Jack - Mueller’s End Game

Episode Date: April 12, 2018

MINI - In this week’s second bonus minisode, we discuss the ways Mueller could wrap up this investigation. Enjoy! 

They might be giants that have been on the road for too long. Too long. And they might be giants aren't even sorry. Not even sorry. And audiences like the shows too much. Too much. And now they might be giants that are playing their breakthrough album, all of it.

And they still have time for other songs. They're fooling around. Who can stop? They might be giants and their liberal rocket gender. Who? No one. This had to stay forward forward somebody else's money. So to be clear, Mr. Trump has no financial relationships

with any Russian oligarchs. That's what he said. That's what I said. That's obviously what our position is. I'm not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign. And I didn't have, not have communications with the Russians. What do I have to get involved with Putin for having nothing to do with Putin?

I've never spoken to him. I don't know anything about a mother than he will respect me. Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. So, it is political. You're a communist! No, Mr. Green. Communism is just a red herring. Like all members of the oldest profession I'm a capitalist. Hello, welcome to Muller She Wrote, Minnesot 1, week 23. I'm A.G. with me as always is Jolissa Johnson. What's up?

And Jordan Coburn. Hello. You guys, the investigation is knocking at the door of the White House. Nice. It's the final countdown. Nice. So, everyone, sorry, I had to play that song. So everyone is asking what Mueller is going to do, right? So in today's mini-show, we're going to talk about the ways Mueller could wrap up this investigation.

As we learned in episode 23, the big episode, Trump is not a target of a criminal investigation, but he is a subject. So one of the reasons Trump is not a target could be because of the 1998 memo in the Department of Justice disallowing, inditing dining a sitting president because it would interfere with the business of running the country, right? So backwards. We're Mueller to follow that DOJ policy and he seems to be a pretty by the book dude. That would mean Trump could never be a target because a target is

someone you intend on. And I think right. Yeah. So that doesn't mean that Mueller has, you know, has insufficient evidence to charge Trump. It might simply mean that Mueller interprets the Constitution to mean that impeachment is the appropriate remedy for any president that, like presidential malfeasance, right? Any shitty president, I'm going to go with, you, you know, I interpret the constitution as to say, impeachment is the way to go. Love it, yeah.

So 28 CFR 600.8 defines Mueller's role. That's a federal statute. And one of the responsibilities of special counsel is to provide the attorney general with a confidential report outlining his findings. Now, the attorney general in this case, obviously his sessions and he's recused. So we're talking. Now the attorney general in this case obviously is sessions and he's recused so we're talking about the deputy attorney general whenever I say the AG I mean I'm

really starting to get you. Yeah you got it. So this report could include a recommendation of impeachment for example. So that's in now 28 CFR 618 goes on to say that Rosenstein must report to the chair and ranking minority member of the Senate and House Judiciary Committee. The Rosenstein could also agree with or reject the findings when he reports to Congress. But he has to. But he has to. He's bound by a lot of report to Congress. Somebody on CNN tonight said,

well, you know, Mueller puts his report together. He gives it to Rosenstein, and it's up to Rosenstein, whether he tells Congress or not. No, I'm telling you right now. By law, he is bound to at least report it to the majority and minority chairs of the House Judiciary, Judiciary, Judiciary Committee. Exactly. And House, for people. Yes, he has to. In the Congress. Yeah, by law. So now we find out why Mueller might be holding back

some of his indictments, right? He is required to write his report to Rosenstein at the end of his investigation and not before. Mueller would not write the final report unless he'd wrapped up every end of his investigation and not before. Mueller would not write the final report unless he'd wrapped up every part of his investigation. And as we know, he's going down every single little road. Absolutely. Right.

But apparently he can file an update and I'll tell you about that in a minute. If Mueller indicted people in Trump's inner circle, like Donald Trump's junior and Kushner, before he submitted his report, he could be subject to being fired, right, or the people he and dides could be pardoned by Trump. They'll be ticked off, yeah. So to avoid that, Mueller could indict and file his final report at the same time. Yes. Right. But Mueller might interpret the rules as stating that he must conclude all of his prosecutorial work before the report is submitted

Meaning they'd all have to be tried and sentenced first, right But a more likely end game is that Mueller would file a quote notification of significant events This is the update. I was telling you about yeah recommending impeachment He could do this like little before the final report. He could just do a little, I'm on a recommended page. Yeah, a little heads up. Yeah, it's like an update before the final one is submitted.

