No, that's in addition to everything else. Don't forget that there wouldn't even likely be a special counsel if Trump hadn't publicly stated firing Comey was because of the "Russia Thing".
Don't get me wrong- I hope they all burn I just don't see it heating up to that point considering where we are now(focusing on potential FEC violations). If it falls short of Trump and his family and/or we don't get new laws on the books then this is a complete failure waste of time.
I think this is more significant than you appear to realize. The main issue for Mueller is this, he knows there were shenanigans and he's trying to tie them to Trump. In just about every respect, Trump can claim he didn't know anything funky was going on so it's not his fault if CA was bent. But CA was warned their activities could be illegal by Giuliani (who was on the campaign) and Bannon was working there and then directly for Trump. It will be much harder for Trump to deny involvement now.
Breaking FEC laws is nothing though so unless Trump is dumb enough to lie under oath this whole thing goes no further than some fines.
Hey I hope you're right I just don't see it ever going that route considering where we are now. There's too much hype and excitement in some stupid FEC violations. We're still very far from anything criminal sticking to Trump and those closest to him.
If all he did was have a foreign power help with his campaign and fail to disclose some cash for services here and there, nothing will happen because this sort of thing has likely been going on for years by both parties. And will be used more often in the future barring any legislation directly banning it.
Trump has already committed Obstruction, they're just gathering all the evidence of all crimes before they decide to level charges or not. No rush. The Whitewater investigation started in 1992 and ended up producing a blow job impeachment in 1998.
It's already illegal, there already is legislation, that's why it is a campaign finance violation.
And it's not a criminal offense so the chances of being impeached on those grounds are zero. Even being convicted of obstruction isn't a guarantee for impeachment, although I do welcome the precedent.
Mueller appears to have already proven there were crimes committed (hence all the guilty pleas and deals). There's fraud, obstruction of justice, money laundering, and so on.
Not only that, the scope of the original investigation was *gasp!* limited to Whitewater.
Trump has already committed Obstruction, they're just gathering all the evidence of all crimes before they decide to level charges or not. No rush. The Whitewater investigation started in 1992 and ended up producing a blow job impeachment in 1998.
Acting like there is no precedent is simply ridiculous.
If true(I'm convinced it is) every conviction will be passed down to bodies willing to lay in front of the train- and there will surely be plenty of those willing.
I was being literal. No president has been impeached for obstruction. Just Andrew Johnson for disagreeing with Congress and Clinton for lying under oath.
