Tag: Russia

August 14, 2018

Will Trump Be Charged With Conspiracy to Violate Federal Election Law?

In addition to the case for Donald Trump’s obstruction of justice by firing former FBI Director James Comey, evidence is mounting that the president participated in a conspiracy to violate the federal election law. Mueller could either ask a grand jury to indict Trump as a co-conspirator or to name the president as an unindicted… Read more »

August 7, 2018

Did Trump Break the Law by Ordering Sessions to End Mueller Investigation?

Since the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, Donald Trump’s fury has steadily mounted. Trump has railed against Mueller’s investigation, repeatedly calling it a “witch hunt.” But last week, as Paul Manafort’s trial got underway and Trump expressed fear that his son, Donald Trump Jr.,… Read more »

August 1, 2018

Trump Threatens Iran to Distract From Russia Criticism and Appease Israel

Donald Trump’s all-caps tweet threatening Iran with “CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE” sounds much like his warning last fall that North Korea would be “met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.” Will Trump deliver on his threats against Iran, but not against North Korea?… Read more »

April 14, 2018

Trump’s Rush to Judgment on Syrian Chemical Attack: Illegal and Deadly

Donald Trump says the United States is about to bomb Syria, and Russia has vowed to shoot down US aircraft with missile defenses in response. With John Bolton, the new national security adviser and infamous enemy of the United Nations by Trump’s side, diplomacy is not in the cards. Although there has been no independent… Read more »

March 13, 2018

US Refusal to Negotiate With Russia Increases Likelihood of Nuclear War

On March 1, 2018, in his annual state of the nation speech to the Russian Federal Assembly, President Vladimir Putin declared that his country has developed an “invincible” intercontinental cruise missile resistant to US missile defense systems. Putin claimed the new weapon can operate at very high speeds and has unlimited range. Although “some experts”… Read more »

February 10, 2018

Pentagon to Allow Nuclear Responses to Non-Nuclear Attacks

Amid the media frenzy surrounding the Nunes-Trump memo, the Pentagon officially released its 2018 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) last week. The NPR calls for the development of leaner, meaner nuclear weapons and lowers the threshold for the use of nukes. Donald Trump must be thrilled. During the presidential campaign, he questioned a senior foreign policy adviser about… Read more »

February 4, 2018

Sometimes, White House Staff Have a Legal Duty to Disobey the President

Last June, Donald Trump ordered White House Counsel Don McGahn to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller, according to the New York Times. McGahn threatened to resign rather than fire Mueller, so Trump backed down. Trump had given McGahn an illegal order. The president was asking the White House Counsel to conspire with him to obstruct justice…. Read more »

November 10, 2017

Robert Mueller Is Moving Toward Donald Trump

  Last week’s indictments of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his longtime associate Richard Gates, together with the guilty plea by former Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, sent shock waves through the White House. It turns out that since July, Papadopoulos has been serving as a “proactive cooperator.” Special counsel Robert Mueller… Read more »

July 24, 2017

Trump Jr. Emails and Meeting With Russian Lawyer Are Probable Cause of Federal Crime

Donald Trump Jr.’s email communication and subsequent meeting with a lawyer connected to the Russian government constitute probable cause that he and his father’s presidential campaign violated the Federal Election Campaign Act (52 U.S.C. §§ 30101, 30121). It is not yet clear whether these events are sufficient to obtain a criminal conviction. Special counsel Robert… Read more »

June 11, 2017

Comey Bolsters Case for Obstruction of Justice by Trump

Without ever stating that President Donald Trump obstructed justice, former FBI director James Comey methodically laid out the case for charging Trump with the crime of obstruction of justice, an impeachable offense. In written and oral testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Comey provided an explosive account of an attempted cover-up by the president. Obstruction… Read more »