No collusion? Maybe not, but obstruction a-plenty

Wouldn’t it be ironic if Special Counsel Robert Mueller concluded his investigation and found that Donald Trump did not collude with the Russians, but is guilty of a massive, years-long campaign to obstruct justice by trying to stop the investigation?

Wouldn’t it be ironic if all Trump had to do was keep his mouth shut and his Twitter fingers silent and let the Mueller investigation run its course?

Wouldn’t it be poetic if Trump was impeached or forced to resign because he tried to shut down an investigation that never actually tied him, personally, to anything?

I can see that happening. Yes I can.

First off, it’s obvious that certain people in the Trump campaign and later in his administration were guilty of collusion with Russian entities and emissaries in an attempt to discredit Hillary Clinton and put Trump in the White House. Evidence of that keeps mounting week by week. Some of these people are already pleading guilty and some are talking to investigators and some have yet to tell their stories, but probably will when the pressure becomes too great.

This is not to suggest for one minute that Trump was totally immune from all of that, but I could see an outcome that said Trump was an unwitting participant and therefore not guilty of the crime – making him a kind of unindicted co-conspirator, to borrow some Watergate terminology.

I don’t believe that’s true, of course. I don’t think that anything happened during the campaign or afterward that Trump didn’t know about, dream up, orchestrate or sanction, because he’s not that kind of a boss. It’s “my way or the highway” with Trump, and I’m sure his underlings know that’s how he works. Still, it wouldn’t shock me if Mueller’s report found insufficient evidence of a direct link between the Russians and Trump himself. We’re talking about the president of the United States, after all. If you’re going to charge something like that, you’d better be right.

That said, I see no way that Trump cannot be held accountable for conspiring to derail the investigation for whatever reasons he might have. I mean, maybe he’s trying to hide some shady money laundering schemes or maybe its tax evasion or possibly he’s covering up some other financial crimes, or he may just be trying to protect his children and his son-in-law who have already admitted to their role in the famous Trump Tower meeting with Russian dirt peddlers and seem to be imbedded pretty deep in the whole affair.

Or maybe it’s both.

One thing is for sure: Trump has something to hide. The latest Mueller indictments prove that the Russians clearly invaded our country in an attempt to bring down our democracy, disrupt our way of life and influence our elections, and they’re going to do it again and again and again…as long as they can get away with it. If Trump was innocent of any involvement and was acting in America’s best interest:

* He wouldn’t have fired the FBI director who started the investigation.

* He wouldn’t continue to condemn the government agencies trying to continue to investigate while refusing to condemn Vladimir Putin for his role in it.

* He wouldn't have lashed out at the attorney general for recusing himself.

* He wouldn't keep threatening to fire the acting attorney general. 

* He wouldn't have released the debunked Nunes memo and rejected the Democratic response.

* He would apply the sanctions that Congress voted overwhelmingly as punishment for Russian intrusion.

* He would launch an all-out effort to determine exactly what happened, when and how and find ways to make sure it never happens again.

* He would go on TV, show his outrage over the Russian attack and try to convince us that everything will be okay.  

* He would also release his tax returns to show us there’s nothing illegal there.

* And, he would stop tweeting out such childish nonsense as “no collusion” and “no obstruction” and “total vindication” when he knows the investigation is nowhere near complete, and he has not yet been vindicated of anything. This may play well on Fox News and in Trumpaloozaland where his base resides, but it’s not going to influence Robert Mueller.

I can imagine that every time Trump tweets about his vindication, Bob Mueller goes home in the evening, mixes himself a drink, sits back in a comfortable chair and enjoys a good laugh, while in the background, a clock goes “tick tock, tick tock, tick tock….”