All of this noise works great for deflection. If there wasn't so much noise about this investigation, and all the blatantly terrible shit he says and does that makes decent people so (rightly) furious, then we'd all have more time to focus on his subpar performance -- how he hasn't accelerated economic growth like he promised, how he's only made health care worse, how he hasn't built the stupid wall he promised, how he hasn't made any of the international "deals" that he claimed he was uniquely capable of making, and how he's replaced real historic ones (the Iran nuclear deal, TPP) with vacuous gestures (the NK summit, vague statements about reducing tariffs right after he caused everyone to raise them).

I click on pretty much every story I see about the Mueller investigation, and I laugh at Rudy's antics just like everyone else. But Trump's part in all this really could just be trolling. Homer Simpson's phrase "stupider like a fox" comes to mind every time I hear Rudy say something blatantly false and supposedly damaging to Trump's case.


As for whether a President could be indicted, it's true that there's a lot of reasonable debate, but I'd agree with the common view that this Justice Department probably won't. It's been semi-official J.D. policy since the Clinton years that they can't, and Rosenstein has shown no signs that he would revise that guidance (and Sessions obviously won't).

James Comey broke from long-standing Justice Department guidance with all those vague announcements about the Clinton investigation. So obviously none of this is set in stone. But we all saw how well it went for Comey to break with that guidance, in the end.

I did find it interesting to learn that everyone's current favorite "founding father", Alexander Hamilton, explicitly said that you have to wait until the president is out of office (either by removal or end of term). In the 69th Federalist paper (not a legal document, obviously), he said presidents "would be liable to be impeached, tried, and, upon conviction of treason, bribery, or other high crimes or misdemeanors, removed from office; and would afterwards be liable to prosecution and punishment in the ordinary course of law.” The "ordinary course of law" only comes in after the president is out of office. (To be clear, we give way too much deference to the Founding Fathers in this country. It's silly. But this shit comes up when you try to interpret the Constitution.)


I see the Mueller investigation as just an effort to compile a summary report. *If* that document is ever even released (and it's very possible that it wouldn't be -- again that's the standard policy) then it helps us vote him out of office in 2020. That's the only scenario I see that isn't hopelessly complicated. The good news is: then, a real indictment comes in 2021.