By now, most of us know that on Sunday morning, Donald Trump went into a typical Twitter meltdown at the prospect that Robert Mueller was about to unseal the first indictments in his investigation of Russia’s effort to hack the election.
But when Paul Manafort and Rick Gates were formally indicted and George Papadoupolos pleaded guilty, Trump’s immediate reaction was surprisingly muted–at least by his standards.
Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2017
….Also, there is NO COLLUSION!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2017
It’s possible that Trump may be doing something very rare for him–taking advice. After all, just minutes after Trump fired off the last part of his rant about the lack of focus on Hillary Clinton’s wrongdoing, the most famous casualty of his mass ouster of U. S. Attorneys warned him to be very careful with what he says and tweets. After all, it could get him in serious legal doo-doo.
Preet Bharara, the former U. S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, is well respected on both sides of the aisle. That’s why it came as a shock when Attorney General Jeff Sessions asked for his resignation just two months after Trump personally asked him to stay on. When Bharara refused, Sessions fired him. He’s been fairly active since then. Most recently, he started a podcast, “Stay Tuned With Preet,” discussing issues of “justice and fairness.”
On Sunday, Bharara stopped by CNN’s “State of the Union” to discuss the pending start of Mueller time–which, as we now know, was a mere 24 hours away. Watch here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSRTeqvIrIw
Bharara told host Jake Tapper that Mueller is going to be keeping a close eye on Trump’s reaction to the indictments. Among other things, he believes Mueller will be watching to see if Trump “talks in a way that could be used against him in the future.”
Specifically, Bharara thinks Mueller will be watching to see if Trump tries to send “some kind of message to the potential defendant or other witnesses”–like a warning to keep quiet and not talk to investigators. To Bharara, that could potentially be enough to rack Trump up for obstruction of justice.
He also believed Mueller could be watching for signs that Trump is sending “a message of reassurance” to his cronies–like whether he might try to pardon anyone connected to the Russia probe. Given Trump’s pardon of former sheriff Joe Arpaio, Bharara believes that Mueller will be watching “very, very closely” for signs that Trump will go that route.
Bharara recalled that Trump’s big mouth has already gotten him in trouble. After Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, he told NBC’s Lester Holt that he did so because of the Russia investigation. Bharara described those comments as potentially “incriminating in connection with an obstruction investigation.”
When Tapper asked Bharara for his take on The Wall Street Journal’s call for Mueller to resign, Bharara mused that it was a “coincidence,” considering that it came just as Mueller was “getting his job done.”
Trump has yelled to anyone who will listen that CNN is fake news. But it’s hard to believe it’s a coincidence that Trump’s reaction was so muted when the indictments were unsealed. Maybe someone gave him a warning roughly along the lines of what Bharara delivered–that Trump could potentially talk or tweet himself into an indictment.
(featured image courtesy David Shankbone, available under a Creative Commons-BY license)