28 CFR 600.8 allows for such an update as long as it falls within the guidelines of an urgent report. I think an impeachment would count. Well, the urgent report is defined as Department of Justice as a law enforcement emergency. Yeah. Or that the national media attention is anticipated. Or if there's a major development.

Like every week in the Trump administration. Or like your guilty of obstruction of justice and colluding with Russia. That second criteria is interesting. The national media attention is anticipated. Yeah. It's interesting that the media has such a legitimate kind of spot in the media.

Well, the media, you know, some people consider the media legitimate. I do appreciate most media. Oh, you know me too, but it's like very outside the federal government. Absolutely. Very interesting point. Well, do you remember how Comey came out ahead of the Clinton email thing? Yeah, exactly. That's probably what he was relying on called an urgent report. And he probably did that whole update under this statute. Yeah. If the populist is going to change

dramatically how they're viewing a situation or their leaders, then. And I'm totally guessing, but that maybe he used that. Yeah, that's a priority. So, a possible endgame is that Mueller submits a confidential recommendation to impeach, meaning Trump would never be a target. So, you know, to Rosenstein, and then continue to finish his investigations into the lesser demons, a metaphor, or DT-ginger, Ivanka, Kushner, all those guys. And then indict them after he makes his impeachment recommendation.

Yeah. Then he could file a full and final report after everyone is in jail. Except Trump, if Mueller opts to not indict him and goes for the impeachment recommendation first. Interesting. I don't know what you guys think. Well, I hope Mueller chooses to interpret the 1998 memo as a guideline. So I want him to pretty much acknowledge that it's been 20 years since this has been a dress and this particular president has done far worse than anyone before him.

So I hope Mueller chooses the former and he wants to indict and file the report at the same time. I know you said it's less likely but that's what I know. No, not when I say indict and file the report same time, I don't mean in indict Trump. Just all his indictments period, right? Like, he's his

Manafort Kushner, Ivanka, the closer though, the lesser demon. That makes sense. So I still hope that he would at least indict them and file the report at the same time, just to catch them off guard. It's like the inner drama queen and me once that. But also, I'm afraid of what Trump will do if he has a heads up.

So I just kind of wanted to be all a surprise. We have, but by then, if he files the impeachment recommendation before he indictites, his kids, then he'll have the heads up before the indictment. Right. So at the same time, I'm thinking that would be better. What do you think? I think personally, he should file the impeachment recommendation as soon as he can and call

it an urgent report. He can't file a final report until everyone's gone to be sentenced. Exactly. But he can file a... That heads up update, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he can say, hey. Yeah, whatever it takes to just give Trump the, just, no advantage, essentially.

Like, I just want to... Right, and by filing the impeachment recommendation before he indites his family members, that's catching Trump off guard. There you go. If you indict his family members before, you file the final report. They already know and help part of them. Yeah, yeah.

You're right. That's what I think. Yeah, that makes sense to me. I don't, unfortunately, for it since Mueller is such a by the books person, I'm not so sure I think he's gonna actually indict Trump. Right. No, that's why I'm thinking he's going to do the early impeachment urgent report recommendation.

Yeah. Then indict everyone and then hope that Congress impeaches exactly Trump. That sounds like the best case scenario. Yeah, that's, that's, well, I mean, for me, that's not best case. No, because even if you would like, you know, because even if you impeach Trump, even if it's after the blue wave, you're not going to remove him from office. Right.

Yeah. I mean, the Romney none comes through. I was going to say that is assuming there's still a party line vote at which point I would hope that after all of his close family members and, you know, depending what's in the impeachment recommendation. Exactly. I would hope there'd be some defectors of your public and party.

Get rid of them. At this point, it's like Trump and his advisors are so beholden to so many other foreign entities. I'd almost think as a GOP member, I could have an equal amount of luck just working with a fucking Democrat on the things I can't about. Absolutely. Right, but we've talked about this before. I have more faith in the Senate than I do in the House.

