Congressional Democrats recently announced that they will soon launch yet ANOTHER anti-Trump investigation – this time looking into the payoffs from Trump to certain women to purchase their silence. This is something that is the common course of action for wealthy people with reputations to protect. The so-called Non-Disclosure Contracts are practically boilerplate in law offices – and they are legal and enforceable.
While it passed with little attention from the east coast press, Trump won a large cash award from his lawsuit against porn performer Stormy Daniels blabbing in public with the ill-advised encouragement of her former attorney Michael Avenatti. She would have been better advised to keep her mouth closed when not on the clock.
Think as you will about President Trump’s moral conduct – which would land him a permanent seat in the confessional were he a Roman Catholic. That is for the voters – and eventually God – to decide.
With the possible exception of his hairstyle, there seems to be nothing about Trump that Democrats in Congress are not seeking to investigate. New York Congressman and Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Jerry Nadler launched an investigation into the issues that Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his staff had spent 18 months and approximately $30 million investigating – and found no reason to say that Trump or his campaign folks broke any laws. Nadler has turned his investigation into an unauthorized and unofficial impeachment hearing.
The same is true of California Congressman Adam Schiff, who, as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee is undertaking an investigation of Trump’s criminal collusion with Russians – something of which Mueller already absolved Trump and his campaign.
Then there is the nonsensical investigation as to whether Trump has – or is – violating the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution that bars presidents from accepting bribes. It is a novel argument that has never been proffered against any President before Trump – and never reviewed to determine its scope and meaning by the Supreme Court. That is being investigated by Baltimore Congressman Elijah Cummings, chairman of the House Oversight Committee.
All of these are nothing more than political showboating. They are not likely to produce anything more than fodder for the Democrats political narratives. It is unlikely that Trump will get impeached and even less likely – as in no chance – that he will get removed from office by the Senate. His fate is up to the voters.
As if that were not enough politically motivated silliness, it now seems that Democrats want to open an investigation of the payments to Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
They argue that Trump and his campaign violated federal elections laws by allegedly paying off these “ladies” in order to prevent their stories from becoming public prior to the election. It was – in the judgment of biased Democrats — an unreported campaign contribution that exceeded the legal limits.
Even if it were an illegal campaign contribution – and that is VERY dubious – the worst that could happen is that the Trump campaign would be fined. The Federal Election Commission fined President Obama’s 2008 campaign a whopping $375,000 – one of the largest fines ever.
Democrats hang their hat on the fact that one-time Democrat presidential candidate John Edwards was indicted in what they claim to be a “similar case.” There may have been some superficial similarities, but the cases are quite different – including the fact that Trump cannot be indicted until he leaves office. AND … Democrats fail to note that Edwards was found to be NOT guilty.
Of course, none of these investigations are about what they are investigating. They are nothing more than political dog-and-pony shows designed to smear more mud on Trump in the hope of making him unelectable.
The problem for the Democrats is that the public is getting investigation weary – especially since all these long time-consuming and expensive efforts to find some smoking gun have been fruitless. Their unwillingness to even peek into the Clinton campaign’s involvement with Russian operatives, the questionable use of the so-called Steele Dossier and the improper – and possibly illegal – actions of top officials in the FBI and intelligence community is beginning to make Democrats look a bit too partisan in pursuit of their self-proclaimed oversight responsibilities.
But with a number of inspector general reports yet to be released, the leaders of the House committees may not be able to keep the lid on the efforts of government officials to undermine the Trump election – and failing that, to bring down his presidency. While Democrats are playing splash-splash in the political kiddy pool, it may be the Department of Justice that becomes the epicenter of real investigations with major consequences. For the moment, the Democrats may be whistling past the graveyard.
As Trump often admonishes, we will just have to wait and see.
So, there ‘tis.