushing a lawsuit to get the “roadmap” document unsealed, and it finally happened. You can’t time that kind of thing on purpose, can you? Then there’s yesterday’s analysis from former federal prosecutor Nelson W. Cunningham, who examined clues that had been publicly visible for a week, and concluded that Mueller and Trump may be two months deep into a court battle over a subpoena to testify.
If this is all just a coincidence, it’s a fortuitous one. Just as Mueller appears to be trying to force Trump to testify, Mueller is getting confirmation that there’s a secret but longstanding legal precedent in place for him to impanel a grand jury against Trump and then share the results with a House impeachment effort. And this all comes just a few days before an election that could hand control of the House to the Democrats, who are more than eager to work with Mueller to take Trump down.
This is also a reminder that, at any given time, Robert Mueller tends to be ten steps ahead of where the media and the public think he is. We now know that he’s two months into a crucial court battle to force someone important to testify, and it took us this long to find out about it. And now suddenly a decades-old secret document has been unsealed that just happens to be the biggest gift Mueller could ask for, just when it’s about to become incredibly useful to him. Stay tuned.
