Look Away, Look Away: Trumpkins Squirm But Don't Budge With End Game Afoot

THE WASHINGTON POST

To no one's surprise, it was confirmed and then some last week that Donald Trump was willingly compromised by and colluded with Russia.  For fortune and fame, of course.   

That blockbuster was draped in the opaque legal language of "Individual No. 1," but there was no mistaking who that was.   Nor is there any mistaking what will transpire as we slouch into the new year: More indictments of Trump associates and perhaps family members, more sentencings of already indicted perps, possibly a subpoena for the president to appear before a grand jury, investigations led by newly empowered House Democrats and a final report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller that fills in some of the few remaining blanks in what is now an open-and-shut case of treasonous conduct of staggering proportions.   

What will Trump's congressional sycophancy do in the face of such overwhelming evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors?   

Exactly what they have been doing doing as Trump continues to isolate Americans from each other and Americans from the world; that is, spinning implausible conspiracy theories and making unsustainable allegations against Mueller and his other adversaries, sometimes with a flailing desperation that borders on the farcical. 

These bootlickers are so attached to the presidents's fortunes that they will squirm a bit with every new revelation against Trump as they finger their American flag lapel pins, turn their sorry heads and look away as America speeds into the maw of a democracy-straining test unprecedented in its history: Whether its institutions can face down the twin evils of Trump and his duly-elected accomplices without Trump bringing the country down with him.     

Look Away, Look Away, Trumpland.   

House Republicans will squander their remaining days in power huffing and puffing about a deep state plot engineered by James Comey, Mueller and Barack Obama acolytes to undercut Trump's legitimacy and avenge Hillary Clinton's loss by summoning the former FBI director and Loretta Lynch for an eleventh-hour flogging.  Mitch McConnell (what did Mitch know and when did he know it?) will continue to block legislation to protect the special counsel unconcerned that history will judge him to be a 21st century Benedict Arnold. 

Fox News will continue to spew the West Wing's ludicrous fake-news talking points, Sarah Huckabee Sanders will continue to play dodgeball with the news media, and those hideous blood red Christmas trees, Melania's latest desecration of norms, will be a stark reminder of a kinder, gentler time represented by George H.W. Bush as he lies in state a mile and a half away in the Capitol rotunda. 

Look Away, Look Away, Trumpland. 

Mueller's prosecutors have told defense lawyers that they are "tying up loose ends" in an investigation that has thus far resulted in three sentencings, one conviction at trial, seven guilty pleas and charges against 36 people and business entities with a total of 192 criminal counts.   

The special counsel has been leaving a detailed paper trail in publicly-posted court documents, possibly in case Trump fires him or constrains him in the writing of a much-anticipated final report, but a court filing released on Tuesday night regarding the forthcoming sentencing of short-lived national security adviser Michael Flynn was a highly-redacted shot over Trump's bow that nevertheless included intriguing "breadcrumbs," or hints of what Mueller was not yet ready to reveal. 

Look Away, Look Away, Trumpland.  

Flynn, who has been cooperating with Mueller for the past year, has provided such "substantial assistance" in pursuing various threads of the Russia scandal investigation, as well as other investigations (my guess is certain Turkish intrigues), that he should be given no prison time, according to the document.  Flynn, among other things, had several contacts with Sergey Kislyak during the presidential transition, including one during which Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, proposed to the Russian ambassador that a secret communications channel be set up with the Kremlin.  

One line in the sentencing memo bodes especially ill for Trump, or perhaps Mike Pence, who is up to his neck in transition frolics. 

While noting Flynn's exemplary military service over a long career, Mueller wrote that nevertheless "senior government leaders should be held to the highest standards." 

Look Away, Look Away, Trumpland.

Click HERE for a comprehensive timeline of the Russia scandal

and related developments.