Riding the Scooter

Scooter Libby, an adviser to former Co-President Dick Cheney, can rest easy now that Donald Trump has lifted his cloak of infamy. Libby is no longer a felon, convicted of lying to federal investigators about his outing of Valerie Plame, a CIA operative. President George Bush II commuted the sentence but refused to pardon him.   I disagreed with many of Bush’s values, but at least he had some. Disclosing the identify of an American spy is wrong.  Libby did it to protect his boss, for which he got a slap on the wrist. Bush would not remove the taint.

Now comes before us Donald Trump, future ex-President of the United States. In his first year in office he pardoned Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the sadistic xenophobe who incarcerated and tortured undocumented immigrants. A federal court held him in criminal contempt for his miscarriages of justice. Enter Donald Trump. With a wave of the executive baton, he exonerated Sheriff Joe.  This pardon sent a message: Illegal measures taken to rid America of illegal immigrants are no crime.  They are acts of heroism.

Trump’s pardon of Libby last week sent another message:  I’ll scratch your back if  you scratch mine.  Trump loyalists facing charges or guilty pleas for lying to the FBI need not fear the power of the Deep State. The magic wand of the Shallow State will release them.

Comic Timing

The pardon was issued at a fortuitous time, as the Mueller investigation was sending its case against Michael Cohen, the President’s own Ray Donovan, to the US Southern District, James Comey’s old stomping grounds. Many of the career prosecutors in that office were outraged by the Comey firing. They signed a letter to the Deputy Attorney General, petitioning for the appointment of a Special Prosecutor to investigate Trump’s involvement. The NY attorneys and FBI agents have now been presented with the opportunity to vindicate Comey themselves. How’s that karma thing working for you, Mr. President?

Right out of the box, the government agents obtained a warrant to seize Michael Cohen’s belongings, which they did.  Cohen’s lawyers petitioned the court to restrain the government from reviewing the records. Judge Kimba Wood, an unsuccessful Clinton era nominee for Attorney General (see Nanny-Gate), turned down the request. The Cohen motion backfired, with Cohen’s lawyer coughing up the name of Sean Hannity as client no. 3 in Cohen’s portfolio. Hannity places third behind Trump and Eliott Broidy,  whom Cohen extracted from a sex scandal of his own.  He’s currently under investigation for a bundle of white collar crimes.

Pulling Hannity’s name out of this pie was a plum for the media, Fox excepted, and possibly for the government investigators as well.  Hannity has been something of an off-campus Chief of Staff for Trump and his loyalest media supporters.  Clearly, Hannity wouldn’t have gone to Cohen for a house closing or a new will.  Something sleazy that way lies.  We’ll know soon enough.

Coming Home to Roost

While all of this is bad news for the part-time occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, there is possibly worse news.  Now that Trump’s road show has gone on tour, it’s a new ballgame, especially in New York, where it can play in two locations.  There will be federal charges against Cohen for sure.  But there also may be state charges against Cohen and possibly Hannity.  Once the production opens in New York’s criminal courts, the rules change dramatically.

Manhattan D.A.  Cyrus Vance, Jr. didn’t have the grit to take on the Trump family when they and their Russian partners raked investors in the Trump Soho. He hasn’t’t shown the grit to bring many high profile cases.  He’s not the kind of tough-minded, big city prosecutor New Yorkers expect.  In fact, Vance accepted a $50,000 campaign contribution from a Trump lawyer after he dropped charges against Ivanka and Don Jr. for defrauding Trump Soho investors.  He’s timid, and he’s been bought.

Still, Vance won’t have to do much.  If the feds send over some state-based charges against Cohen, if may be enough to rattle Trump’s teapot. The Presidential pardon power does not reach state charges or state prosecutions. The smart money says that the Cohen files are full of material on state-based schemes to tie him and at least two of this three clients up.

A well-founded state claim against Cohen especially or a number of other acolytes is Kryptonite for the Trumps.  There are several contingencies in this scenario.  It’s not hard to see one of them falling into line.

