Will The Shoe Drop Today?

Ken AshfordElection 2018, L'Affaire Russe, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

Mediate:

MSNBC’s Chuck Todd issued a warning to the press on Thursday evening regarding the Russia investigation: Don’t miss work tomorrow.
Todd’s MTP Daily panel was discussing Special Counsel Robert Mueller‘s probe, and speculating as to when the investigation will wrap up.

“Here’s what I’ve learned about Bob Mueller,” Todd said. “Not a single person that has known him, been with him, worked with him, wouldn’t say that he would have ended this investigation if there was no collusion. He would have already ended this investigation.”

“We can’t tell that, though, until he tells us,” Republican strategist Brad Todd said.

The panel went on to debate whether Mueller can make any major announcements in the investigation between Labor Day and the midterm elections. Major developments after Labor Day could be seen as interference in elections (cc: James Comey.)

“I think he knows, more than anything, he keeps quiet between Labor Day and Election Day,” Chuck Todd said.

“I’m not missing work tomorrow,” he continued. “I wouldn’t miss work tomorrow. Tomorrow is the last business day of the pre-Labor Day to Election Day window.”

It is thought that with the upcoming elections, Mueller will not drop any Russia investigation news after Labor Day.  It’s Labor Day weekend starting tomorrow.

I won’t hold my breath. I’m not sure I buy the premise that today is a drop-dead date for Mueller.

In truth, we don’t know yet if Mueller is going to write a report. There’s a good chance that he’s just going to rely on “speaking indictments” to lay out his evidence. But if he does, the Trumpies are preparing an alternate reality for Fox News and other right wing media:

President Donald Trump’s legal team is crafting a “counter-report” that will seek to delegitimize Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election meddling and present countervailing arguments.

Trump’s personal attorney, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, told The Daily Beast in an interview on Thursday that part of his report would examine whether the “initiation of the investigation was…legitimate or not.”

According to Giuliani, the bulk of the report will be divided into two sections. One section will seek to question the legitimacy of the Mueller probe generally by alleging “possible conflicts” of interest by federal law enforcement authorities. The other section will respond to more substantive allegations of Trump campaign collusion with Russian government agents to sway the 2016 election, and obstruction of justice allegations stemming from, among other things, the president’s firing of former FBI director James Comey.

Though this latter section will focus on the meat of Mueller’s investigation, Giuliani acknowledged that he doesn’t actually know what Mueller’s findings will look like, making the act of putting a counter-report together a bit more challenging.

“Since we have to guess what it is, [our report so far] is quite voluminous,” Giuliani said, claiming that he would spend much of this weekend “paring it down” and that he was editing the document created by the “whole team.”

“The first half of it is 58 pages, and second half isn’t done yet…It needs an executive summary if it goes over a hundred,” he added. Giuliani also indicated that most of what’s being put together by him and his Trump-defending colleagues currently can already be found on Google.

Giuliani said that Trump’s legal team had not conducted any original interviews or investigation for their current draft.

Yeah, I’m going to guess there will only be one “witness.” 

I guess he plans on throwing the report together pretty quickly since he doesn’t know what Robert Mueller has but whatevs. He’s just that good. 

Meanwhile….