Rantt Rundown: Robert Mueller’s Warning To Donald Trump
Special Counsel Robert Mueller departs the Capitol after a closed-door meeting with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee about Russian meddling in the election and possible connection to the Trump campaign — June 21, 2017 (AP)
Another day. Another string of Trump tweets detached from reality. Another report on Mueller’s moves.
Today, The Washington Post (The Post) dropped a report that signaled Special Counsel Robert Mueller is done playing games:
In a tense meeting in early March with the special counsel, President Trump’s lawyers insisted he had no obligation to talk with federal investigators probing Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.
But special counsel Robert S. Mueller III responded that he had another option if Trump declined: He could issue a subpoena for the president to appear before a grand jury, according to four people familiar with the encounter.
The report went on to clarify who wrote the 49 questions that The New York Times (The Times) reported Special Counsel Robert Mueller is seeking to ask President Trump. The Times reported, “…Mr. Mueller planned to ask, according to questions read by the special counsel investigators to the president’s lawyers, who compiled them into a list. That document was provided to The Times by a person outside Mr. Trump’s legal team.”
According to today’s report from The Post, it appears that wasn’t the case. The Post reported:
After investigators laid out 16 specific subjects they wanted to review with the president and added a few topics within each one, Sekulow broke the queries down into 49 separate questions…
The Post reports that the questions were not not explicitly read to Sekulow as The Times reported, but the general topics were provided, and Sekulow authored the questions himself.
The Post report goes on:
The president and several advisers now plan to point to the list as evidence that Mueller has strayed beyond his mandate and is overreaching, they said.
“He wants to hammer that,” according to a person who spoke to Trump on Monday.
“Mueller is in Kenny Starr territory now.”
President Trump already attempted to spin this development in his favor, not so successfully.
So disgraceful that the questions concerning the Russian Witch Hunt were "leaked" to the media. No questions on Collusion. Oh, I see…you have a made up, phony crime, Collusion, that never existed, and an investigation begun with illegally leaked classified information. Nice!
@realDonaldTrump President Trump: "No questions on Collusion" *checks notes* Robert Mueller has at least 13 (known) questions on collusion.
It would seem very hard to obstruct justice for a crime that never happened! Witch Hunt!
This isn't even true. There can be no underlying crime but still obstruction. https://t.co/hiJFHoYsm3
So, what does this all mean.
Meanwhile…
- When asked about the Republicans in the House Intelligence Committee who drafted articles of impeachment for him, Deputy Attorney General had quite the remark:
Deputy A.G. Rosenstein: "I can tell you that there are people who have been making threats privately and publicly against me for quite some time. And I think they should understand by now the Department of Justice is not going to be extorted." (via CPSAN) https://t.co/bhXVJ4OCd6
- President Trump’s former doctor, Dr. Harold Bornstein, made a stunning claim:
In February 2017, a top White House aide who was Trump’s longtime personal bodyguard, along with the top lawyer at the Trump Organization and a third man, showed up at the office of Trump’s New York doctor without notice and took all the president’s medical records.
The incident, which Dr. Harold Bornstein described as a “raid,” took place two days after Bornstein told a newspaper that he had prescribed a hair growth medicine for the president for years.
In an exclusive interview in his Park Avenue office, Bornstein told NBC News that he felt “raped, frightened and sad” when Keith Schiller and another “large man” came to his office to collect the president’s records on the morning of Feb. 3, 2017. At the time, Schiller, who had long worked as Trump’s bodyguard, was serving as director of Oval Office operations at the White House.
And this may have violated the law:
NBC News legal analyst Danny Cevallos said that patients generally own their medical information, but the original record is the property of the provider. “New York state law requires that a doctor maintain records for at least six years, so a doctor who hands over his original records runs the risk of violating New York state law,” said Cevallos.
@KaciSokoloff just spoke w Dr. Harold Bornstein, who refused an interview but said that NBC's piece was "a pretty good story." Bornstein also said that he spoke to the NBC reporter "in the bathroom" of his office. He signed off with: "Sweetheart, this is watergate, goodbye!
@KaciSokoloff just spoke w Dr. Harold Bornstein, who refused an interview but said that NBC's piece was "a pretty good story." Bornstein also said that he spoke to the NBC reporter "in the bathroom" of his office. He signed off with: "Sweetheart, this is watergate, goodbye!
Of course, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tried to spin it:
WATCH: Sarah Huckabee-Sanders denies that Trump's personal doctor's offices were "raided." "As is standard operating procedure for a new president, the White House medical unit took possession of the president's medical records." https://t.co/Ikp57ItNF3
— @MSNBC
I can confirm this is indeed normal.
Very true. Every time I switch doctors, I send my personal bodyguard and a second large man to forcibly take all my medical records because I have nothing to hide and I'm healthy af. Standard procedure. https://t.co/8cyLopozg2
Bornstein didn’t stop there. Remember the letter of health that Bornstein “wrote” about President Trump?
“If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”
Bornstein said the following of Trump:
“He dictated that whole letter. I didn’t write that letter,” Bornstein told CNN on Tuesday. “I just made it up as I went along.”
- Politico reported on something worth watching:
Read about the Baby Breitbarts, "a growing trend of opaque, locally focused, ideological outlets, dressed up as traditional newspapers… with names and layouts designed to echo those of nonpartisan publications." https://t.co/UM6p6H3j94 The key word is opaque.
- Special Counsel Robert Mueller wants a 2 month delay on former National Security Adviser, current-felon, Michael Flynn’s sentencing:
“Due to the status of the special counsel’s investigation, the parties do not believe that this matter is ready to be scheduled for a sentencing hearing at this time,” Robert Mueller’s prosecutors and Flynn’s lawyers told the DC federal court on Tuesday.
This seems to indicate that Michael Flynn is not done talking.
Russia’s successful interference in the 2016 election — when Moscow hacked both Democrats and Republicans — has spurred fears of a recurrence in 2018. But although congressional Democrats are pledging not to use stolen or hacked materials in their campaigns this fall, their Republican counterparts have so far declined to match that commitment. That partisan split could leave the November elections open to malicious interference.
Vice President Mike Pence’s physician privately raised alarms within the White House last fall that President Donald Trump’s doctor may have violated federal privacy protections for a key patient — Pence’s wife, Karen — and intimidated the vice president’s doctor during angry confrontations over the episode.
The previously unreported incident is the first sign that serious concerns about Ronny Jackson’s conduct had reached the highest levels of the White House as far back as September — months before White House aides furiously defended Jackson’s professionalism, insisted he had been thoroughly vetted and argued allegations of misconduct amounted to unsubstantiated rumors.
- Kanye West disappointed the black community once again, but this time was told a thing or two.
After @kanyewest said that slavery was a "choice," @TMZ's @VanLathan rose to the occasion and said what we've all been thinking https://t.co/VMrSygnKoQ
