Bannon pitches White House on plan to cripple Mueller probe and protect Trump
Source: Washington Post
Stephen K. Bannon, who was ousted as White House chief strategist last summer but has remained in touch with some members of President Trumps circle, is pitching a plan to West Wing aides and congressional allies to cripple the federal probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to four people familiar with the discussions.
The first step, these people say, would be for Trump to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who oversees the work of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and in recent days signed off on a search warrant of Trumps longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.
Bannon is also recommending the White House cease its cooperation with Mueller, reversing the policy of Trumps legal team to provide information to the special counsels team and to allow staff members to sit for interviews.
And he is telling associates inside and outside the administration that the president should create a new legal battleground to protect himself from the investigation by asserting executive privilege and arguing that Muellers interviews with White House officials over the past year should now be null and void.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bannon-pitches-white-house-on-plan-to-cripple-mueller-probe-and-protect-trump/2018/04/11/1ec5b1b2-3d9f-11e8-a7d1-e4efec6389f0_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.beca9fbf3931
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,829 posts)He'd better be careful that he doesn't end up in Mueller's net with the rest of the reprobates. Sounds to me like he's doubling down on obstruction of justice.
Crash2Parties
(6,017 posts)Stallion
(6,476 posts)document from production. If that happened Justice Department would request a Privilege Log identifying date, sender, recipient and general description of document sufficient for Justice Department to determine the applicability of the stated privilege. If the defendant didn't establish the prima facie (on its face) applicability of the stated privilege then the Justice Department could file a Motion to Compel requesting that the Court compel production or at least review the document in camera (ie in Court by Judge) to determine whether the document was privileged. Once the judge ruled the losing party might seek to appeal the ruling. But right now the cat is out of the bag. There is a small exception for privileged documents mistakenly produced by accident but not when voluntarily produced without assertion of privilege. This scenario plays out in almost 100% of major litigation.
Bannon proves he's a Buffoon-Magna Cum Laude graduate of Trump Law School
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,829 posts)and most of these communications probably wouldn't qualify anyhow.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)no doubt appealing to the crazies he wanted to, including Trump? My guess is this is brand promotion. His product is chaos and destruction of western liberal democracy. And while Trump's still in the WH...
Leghorn21
(13,526 posts)Stevie Miller? Who is listening to/associating with this powerhouse of multiple shirt-wearing weirdness??
Oy!!
Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,502 posts)go fuck off and find a nice spot to decompose.
jrthin
(4,837 posts)volstork
(5,403 posts)the decomp began LONG ago...
chuckstevens
(1,201 posts)Bernardo de La Paz
(49,033 posts)1) Mueller has lots of info from lots of sources.
2) White House info is owned by the people and cannot be withheld from the people's representative (Mueller) doing the people's business (law enforcement investigation).
3) Previously given testimony can't be retracted. That train has left the station.
Botany
(70,567 posts)Mr.Bill
(24,317 posts)of walking into Mueller's office and farting.
paleotn
(17,946 posts)Get a shave and a haircut. And while you're at it, some marbles. Prior testimony is like the proverbial horse that's left the barn. Closing the barn door won't change one damn thing. Idiot. I so hope Mueller burns his sorry ass down.
SCVDem
(5,103 posts)is legal?
Attempting to mess up our democratic system is also legal?
This is bullshit!
Progressive2020
(713 posts)I think that Executive Privilege might be like Attorney-Client Privilege- not valid if used to cover a crime. Bannon would be much smarter to get out and stay out of the entire matter, unless he wants to expose himself to legal liability, like Obstruction of Justice.
bucolic_frolic
(43,258 posts)but the time to do it was 15 months ago. Politically, now, it won't play with the public, it won't play with Democrats on Capitol Hill, it won't play with moderate Republicans who have just gone along to get along. It's the plot for a fantasy novel. It's political jujitsu that cannot be injected into a hyper-polarized, hyper-political body politic. Nixon tried it, and no one really understood what was happening at the time. Without WaPo Nixon might have succeeded.
Trump only has credibility with Fox News and his base. His tweets are a lasting record of his intentions and crookery. Smothering the investigation will produce impeachment and mass demonstrations. It would be over before the strategy reached MTP.
yonder
(9,669 posts)always the patriot isn't he?
concreteblue
(626 posts)What are the chances that Steve just got a notice he is under indictment?
GreenPartyVoter
(72,381 posts)NOMOGOP
(87 posts)Perhaps Steve should be told that, by far the most serious of the allegations including Treason, Money Laundering, Bank Fraud, etc.etc.etc. are FAR more serious than the Obstruction charge that was committed while he was in office. The rest of this crap is a financial enema into a 40 year crime family history that is the Trump crime family and has nothing to do with any "executive privilege" that he believes the orange genius can hide behind. BTW, what were YOU doing before election. Oh, that's right, committing felonies while working with/for Cambridge Analytica w/the Mercers.
backtoblue
(11,345 posts)Cambridge Analytica, et al.
He knows his dirty laundry is about to be aired out. Sending an S.O.S to trump to try to save his own butt.
Corgigal
(9,291 posts)As they get into their jump suits and get into the black SUV's.
Another long day.
bluestarone
(17,025 posts)So he can't bother anyone
Gore1FL
(21,151 posts)DemoTex
(25,400 posts)Liquor talk.
Sober up dude. Enter a program. Go to meetings. Get a life.
C_U_L8R
(45,019 posts)cab67
(3,002 posts)The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,829 posts)Blue Owl
(50,489 posts)cstanleytech
(26,317 posts)sinkingfeeling
(51,470 posts)guilty of multiple crimes and the entire administration is totally corrupt and treasonous.
marble falls
(57,162 posts)John Fante
(3,479 posts)That's about as realistic as Bannon's proposals. And this drunken buffoon is considered an intellectual? Only by the reich-wing's impossibly low standards.
dchill
(38,519 posts)A Stabler Genius! A retroactive privilege-r. A bucket of radioactive pus.
moondust
(20,002 posts)He's so dumb and starved for attention that he either doesn't know or doesn't care that it's a bad idea to publicize his goofy little plot to have the pResident of the United States obstruct justice.
KY_EnviroGuy
(14,494 posts)He's just trying to up the web site hits on Breitbart so he can pay the bill at the liquor store.
.........
DeminPennswoods
(15,290 posts)And didn't Bannon publically say he fully cooperated and told Mueller "everything"?
no_hypocrisy
(46,160 posts)BumRushDaShow
(129,376 posts)so he plays both sides against the middle to keep the discord going.
Sometimes I stop to wonder how people are born and raised and eventually evolve to become a person like this, a literal Faust.
cab67
(3,002 posts)He's a nihilist.
BumRushDaShow
(129,376 posts)That pretty much sums up the lot of them.
gademocrat7
(10,665 posts)Hope for all his posturing he ends up indicted.
Botany
(70,567 posts)Have Trump act like he is guilty.
Go for it.