Play Time is Over
Finally.
I mean finally.
Jarrod ‘Jerry’ Nadler, the newly installed chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has sent out requests from 81 individuals and entities connected to Donald John Trump, current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue*.
Nadler has requested documents from upwards of 60 people, including Trump son-in-law Jarred Kushner, Donald Trump, Jr and Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg, after Michael Cohen’s testimony last week before the House Oversight Committee.
As noted in the linked article, Weisselberg is already under indictment in New York and has limited immunity. But he is valuable because he has been with the Trump Organization for nearly 50 years, starting out working for Fred Trump around 1972. He knows where the money went and where the bodies are buried.
If Cohen’s appearance before Congress both last week and continuing this week is enough for the Judiciary Committee to oil up the gears towards impeachment hearings, then good. If this is just another round of “lets wait until (Robert) Mueller releases his report,” then it’s another tease to appease the ‘Need to Impeach’ crowd without doing anything.
I hope it’s not.
Whether or not he is impeached, Nadler and the Democrats must do everything in their power to prove this man is unfit to hold office and insure that Mistake45* is voted out next November. Impeachment is one thing (as Gerald Ford once said, “Impeachment is whatever 218 Representatives say it is”), but to convict, you need 67 senators. In a sane world, you might be able to, after all, Nixon, who was never impeached, resigned after Barry Goldwater, Howard Baker and others went to the White House and told him he might only have 11–15 votes to acquit. But in these hyper-partisan, conspiracy-laden times, getting 21 Republican senators to vote this guy out of office is impossible.
Michael Cohen’s testimony last week, in toto, might have been a bit much for anyone convicted of multiple crimes and heading for a stretch in the Federal Pen, but he did name names. Weisselberg might be the tipping point. The Southern District of New York has granted him limited immunity and I would think that a man who goes back to the father and can dig into the ledger better than anyone, could provide the key to the unraveling of the Three-Card-Monti, shell-game that is the Trump Organization.
Cohen, as I said last week, is no John Dean, Alexander Butterfield or any other figure from Watergate. He knows the man and his methods, but not the nuts and bolts. What he did do, however, is lay out the parameters to get to the end game. He gave Elijah Cummings, Adam Schiff, Maxine Waters and Nadler a road map to get to their goal.
There does seem to be a sense of urgency now. With the addition of two more (and we’re still waiting on two big names) into a crowded field of primary hopefuls to knock out the current occupant*, Democrats need to get as much done in the next 600+ days as they can to wipe out this administration and the destruction of democratic norms.
Two-and-a-half years ago, by fluke, we elected a Giant Eight-Year-Old President. He has acted like an eight-year-old since, smashing things right and left, degrading our institutions and making the United States look like a fool on the world stage. With the midterms and the flipping of the House to Democratic control, the Giant Toddler (H/T Quinn Cummings) has no control over what rocks will be turned over.
Play-time is over.
