[hrothgar]

This weekend (8/3/2018) saw a major new development in the Trump probe.

From my perspective, Trump has just confessed that he is guilty of felony violations of campaign finance regulations as well as obstruction of justice.
Arguably, we just passed over into the realm of a genuine constitutional crisis.

What has changed?

This morning, RealDonaldTrump issued the following tweet:

Quote

Fake News reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my
wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower. This was a meeting to get information on an
opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics - and it went nowhere.
I did not know about it!

This tweet official acknowledges that the expressed purpose of the Trump Tower meeting was to get information about Clinton.
Equally significant, the tweet demonstrates the press statement about the meeting that Trump personally dictated was untruthful.

Quote

The ban on foreign national involvement in federal elections is exceptionally broad. It applies to any spending to affect an election:
The prohibition applies to “contributions,” “expenditures,” “donations,” and “disbursements.” A “contribution” for this purpose
includes any “thing of value.” The rules reach “promises” of such spending whether express or “implied,” and to campaign
spending provided either directly or “indirectly.”

https://www.lawfareb...t-crime-defense

All of this is based simply on public statements that Trump has made.

Its almost certain that

A. Trump himself had foreknowledge of a meeting that included all of his senior advisors and that Trump himself was publicly referencing
B. Mueller has direct evidence of above

[kenberg]

I guess there is a slightly less certain view here of how legally damning this is, but good god. There was this meeting his son had with a Russian representative to discuss adoption except it was really to obtain dirt on Clinton but anyway Trump didn't know about it and besides it wasn't illegal and it's all fake news? Will Sarah Sanders get a raise for repeating this? Whatever this means for legalities, surely it is absolutely obvious to anyone who cares about this country that Mueller is performing a necessary service of historical importance. He is not to be fired, reined in, interfered with, or anything like it. If I am chosen to be on a jury I will do my best to understand the intricacies of the law, but until then I will just say that I can recognize total crap when I see it and this fake news about the totally legal meeting that Trump didn't know about to discuss adoption and/or information from the Russians on Clinton has a serious smell. There has never been anything like this before in my lifetime. Not even close. It's time for Trump to file some sort of bankruptcy proceedings for his presidency. It's over.

[Winstonm]

He at minimum admitted that his son is guilty of conspiracy to violate campaign finance law, a felony. I suspect that Mueller knows much, much more, likely information from foreign intelligence agencies. That this president knew nothing about the purpose of the June 6th meeting or that 3 of the top campaign officials would take a break from the campaign trail to stop and do a favor for a friend by showing up at a meeting with 5-6 Russians is no longer even viable among supporters.

FWIW, I saw a picture from the last "rally" in Ohio where two men were wearing t-shirts that had the message, "I'd rather be Russian than Democrat". They don't even buy the story.

[barmar]

 kenberg, on 2018-August-05, 19:54, said:

I guess there is a slightly less certain view here of how legally damning this is, but good god. There was this meeting his son had with a Russian representative to discuss adoption except it was really to obtain dirt on Clinton but anyway Trump didn't know about it and besides it wasn't illegal and it's all fake news? Will Sarah Sanders get a raise for repeating this? Whatever this means for legalities, surely it is absolutely obvious to anyone who cares about this country that Mueller is performing a necessary service of historical importance. He is not to be fired, reined in, interfered with, or anything like it. If I am chosen to be on a jury I will do my best to understand the intricacies of the law, but until then I will just say that I can recognize total crap when I see it and this fake news about the totally legal meeting that Trump didn't know about to discuss adoption and/or information from the Russians on Clinton has a serious smell. There has never been anything like this before in my lifetime. Not even close. It's time for Trump to file some sort of bankruptcy proceedings for his presidency. It's over.

Except that his supporters truly do not give a damn about any of this. When he bragged that he could kill someone in Time Square and he wouldn't lose their support, he was probably right. And what he's actually guilty of is not as severe as that.

Democrats in Congress will call for something to be done, and Republicanswill grumble about how they're outraged, but they're not going to do anything about it, either. They've all known that this was true for years, and having proof doesn't really change anything. Politics trumps legalities.