Discussion: ‘A Bit Of A Mystery’: Why Is Mueller Keeping His Distance From Pence?

So Mueller and his team are waiting for the 20’ pole?

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There are a couple other possibilities, from my view. Although the trump administration’s behavior makes them appear as guilty as sin, there could be insufficient evidence to actually indict him. We are all sure that he is as guilty as he acts – but it still is “innocent until proven guilty” , even for the most slimy. The second possible outcome is that there is a brokered deal made via pleas. It would require that evidence is so solid that trumps lawyers advise him to cooperate, that Pence is out, that all the rest of the clowns are swept away…
Yeah, as others have said – I can dream… :zzz:

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Except Pence has lost some of his staff in the first year, so maybe they’ve seen and heard things…

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I find this hard to believe because Mueller seems to be thorough and methodical. If Pence is guilty I trust Mueeeeto go after him.

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I think its less conspiracy minded, and more just a result of practicality. Impeaching a President and subsequently getting the conviction in Congress has never happened in our country. So Mueller is already engaged in a precedent setting scenario. Impeaching the VP too as part of the same investigation? That is forcing Congress’s hands in a way that many might not like…and getting this Congress, or even the projected 2019 Congress to impeach just one is going to be a high hill to climb anyway. Remember, if we win the House, impeaching Trump and Pence would most likely result in President Pelosi. I don’t think she would be AT ALL comfortable with that.

If/when Trump leaves office, either through resignation or impeachment, Pence will be the most crippled lame duck President we have ever seen. He WILL be primaried and there is a solid chance, he will lose the primary…another unprecedented event.

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Is wilful ignorance a valid defense?
I’m curious, especially given that it seems to me that a reasonable person would suspect some shenanigans might be going down. Particularly given that shenanigans were requested …

Do you suppose they’re familiar with the adage, “a closed mouth gathers no feet”?

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“If they already have enough people who would testify and aren’t worried about Pence contradicting"

That is an interesting thought. If that were true, it magnifies the amount of information Mueller has accumulated. I wonder what Mueller is actually shooting for.

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"Why Is Mueller Keeping His Distance From Pence?"

Jeez, TPM! Have you ever seen a picture of that albino motherfucker?!

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No, and I said I don’t want to exonerate him. It appears though that Trump’s team was too incompetent to pull of some of this stuff. It seems the Russians leaked the emails through wikileaks, and Kremlin-connected operatives micro-targeted disinformation campaigns, albeit with some help here.

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I don’t think so. There may have been details that weren’t told to the likes of Papadopolous or Page, for what should be fairly obvious reasons, but the campaign clearly knew the gist of what was happening, when it was happening, why it was happening and what was going to be needed to be done in exchange for it happening.

And my gut says, we haven’t even seen the worst of the evidence yet. I am not going to be surprised to see badly covered up money trails leading directly to Trump Org.

Russia was running a professional operation…hacking America’s election is some seriously deep shit, with potentially very dire consequences if it blew up. I think its safe to say, that they wanted to minimize their reliance on Trumpers for the actual work, as much as possible. “Give us data feeds, maybe pay a few of our people off…these things we want because it compromises you for future endeavors. But you people are idiots, and we will do the heavy lifting ourselves for you.”

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Ignorantia juris non excusat
Ignorantia juris non excusat or ignorantia legis neminem excusat is a legal principle holding that a person who is unaware of a law may not escape liability for violating that law merely because he or she was unaware of its content.

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It’s all part of God’s plan.

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This is what I meant to say. Yes, the Trumpers are guilty of conspiring with Russia, but I don’t think they were equal partners in all the nuts-and-bolts of the operations. Yes, they were aware of the plans and operations in a broad, general way.

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There are a lot of moving parts at this point. Far too many to wrap up entirely in 8 months. (8 years might do it.)
There are 5 separate investigations at a minimum, at this point.
And most are enmeshed, with both counterintelligence and criminal focii.

There’s also the phenomenon of a torrent of FARA registrations since Flynn was busted for FARA violations. Manafort and Gates may also have FARA liability, but regardless, once a violation is noted the relevant authorities are obligated to act.
There are a lot of people swept up in one or more elements of these investigations.

Some of them also are regarding acts that are state crimes as well. And the emoluments questions haven’t even really been discussed, yet.

I’d be very surprised if there’s no charging activity from SC’s office before the midterms. But I would be utterly astonished if they’re wrapped up (sans interference) before this November.

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“…Pence will appear before Mueller no matter what…
We just don’t know what he might have to say.”

“Jesus saves, you unrepentant, liberal QUEERS!” is probably a good guess.

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Said tax evasion being a failure to report bribes he accept as governor of Maryland as income.

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He’s keeping the mustard away from the Mayonnaise Man for now. He’s still dealing with the lessor condiments.

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It is well worth remembering, he was selected as V.P. at Manafort’s suggestion. It might have been 11 Dimensional chess, or, it could be Putin owns Pence’s ass, too.

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