Illegal Special Counsel?

Trump is tweeting that the Special Counsel is illegitimate because it was brought into being by the illegal leak of classified memos by former FBI Director James Comey:

James Comey illegally leaked classified documents to the press in order to generate a Special Council? Therefore, the Special Council was established based on an illegal act? Really, does everybody know what that means?

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump

 

Though he has the chain of events right, I think his conclusion is weak.  The whole point of a special counsel is to investigate crimes where the DOJ has conflicts.  In fact, that statutes is stronger case for challenging the Special Counsel investigation.

 

Code of Federal Regulations, Title 28, Chapter VI, Part 600, Section 600.1

The Attorney General... will appoint a Special Counsel when he or she determines that a criminal investigation of a person or matter is warranted...

 

What crime was Robert Mueller appointed to investigate?  Collusion?  That makes a great headline but what specific law was broken?  The indictments to date are not related to collusion between Russia and the Trump Campaign and, as such, should have just been handed back to DOJ.  Mannafort lobbied for Ukraine, a country essentially at war with Russia.  His indictments against Russians in Russia for trying to tinker with the US election is just stupid; does he expect Putin to extradite them?  Does anyone think we don't tinker in Russian politics?  If Putin asks, should we extradite our spooks to Russia?  Stupid but it put some numbers on the board, even if pointless.  The whole intent of this investigation - like the Plame Affair during the Bush Administration - is to catch someone lying to the FBI.  Interesting fact: James Comey appointed the Special Counsel in the Plame case even though he knew that Richard Armitage was the source of the leak.  However, Scooter Libby got caught lying to the FBI.  James Comey also sent Martha Stewart to jail for lying to the FBI, not the insider trading that had launched the investigation.  I see a pattern with Comey.

 

Comey is an admitted leaker and, according to recent claims by Andrew McCabe - another fired FBI Director, lied to Congress.  If Martha Stewart went to jail for lying, Comey should get her old cell for lying.  He needs a taste of the 'justice' he has meted out to others. 

Russian Collusion? I'll Show You Some Russian Collusion

The Russian collusion story has dragged on for months with nothing really to it.  The latest story is that Russia bought adds on Facebook and maybe swung the election.  Um, Russian ad purchases amounted to $100,000 or so.  Hillary's campaign and associated groups spent $1.4 billion.  Either the Russian got the greatest return on investment ever or this is a nonstory.  Besides, how much did the Obama administration spend in an effort to unseat Prime Minister Netanyahu in Israel?  Turnabout is fair play.  As interesting as this is, another Russian collusion story is brewing.

 

Back in 2009, Russia was using bribes and kickbacks to influence a nuclear trucking company in the US.  The FBI, under the direction of Robert Mueller (yes, the same Mueller who is investigating Russian involvement in the 2016 election), had evidence of Russian meddling.  Moreover, parties interested in selling Canada's Uranium One to Russia's Rosatom had given generous donations to the Clinton Foundation.  Moreover, Bill Clinton was given double his normal speaking fee - a tidy $500,000 - to give a speech in Russia.  Huh.  What an amazing coincidence.  Uranium One owned 20% of US uranium mines, a clear national security asset.  As such, the sale had to get the approval of the State Department that was headed by... Hillary Clinton.  In her defense, Hillary says that she was not involved in the approval process.  Gee, a suspicious person would think that maybe all the money flowing into the Clinton Foundation from parties interested in the Uranium One sale was obviously a payoff.

 

Mueller is hopelessly conflicted.  The man who let the last administration sell nuclear assets to Russia is now investigating how Russia torpedoed presidential run of the very person who may have greased the skids for that sale?  Not to mention the target of the investigation happened to fire his friend, James Comey.  And James Comey admitted that he leaked memos to a friend with the expectation that the exposure of those memos would force the naming of a special counsel, none other than his buddy Robert Mueller.

 

The deep state will ignore the crimes and misdeeds of establishment elites but seek to destroy outsiders on the flimsiest grounds.  If Trump were guilty of every Russian collusion story leveled at him, it would be small potatoes in comparison to the sale of 20% of US uranium holdings to none other than Russia.