The Russian Briar Patch

Hillary Clinton, Facebook

When Br’er Rabbit was caught by being glued to a tar baby, then tied to a pole by Br’er Fox, he pleaded, “Oh, do anything you want but please don’t throw me in that briar patch!” Convinced this was the worst thing he could do to Br’er Rabbit, the foolish Br’er Fox did just that. Br’er Rabbit used the briars to scrape off the tar and escape.

For a month the fake news media and Democrats have been mumbling “special prosecutor” or “special investigator” and most on the right (though not Donald Trump himself) have been recoiling, thinking it would be the beginning of the end.

Well, it is . . . for the Democrats and their fake news Russia meme. But also, possibly, for a host of other baddies, including James Comey, John Podesta, and even Hillary Clinton.

The appointment of Robert Mueller as a special investigator—a career Washington guy, but one that pretty much both sides agree is a no-nonsense, by-the-book investigator—led many on the left to celebrate their end times scenario. Except this is looking like “Left Behind.”

Mueller almost immediately confirmed that his investigation has a broad scope, implying he would be looking at the leaks as well as the “Russian” stuff. But once those doors open, the leaky trail will lead to the DNC, Podesta, and Clinton, and possibly even Seth Rich. Meanwhile, Mueller (to the shock of the left) requested the Congressional/Senate committees to stand down. From a pragmatic perspective, it was idiotic to have three or four (everyone has lost count) Congressional investigations going on, trying to interview the same witnesses, get the same documents, and otherwise stepping on each other’s, er, Johnsons. Mueller’s stand down request will be very hard, even impossible to ignore. Congress and the Senate cannot even appear to want to “get to the bottom” of this if they are actively standing in the way. My guess is they will comply. This was nearly the worst possible news for several reasons. First, the Democrats just lost control of the evidence. Mueller and his team now control that. One may suspect Mueller for some of his swamp ties, but there will be no Adam Schiffs or Maxine Waters involved, squashing unpleasant documents or denying the appearance of troublesome witnesses.

Second, the Mueller request now means that Congress, freed from these investigations, must actually do its damned job! That won’t sit well with many, but they have no excuse now. Mueller just may have re-elected the GOP House in 2018 against their will.

Third, by taking over the investigation, Mueller stopped 99% of the leaks. Special investigations are not known for their leaks. Regardless of which side these investigators are on, they are extremely protective of their vaunted power, and use it ruthlessly against anyone who dumps documents—and that includes indictments. Now, to be sure, Trump must play along and stay off Twitter in regards to the investigation itself, but he handled that issue well in his first post-Mueller-appointment question: “Next question.” If Team Trump sticks to “no comment,” the fake news media will be hard pressed to keep asking the same thing after 100 “no comments.”

Then there is Comey, who said he would testify before the Senate. Bad move, Jim. He will certainly have willing little orc-allies in the Senate who will ask setup questions, but sooner or later he will get a question on the memo.

Senator Foghorn Leghorn: “Was there a memo?”

Think, very hard, Jim, before you answer. If you say “yes,” Leghorn will demand you produce it. Then it better say what you said it said.

Say he did have a memo and say it did record that Trump said “I hope . . .” Next question from Leghorn:

“Did you take that as obstruction of justice?” Welcome to the tar baby.

If Comey says “Yes,” he is himself guilty of obstructing justice by not reporting. “Hello Mr. Mueller. Oh, is that an indictment in your hand?”

Yes, but what about Trump? Trump’s response would be “When I said ‘I hope’ I was just expressing the hope that we could get the investigation finished, wrapped up, and move on. I wasn’t referring to stopping the investigation.” Really, really hard to prove obstruction on that. Rather, damn near impossible. Meanwhile, Comey is being fitted for the orange jumpsuit.

But if Comey says, “No I did not take Trump’s words as obstruction” he is free—but Trump is totally off the hook.

And Comey will be asked if he told Trump that he was not the target of the investigation. If he says “no” and Trump has tapes, hello orange jumpsuit. If he says “yes,” once again Trump is totally cleared.

Throughout all this, Mueller has the authority to go after leaks, which will inevitably end up at the DNC. It’s possible that a Carter Page or Mike Flynn will end up with a really low Dinesh D’Souza type charge, but nothing will attach to Trump because after a year of the FBI and CIA investigating Trump under Obama, they got zilch. But when Mueller digs into the DNC stuff, there may be a thread leading to Seth Rich. Then it will be the Democrats and Hillary Clinton screaming for the briar patch.

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