| “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.” - Donald Trump Campaigning for the Presidency, July 27, 2016. In “Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System from Crisis-and Themselves,” Andrew Ross Sorkin quoted Justice Louis Brandeis about the problem with “size.” “Size may,” said Brandeis, “become noxious by reason of the means through which it was attained or the uses to which it is put.” Sorkin then predicted that this generation of Wall Street CEO’s could be the very ones to forfeit America’s Trust. Sadly, we know - and personally felt - the rest of the story. Republicans may now be doing the same thing by forfeiting America’s trust with Robert Mueller’s probe. Just as Wall Street bankers and financial institutions were supposedly “too big to fail,” some are seeing to it that Donald Trump and his presidency is too big to investigate-let alone charged and convicted of any crimes leading to impeachment. This is especially true given the cult-like atmosphere, and since the genius of impeachment no longer lays in the fact that it could punish only the person without punishing the office. Too Big To Investigate The twelve Russian military intelligence officers charged for their interference in the 2016 presidential election was actually just another tip of the iceberg. So too were the 79 criminal charges against 20 individuals, and a number of companies linked to Donald Trump’s campaign and the Trump Organization. With many other ongoing investigations in dozens of countries, all of which allegedly helped Trump get elected, it’s no wonder that Robert Mueller is running out of investigators, money, and time. Meanwhile, the Republican backed House is preparing to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein over the recent indictments. Protecting Trump is evidently more important than federal crimes which were committed by hacking into the Democratic National Committee’s and Clinton Campaign emails, or into a state elections board website and stealing usernames, passwords, and 500,000 voter ID’s. As for future free and fair elections, they’ll continue to favor incumbents and rarely change anything. Too Big To Charge And Impeach Even if the Mueller probe has evidence to charge the president with obstruction of justice or colluding with the Russians to steal the 2016 election, most Republicans would scream “Fake News” or charge a DC Establishment conspiracy. As for Trump and his supporters, they’ll continue to blame Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and the FBI, or push the story that Rod Rosenstein is a covert liberal trying to undermine his presidency. Indeed, bashing liberals has become a very popular sport these days, especially on talk radio. There’s also the issue of impeachment. Since most Republicans can’t separate their “man” in the White House with protecting the integrity and dignity of the office, don’t think that a Republican dominated house is about to bring any impeachment charges. Neither will a Republican backed Senate, or Republican appointed Supreme Court Chief Justice, try President Trump. In American politics, absolute power doesn’t only corrupt absolutely, it attracts the corruptible-whether Republicans or Democrats. Finding A Haystack Of Needles All of this doesn’t even begin to touch upon Mueller’s investigation into Guccifer 2.0, WikiLeaks, Facebook, or thousands of other lesser-known websites and trolls which were involved in interfering in the election. With tens of thousands of emails and cell-phone records belonging to Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, and Roger Stone-just to name a few-that investigators have to shift through, cyberspace is just too big. It’s also doubtful that the public has the patience to see the rule of law followed or to stop such acts of war. Still, expect more shoes to drop in the potential coordination between Russia and the Trump Campaign to influence the 2016 election. Also, expect more criminal conspiracies to be committed against the U.S. through cyber operations, aggravated identity theft, money laundering, and other computer fraud schemes-whether by foreign or domestic officials in high places. In fact, Mueller’s probe seems to be more like searching for a haystack of needles, instead of just searching for a needle in a haystack. Mr. President, You Have A Right To Remain Silent??? Sorkin also wrote that the battle between bankers and traders was the closest thing to class warfare on Wall Street. The pursuing battle between Republicans and Democrats over Trump and his presidency isn’t the closest thing to political warfare in Washington DC, it is political warfare. Indeed, wherever absolute power and wealth is at stake, so too are Republican and Democratic opportunists. In a post-objective era, it’s unlikely that Mueller’s probe can restore Americans’ trust. Despite all of this, there’s a small light at the end of the tunnel. Mueller is not only tapping additional Justice Department resources to help with new legal battles, but he’s making more use of career prosecutors from the offices of U.S. attorneys and the Justice Department headquarters, as well as FBI agents. But given the enormous complexity of Trump’s global pyramid-like structure of collateralized promises, deals, and debts, don’t be disappointed if you’ll never hear: “Mr. President, you have a right to remain silent.” Considering his obvious favoritism towards Russia’s President Vladimir Putin at the Helsinki Summit, even over his own FBI agency and military intelligences, don’t be upset if he’s never tried for treason or high crimes and misdemeanors either. In the end, both leaders are just too big and powerful to investigate. Dallas Darling is the author of Politics 501: An A-Z Reading on Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some Nations Above God: 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of John’s Apocalyptic Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity: Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality, History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for www.WN.com. You can read more of Dallas’ writings at www.beverlydarling.com and www.WN.com/dallasdarling. |