100% yeah. And the House is the one that needs to impeach. The Senate is the one that removes. So if we wait after the blue wave and then we have a Democratic because we will have plenty in the Congress in the House to impeach, we just have to have nine Republicans flip in the Senate. And I already know for a fact and Not counting the Senators that are Republican senators that are retiring this year, right the ones that are still gonna be around

I know that a couple of them already just hate Trump and Romney's running and Trump, oh, yeah, we need so I almost Know and I just if it boils down the Romney 9'm gonna be like, I coined the phrase Romney 9. What, what? Yeah, it's a good one. All those GOP members that have decided to resign just in the midst of this being a fucking clown house. Yeah. They should have, they should have stayed.

So when the impeachment happened, they could actually make a difference that way. They're cowards. They, right. They aren't gonna win their elections though. Yeah, but they, they would fight for the right cause, but they're cowards. They don't care. No, they are fighting for the right cause now. Yeah. Oh, even the ones that are on the right out. I haven't heard enough. No, what I'm saying is like the people, like the Republicans who are saying, I'm not running again. They are fighting for the right cause. Yeah. But the reason they're

not running again is because they're not going to win. You're right. So if you have them are actually anyway. Yeah. Who are some examples of that? Just top of your head. Like Bob Quarker, Jeff Flake. Yeah, there was a time period where it was like a like just one after the other. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're gonna come back. Well, I hope there's more. Romney9.

I need Republicans who hate Trump to stay. Exactly, that's what I'm saying. Stay in districts where they're gonna win. Yeah, I'm just fine. If you can win, if you can win your election, stay. What's happening is the guys who can't win are bowing down. Yeah, they're not trying to fight. Yeah, fuck this shit.

They can't. They can't win. They're going to lose my life. They're going to lose my life. Tray Gowdy. Yeah. He's not going to win. You're right.

All right, you guys. That's many so'd won. I had a good time. Yeah. Yeah. Got me all riled up. Yeah, it's good. That was a great, that's a great piece to have because so many people

I think lost hope when they saw that article come out and Trump lost it. It was a poorly I I died a lot of hope like a fucking idiot. I personally think it was a poorly presented article and that they didn't say that This is a Republican point of view from a bunch of Republicans within the White House second hand from this and second hand from that yeah and also instead of saying Trump is the subject of an investigation, they said Trump is not a target of investigation. And both of those statements are true, but why do you got to say the one that, I don't know, yeah, no, you're right. There's still a media organization that just wants the most traction they can get on stories

and if they present it like that, they're not. But I like Washington Post. Yeah, oh, I know. They're great. Wapo. Yeah, they're great, like Washington Post. Yeah, oh I know. They're good, WAPO. Yeah, they're great, but still I think also it would be suspect. They're still good. They're still trying to get caught. Exactly, and it'd be suspect for them to present it in a way

that's like, but don't freak out guys, you know, because then it's like, well, we're not trying to get clicks that Muller Shee wrote. We're just trying to get you to give us a dollar, but all of you people hearing this are already giving us at least a dollar. Exactly, thank you. Thank you everyone from the bottom of our hearts.

You're the best. I really appreciate you guys. I've been AG. I've been Julius Johnson. I've been Jordan Coburn. And this is Mullershy Road. Mullershy Road is produced and engineered by AG AG with editing and logo design by Jolissa Johnson. Market consulting by Amanda Reader at Unicorn Creative.

Our digital media director and subscriber manager is Jordan Coburn. Fact checking in research by AG will support from Jolissa Johnson and Jordan Coburn. Muller She wrote is written by AG, Jolissa Johnson, Jordan Coburn, Sara Hirschberger Valencia, and Sara Lee Steiner. Our web design and branding is by Joelle. Start that last part again. 543. Our web design and branding is by Joelle Reader with Moxie Design Studios, and our website is

mullershiwrote.com. Season 4 of How We Win Is Here For the past four years we've been making history in critical elections all over the country. And last year we made history again by expanding our majority in the Senate, eating election denying Republicans and crucial state house races and fighting back a non-existent red wave. But the Magga Republicans who plotted and pardoned the attempted overthrow of our government now control the House. Thanks to gerrymandered maps and repressive anti-voter laws. And the chaotic spectacle we've already seen

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