Without the protection of a pardon, Cohen is as good as under the bus. If Cohen is forced to plead out his case and turn government witness, he will do it. By now, he has seen that in  Trumpland, loyalty is a one-way street. He’s not bailing Cohen out.  Let’s say, though, that Cohen fixed something for Jared and Ivanka.  Trump just might fall on his sword for Ivanka.

Citizen Trump is not locked in a holding cell in Wazoo City, Alabama, flat broke and accused of murder. Cadillac One will never be confused with a 1964 Buick Skylark, with or without posi-traction.  But Vincent Gambini may be the only criminal defense attorney left in the country with the rare constellation of skills needed to face off with Robert Mueller and his team.  At least, he may be the only one willing to take on the case.  Gambini won the acquittal of two New York youths in a criminal murder trial in Beechum County, Alabama. The prosecutor, the judge, the jury and the witnesses were all ready to convict but Gambini’s brilliant cross-examination of the prosecution witnesses saved them from execution.  Never underestimate a Gambini.

Mr. Gambini could not be reached for comment.  He and his wife, Mona Lisa Vito Gambini, are celebrating their honeymoon, after a protracted engagement, in the foothills of the headlands of the Pocono Mountains.  However, Mr. Gambini’s answering service, who sounds quite a bit like Mrs. Gambini, said that he would call back right after Easter.  Gambini has a few DUI and turnstile-jumping cases to hand off and is otherwise prepared to take on his new client.  A senior White House adviser, whose information is normally dead-balls accurate, has stated that the Gambini’s Cadillac convertible received an oil change and lube last night.  It is gassed and ready to go.  For the record, the Chinese in D.C. is not terrible.

The Future Ex-President was advised sometime last month that he was a subject of the Special Counsel’s investigation for “conduct while in office,”   likely referring to the Comey firing at least.  He declared that he was exonerated (“No Collusion!”), assuming that as long as he was the subject rather than the target, he had nothing to fear He reiterated his willingness for face-to-face interview with Robert Mueller.  It was probably then that Trump’s chief counsel, the deeply experienced John Dowd, headed for the exits. He leaves the Trump ship of state manned by a crew of people who have never sailed in such dark and deep legal waters.

Most highly prized white-collar defense attorneys begin their careers as Assistant U.S. Attorneys, one of many line prosecutors in the Department of Justice. They know the defense because they know the prosecution. They have put together the cases so they know how to dismantle them. For the best, it is as easy as correcting the ignition timing in a 1964 Bel Air (4 degrees before top dead center).   Gambini has never been a federal prosecutor, and that may be to his advantage.  He won’t be deterred by the usual course of dealing of the seasoned pros. In addition, Gambini is willing to work without a retainer, unlike his more experienced colleagues.

Gambini stands out because he is willing to work day and night for as long as it takes to read every document,  review every surveillance recording and take an accelerated course in federal criminal procedure (it wasn’t on the bar) to prepare himself to joust with the prosecution. For his prospective client, it’s ten minutes to midnight, so there is not much time to prepare.  Vincent Gambini is willing, able and almost ready to serve.

Trump has been designated a subject It means that the prosecutor or the grand jury has some evidence of the possible commission of a crime. For example, one witness may have implicated the subject but the testimony is unsupported by a document or another witness.  There could be an email to or from Trump reciting facts that fall within the subject matter, but it’s not clear what or when the correspondent knew the information and, more importantly, the nature of his intent.

For example, Hillary Clinton was the subject of a federal investigation over the use of private email servers for official business during her tenure as Secretary of State. As far as it is publicly known, she never became a target of an investigation.  James Comey suggested that she was not a target when he stated during the 2016 campaign that the FBI did not believe there was evidence sufficient to convict her of a federal offense.

A target is someone already in the crosshairs.  The prosecutor believes that there is enough evidence to convict a target.  The prosecutor informs the target of the status, at which point the target can expect an indictment. 

