“It’s a disgrace. It’s, frankly, a real disgrace. It’s an attack on our country, in a true sense. It’s an attack on what we all stand for,” President Donald Trump lamented on Monday, April 9, in response to the news about the FBI raiding the office of Trump’s long-time personal attorney, Michael Cohen.
As the New York Times reported, “the search warrant carried out by the public corruption unit of the Manhattan federal attorney’s office seeks information about Karen McDougal, an ex-Playboy model who claims she carried on a nearly yearlong affair with Mr. Trump shortly after the birth of his son in 2006. Ms. McDougal was paid $150,000 by American Media Inc., the Enquirer’s parent company, whose chief executive is a friend of Mr. Trump’s.”
Furthermore, “agents were also searching Michael D. Cohen’s office for information related to Stephanie Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels, who says she also had sex with Mr. Trump while he was married. Mr. Cohen has acknowledged that he paid Ms. Clifford $130,000 as part of a nondisclosure agreement to secure her silence just days before the 2016 presidential election.”
A few days ago, Trump flatly denied having knowledge about this as he spoke to the press aboard Air Force One. He also denied all allegations made by women who came forward to accuse him of sexual assault or inappropriate sexual behavior.
“They found no collusion whatsoever with Russia. The reason they found it is there was no collusion at all. No collusion….So they find no collusion, and then they go from there and they say, ‘Well, let’s keep going.’ And they raid an office of a personal attorney early in the morning. And I think it’s a disgrace.”
NO, MR. PRESIDENT.The Special Counsel team of Robert Mueller has NOT concluded that “there was no collusion”. The probe is still ongoing, and in fact, indictments, charges, and guilty pleas from some members of your campaign and sentencing have been issued along the way, effectively debunking all the denials coming from you and your team regarding communications and business deals with Russia. This is why this investigation continues because the American people deserve to know the TRUTH, no matter how hard you try to call this a “witch hunt.”
Special Counsel Mueller was given the mandate to probe based on evidence if the Trump team conspired, colluded, coordinated, worked with Russia to meddle in our elections. However, he was also given the mandate to consult with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein if his investigators find new evidence of any crime that may fall outside his original purview. It would then be up to Rosenstein to determine whether to give the green light to Mueller to proceed with the investigation on this new lead, or to assign the case to another U.S. attorney or another part of the Justice Department. This was exactly what Mueller did in this case.
These honorable men followed the rule of law, Mr. President, pursuant to the provisions of the U.S. Attorney’s Manual. As the Washington Post reported: to obtain that search warrant, the U.S. attorney would have had to meet six conditions. Even with those checks in place, the U.S. attorney wasn’t guaranteed a warrant. Search warrants granted to U.S. attorneys are approved by magistrate judges serving in U.S. District Court.
“The Cohen search warrant almost certainly included decision-making or approval on the part of the second-highest-ranking person at the Justice Department (Rosenstein), a federal judge and the U.S. attorney or an assistant attorney general. Before it was executed, the team would have needed to check a number of boxes meant to reduce the likelihood of improperly seizing privileged material and to make the case to a judge that evidence of criminal behavior would probably be found,” the Post reported.
“This is the most biased group of people. These people have the biggest conflicts of interest I’ve ever seen….Democrats all — or just about all either Democrats or a couple of Republicans that worked for President Obama, they’re not looking at the other side…”
NO, MR. PRESIDENT. The public servants who are just doing their job in this probe are people who belong to the Republican Party, including those you appointed to the position of public trust they now hold.
Rosenstein is a Republican who appointed Special Counsel Robert Mueller, also a Republican. All of the top law enforcement officials involved in the raid are Republicans. Christopher A. Wray, the FBI director you appointed after you fired James Comey (whom you also appointed to stay in the position), is Republican. Geoffrey Berman, the interim United States attorney in New York, is Republican.
“The attorney general made a terrible mistake when he did this, and when he recused himself. Or he should have certainly let us know if he was going to recuse himself, and we would have used a — put a different attorney general in. So he made what I consider to be a very terrible mistake for the country.”
NO, MR. PRESIDENT. You seem to have not learned up to now that the Attorney General is NOT your attorney who is supposed to be working for your personal interest. The Attorney General, who leads the Department of Justice (DOJ), is mandated by the Constitution to be the attorney of the United States of America, and should work in the best interests of the nation. While the DOJ is an Executive Branch department, it is supposed to be an independent body that will make sure the rule of law is equally applied to ALL, and that includes you, Mr. President. You are NOT above the law.
NO, MR. PRESIDENT. This was NOT an attack on the country. An attack on the country that you have been painfully finding hard to call out was Russia’s interference in our 2016 election to help you win, and even up to now — ti sow discord in our democratic institutions and processes, and even mess up our power grid.
NO, MR. PRESIDENT. This was NOT an attack on what we stand for. You and the people who work for you are NOT the country. WE, the people, are the United States of America, and you are just an elected public official who is duty-bound by the Constitution to adhere to the rule of law and protect our democracy. That is what we stand for.
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
