Exposing Washington’s hyper-partisan divide, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said that 72-year-old President Donald Trump should be sent to “prison,” not realizing she tipped her hand when it comes to impeachment. Since Special Counsel Robert Muller finished his final report March 22, Democrats hoped for anything that would refute the report’s findings that Trump committed no crime, and, most importantly, did not conspire with the Russian government to win the 2016 presidential election. Looking for anything to refute Mueller’s Report, Democrats hoped Mueller, when he went public May 29, would give Democrats some red meat. Mueller deviated from Department of Justice policy, saying he could not say with confidence that Trump did not commit a crime. On the other hand, he couldn’t say with certainty that he did commit a crime leading to the DOJ’s decision to not charge Trump.
Democrats took Mueller words as a license to start impeachment proceedings, when, as Pelosi knows, the FBI and DOJ found no evidence to charge Trump with anything. All the rhetoric from Democrat-controlled Congressional Committees wanting to continue the Mueller investigation leads you to believe there’s more evidence of Trump’s culpability. While Pelosi says she’d like to see Trump in prison, she also says she won’t start impeachment proceedings unless Democrat can prove Trump’s culpability. Today she added another caveat saying she wouldn’t go down the impeachment route unless polling backed the decision. Polling so far shows the American public opposed to impeachment. Meeting for the 75-year anniversary of D-Day [the 1944 allied invasion of Normandy], Trump slammed Pelosi and Mueller before delivering remarks commemorating the occasion.
Trump was especially critical of Mueller for deviating from DOJ policy, saying he couldn’t confirm that Trump didn’t commit a crime. If federal prosecutors took that position, no one would be acquitted on anything. If federal prosecutors don’t find evidence beyond-a-reasonable-doubt, they decline to prosecute, without comment, rarely, if ever, naming defendants. In Trump’s case, Mueller made a political statement that he couldn’t say Trump did not commit a crime. What he should have said, was his Special Counsel team could no find evidence of a crime with the DOJ’s statute. Instead, Mueller did the unthinkable, saying the Special Counsel could not rule out if Trump committed a crime. “Let me tell you, he [Mueller] made a fool out of himself,” Trump said at a U.S. military cemetery in Omaha Beach. Trump knows Mueller’s no fool but deliberately tried to hurt him politically.
Pelosi revealed for all to see she has no intention of impeaching Trump. “I don’t want him impeached, I want to see him in prison,” Pelosi said. But Pelosi knows that the Mueller Report and all Democrat Congressional investigations offer no proof that Trump committed an impeachable offense, certainly not the criminal definition of obstruction of justice. Pelosi played games with Trump, hoping to get a public response, so she can accuse him of intemperate behavior. Trump routinely asked in 2016 to lock up former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton for her email scandal. Unlike Hillary who actually destroyed electronic data, Trump has done nothing that qualifies legally as obstruction of justice. Instructing Cabinet ministers or former aids to not respond to Congressional subpoenas does not qualify as obstruction of justice, despite Democrat wishes to the contrary.
Trump’s gotten to the point with Democrats threatening impeachment that he’s asking them to bring it on. “I call her nervous Nancy,” Trump said. “Nancy Pelosi is a disaster . . . An let her do what she wants. You know what, think they’re in big trouble,” Trump said, inviting Pelosi to go ahead with impeachment. While Democrat have so far controlled the narrative, Pelosi knows there’s nothing on the record indicating that Trump obstructed justice or broke the law. “Make no mistake, we know exactly what path we’re on,” Pelosi told the press. We know exactly what actions we need to take,” steering away from impeachment. Pelosi doesn’t back impeachment because there’s no evidence in the Mueller Report or Congressional committers to back it up. Pelos knows exactly what to do, meaning to keep throwing mud at Trump before the 2020 presidential election to wreck his already shaky approval ratings.
When Pelosi says she plans to keep “all options on the table,” she’s talking about threatening to impeach Trump before the 2020 presidential election. Saying she’d like to see Trump in prison offers nothing to the public to justify her threats. Pelosi has no evidence from the Mueller Report or Congressional committees to charge Trump with a crime or begin the impeachment process. Mueller’s report ended any speculation about whether or not the president committed a crime. “They agreed to keep all options on the table,” said Pelosi spokeswoman Ashley Etienne, offering more equivocation on whether Democrats proceed with impeachment. “If we had confidence that the president had clearly not committed a crime, we would have said so,” Mueller said. But Mueller had 100% confidence that his office did not have sufficient evidence to charge Trump with a crime, the only thing that counts with the DOJ.