John Dowd’s resignation suggests that he already knew that his client had been named a subject. He quit because there was a split of opinion between him and his client, who no doubt was buttressed by the lawyers.  Dowd recommended not volunteering; at least Trump wouldn’t bury himself.  Even if Mueller issued a closing report raising the possibility of a crime, the Republican-controlled Congress would not vote to impeach.  If he were presented as a target based on substantial evidence, even the die-hards in the House would have to consider impeachment.  In any case, Trump would become a lame duck. He has nothing to gain and everything to lose by talking to Mueller.   Dowd, thinking like a litigator, gave him correct legal advice.  On the political side, he will look guilty if he doesn’t agree to meet. He’s forked but good.

Gambini is one of those “what have you got to lose?” kinds of lawyers.  How much worse can it be with Vinny than with Ty Cobb, the White House process lawyer, or Jay Sekulow, and Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova? They are TV lawyers who don’t have any more firepower than a 1963 Chevy Corvair with posi-traction.

So, will he give Vincent Gambini a chance?  He worked miracles in Wazoo City. He can do it in Washington.  

This weekend shapes up to be uneventful, and that’s a good thing. There’s too much going on, especially here in the land of the free and the home of the brave . We’re  going through another national identity crisis. It happens every fifty years or so.

Watergate

There is a podcast series called “Slow Burn,” a retelling of the story of the Nixon presidency. By design, its creators stuck  to the 1972 campaign and its aftermath.   They couldn’t stop Candidate Nixon from putting in an appearance.    In a foreshadowing of Watergate,   Nixon directed H.R. Haldeman, his chief of staff, to  disrupt  the Paris Peace Talks to forestall US withdrawal from the catastrophic war in Vietnam.  Johnson in effect sued for peace, which brought the warring parties to the table. 

Historians do not all believe that Nixon personally stopped the peace talks. Certainly, some people close to him believed that he did. 

Applying the Brakes

“There’s really no doubt this was a step beyond the normal political jockeying, to interfere in an active peace negotiation given the stakes with all the lives,” said John A. Farrell, who discovered the notes at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library for his forthcoming biography, “Richard Nixon: The Life,” to be published in March by Doubleday. “Potentially, this is worse than anything he did in Watergate.”

The Special Plan

“Jack Farrell is the F. Scott of The Boston Globe,” fellow columnist Maureen Dowd blurbed. I’ll credit him for being a reliable source.  His quote refers to a note hand-written by H.R. Haldeman, Nixon’s chief of staff.  Nixon said that a ” special  intermediary ” should continue to persuade the South Vietnamese to delay the talks until after the election. The suggestion being that Nixon would not sell them out, as Johnson was doing.

While one of Nixon’s men held off the parties from getting to the peace table, Nixon campaigned that  he had a plan for ending the war.  George Romney, another candidate for the nomination, asked Nixon about the Secret Plan,  and the moniker stuck. There was no secret plan. Instead, Nixon escalated a war that  was impossible to win,  as the mounting evidence  of Johnson’s mess showed; nevertheless, for his political advancement. purposely undermining Johnson’s effort to end it. 

Conspiracy Theories

It’s not hard to see Nixon’s prints all over this caper.  No one can say for certain that Nixon’s deceit was the reason for his victory.   It was a close race, and it could have made  a difference.  The Watergate story was a reminder of the 1968 campaign and the pre-Watergate dirty tricks that Nixon’s plumbers carried out on his enemies. Then,  I couldn’t help thinking about Sirhan Sirhan,  convicted assassin of Robert Kennedy. I’ve made a note to check if any of Nixon’s men were in Los Angeles that horrible night in June when Bobby Kennedy was murdered.

Of course Nixon didn’t achieve victory in Vietnam, quick or otherwise.  He expanded the theater of battle, chasing  the Viet Cong into neighboring Laos and Cambodia before coming to the same  conclusion as Johnson: the war couldn’t be won. Prolonging it would capsize his presidency.  Four years after Nixon touted his Secret Plan, in the waning days of the 1972 campaign National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger went before the American public on TV and announced that “peace is at hand.”  It took another two years to extract the last American.  Not much  later,  Saigon fell.

Nixon’s Ghost

The world of 2018 feels like reminds me of  the Vietnam War. Candidate Trump,  a political neophyte,  didn’t understand the risk of aligning himself with Vladimir Putin  Maybe he thought that, as Masters of the Universe, he and Volo would’ve been the best of friends. Or maybe the Russians were so deep into Trump that they started spilling out the other end.  Either way, in this remake Putin got to be the master, and Trump got to be the puppet state.

The AR-15 is a rifle used in Vietnam to replace the M-14,  the last, official U.S. battle rifle.    As the nature of war changed, the instruments of war changed with it.  As a military weapon the AR-15 (M-16) was fully automatic.  In its civilian incarnation, it is semi-automatic, meaning each bullet fired requires a separate squeeze of the trigger.  The AR-15 can be accessorized with scopes, lasers and more. One of the mores is the bump stock, which uses the recoil of the weapon to reengage the trigger, converting it back into an automatic weapon. It takes about ten minutes to install, unless you blow your hand off. Then it  takes s little longer.

Even without a bump stock, the AR-15 is a very effective weapon, It has high muzzle velocity, and with a .223 caliber round with its violent ricochet, it can cause a freakish amount of damage if it hits something organic.

Simply put, even as a semi-automatic rifle, the AR-15 is capable of firing repeatedly. It’s a lot lighter than the traditional carbine rifle and has far less recoil. With this in mind, let’s take a look at the NRA’S TOP TEN REASONS FOR OWNING AN AR-15.  

Reason No. 10: It is America’s Rifle:, the “musket of its day.”  A seasoned musketeer could get off two or three rounds per minute.  Statistics are inconclusive because not very many esrly Erivan tepieces came with sweep second-hands.  If you grew up with a phone on your wrist instead of a  watch, you might need to google that.    America’s rifle, you say? The NRA calls on no less an authority than former Navy SEAL turned Second Amendment advocate Dom Raso:

“I guarantee you, if the Founding Fathers would have known this gun was going to be invented, they wouldn’t have rewritten the Second Amendment, they would have fortified it in stone. Because they knew the only way for us to stay free is by having whatever guns the bad guys have. 

Well, hell’s bells!  I didn’t know that the Founding Fathers said anything about bad guys.   The second amendment mentions bad hombres, as I recall. And they  didn’t need to fortify it in stone due to  the invention of parchment – talk about a difference in muzzle velocity!  

Reason No. 9 Bringing Women Into Shooting.   The days of the derringer are long gone. No dainty handgun for the ladies. With those big pocketbooks, you can stuff an AR-15 right in the bag.  Apparently, the distaff side likes the “cool” feel of the gun and no hard recoil.  Gee, I’ve never heard it put that way.

Reason No. 8. Disaster Preparedness. Should you encounter a preemptive strike or the Zombie Apocalypse, which is what the NRA means by doomsday scenario, you would do well to have an AR-15 by your side.  Actually, I don’t think it would help with the bomb, but it’s a winner against the zombies, as long as you discharge before one of them eats your brain.  

Reason No. 7 Competitive Shooting.  I have friends who shoot skeet – they also shoot trapped, defenseless and mostly flightless birds I have never seen one of them use an AR-15 to do it but if you are having a dinner party for 20, or Mort, you can’t waste a lot of time shopping for the entree. 

Reason No. 6  Farm/Ranch Use. A farmer like Oliver Wendell Douglas  from Green Acres would need a semi-automatic to take down a fox or coyote.  Then again, he packed up and went back to Park Avenue. It’s ideal for predator control, when faced with a pack of coyotes or foxes-although, come to think of it, they mostly don’t travel in packs.

Reason No. 5 Tinkering.  It’s fun for kids of all ages!  Add a scope, a laser, change the hand guard or pistol grip.  Build your very own from scratch with a kit and a choice of wrappers. You’ll find a kit in your local Hobby Lobby.  If you really want to tinker, you can weaponize your Lego’s too!

Reason No. 4. Hunting.    For those of us who really do eat what we kill,  it has been scientifically proven that animals could not be bagged with a manual bolt gun or a bow and arrow, which is why we are all maturally vegetarians. Besides the lead fusillade adds that iron-rich flavor to your bison steak.

Reason No. 3 Teaching/Learning.   Do  you want to know the truth?  Can you handle the truth? We need the rifle to teach other people how to use the rifle.  If you didn’t have the rifle, how could You Tube  teach anyone to use it?   You need to hold it one to learn to handle one.  That’s also why bull whip practice is part of the core curricula for K-6 in charter and home schooling accreditation.

Reason No. 2. Fun and Recreation.   If you can impress your girl on a date with that “cool” recoil.  or bond with your kids  learning to tinker and discharge the AR-15, what could possibly be more satisfying? Imagine a snowy, winter day, just you and your brood competing to see who could break down and reassemble that little beauty the fastest. Girls, let those boys win once in a while!

Reason No. 1.  Self-Defense. How can anyone dispute the need to have a repeating rifle to fend off an intruder or put down a street attac?. You can’t take a chance of lodging one shot in the dark – you need to unload a clip or two to make sure you’ve nailed the creep.  Or picture yourself walking home from a night at the drive-in, when a homicidal immigrant attacks you, saying, “Gimme your iPhone!” You can draw that  AR-15 out of your Louis Vuitton and gun the rapist down.  

Picture  your old math teacher, chalk in one hand, AR-15 in the other.  Who’ve says our kids don’t learn the basics?

By now, I am sure you are as convinced as I am that the AR-15 is as American as apple pie. It is not just America’s rifle. It is America itself.

My only question is, if owning the AR-15 is America’s First Freedom, why is it only the Constitution’s Second Amendment? Let’s restore it to its rightful place. 

     “Lock Them Up,” the chant rises up. The tall dark-suited, white-shirted men, with monochrome neckties and spray-top haircuts will exit in the same kind of black SUV which had brought them to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and with the force as if they’ve been belched from a furnace, which, in a way, they have.
An estimated 130 White House staffers all in need of security clearances for their work, have been rolling along, their superiors and themselves oblivious to the risk they pose. This dereliction by senior personnel is on a par with giving the Lamborghini to your kid with the newly-issued learner’s permit. “Have fun in Vegas, Junior.” What could possibly go wrong?

     It’s not that serial wife-beater Bo Porter was planning to sell the daily intelligence briefing to the highest bidder.  It’s that he could be forced to cough up classified information to anyone possessing photos of his black-eyed ex-wife.  People with shameful secrets are vulnerable people, ripe for exploitation.
Son-in-law Jared Kushner, senior adviser and roving envoy to Russia and the Middle East, does not have and never will get security clearance. Nor will Princess Ivanka.  Kushner is being denied clearance for denying his meetings with Russians, exactly the kind of behavior an unclassified White,House Official should never do undertake. Like trying to establish a back channel to the Kremlin, kept secret from American intelligence. This intention to commit crimes is well beyond the obvious Trump amateur hour.

     And there are still 128 to go. The White House filled up its ranks with people having criminal histories. Ruling this pandemonium, floating above it all, is Gen. John Kelly, the chief of staff, brought in as the new sheriff hired to restore peace to this wild-west town. But the opposite has occurred. Kelly has been fully aware that a sizable part of the administration staff was a ticking bomb. He has been compromised and will be leaving soon. Even Sara Sanders won’t shill for him. She’s dodging Kelly Questions at her daily briefings, forcing him out into the open. Kelly has been spinning stories about his ignorance  of Porter’s violent history.

     “Thug” is derived from India. The Thugs were a gang of men , of criminal and violent disposition, engaging in assassination and other mayhem in devotion to Kali, the Hindu goddess of death and destruction, but also regarded as the mother of the universe.  This brings a nice irony to Kali’s followers, as well as the lawless mob now inhabiting the highest precincts of the American government.
It was thought that incompetence would be the worst part of a Trump presidency. In his thuggishness, he is far worse than incompetent. Trump’s lawlessness, his hostility to the rule of law and to those who honor and enforce it, make him a Thug, in its original and contemporary meanings. This White House is a place of evil, violence and lawlessness.