"一切都是刚刚开始" :-) Paul Manafort向FBI投案自首、Rick Gates, George Papadopoulos, Michael Flynn认罪；下几个该轮到谁了?　

如果特朗普说的是真话，说明他进步了。

 

他有balls来开除Mueller么?

 

White House Photo by Pete Souza

Then-FBI Director Robert Mueller, left, acknowledges applause during President Barack Obama’s remarks in the Rose Garden of the White House, June 21, 2013, announcing James Comey, right, as his nominee to succeed Mueller.

 

静观Mueller何时了或者何时被炒。

 

可能快划个句号了?
－－－－－－－－－－－－

“通俄门”未了 美特别检察官米勒要问话特朗普？
2018-01-10 06:47:33 来源： 新华网

　　美国媒体8日以知情人士为消息来源报道，特别检察官罗伯特·米勒有意问话总统唐纳德·特朗普本人，作为调查特朗普身边人在2016年总统竞选期间是否与俄罗斯方面“合谋”的一部分。

　　对媒体报道，白宫和米勒未予回应。

　　《华盛顿邮报》报道，米勒去年年底面见特朗普的律师，提出有意直接向特朗普提问。一名总统身边的“圈内人”说，米勒可能在几周内问询特朗普，提问会局限在“一定范围”内。由于话题敏感，这名“圈内人”不愿公开姓名。

　　另一名消息人士告诉美国全国广播公司，律师团队“一直”在探讨特朗普接受米勒问话的可能性，与米勒团队去年年底会面时讨论过具体安排，例如问话的时间、地点、形式和法律标准。律师们希望总统以文字陈述形式回答米勒提前准备的问题，而不是面对面口头问答。

　　美联社援引知情人士的话推断，对特朗普竞选总统团队以及当选后过渡团队的调查已经触及“核心圈”；米勒想要问话总统本人，在意料之中。

　　白宫当天拒绝回应上述报道。不过，6日记者会上被问及是否介意接受米勒问话时，特朗普说，不排除这一可能性。他再次试图澄清，他和竞选团队与俄方没有“合谋”。

　　特朗普说：“我们一直开诚布公。我们原本可以有两种方式应对。我们原本可以不公开，这样（调查）可能拖很久。但是，这件事好比是，你没做错任何事，所以（敢于）公开，让这件事过去。”

　　去年5月，美国司法部任命米勒为特别检察官，以他作为卸任联邦调查局局长的资历和能力调查特朗普竞选团队成员是否与俄罗斯方面有过不正当接触，是否合谋或者利益输送等内容。现有信息显示，特朗普本人不是调查对象。

　　米勒已经指控4名特朗普竞选团队成员，即前总统国家安全事务助理迈克尔·弗林、特朗普竞选团队经理保罗·马纳福特、马纳福特生意伙伴里克·盖茨和特朗普竞选团队外交政策顾问乔治·帕帕佐普洛斯。

　　弗林和帕帕佐普洛斯认罪，承认就与俄方接触向联邦调查局作伪证。白宫声明，两人认罪以及所受指控不涉及其他任何人。

　　美国中央情报局、联邦调查局和国家安全局去年年初共同发布报告，指认俄罗斯干预美国2016年总统选举。俄罗斯坚决否认这一说法，特朗普也否认自己的竞选团队与俄罗斯合谋。

 

Hope Hicks, the White House communications director, was alongside the president as they drafted the statement. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times





Marc E. Kasowitz, left, the president’s personal lawyer, and Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Mr. Trump’s legal team, during a news conference last June. Credit Justin T. Gellerson for The New York Times






Donald Trump Jr. said in an email in 2016 that he was eager to receive damaging information about Hillary Clinton. Credit Tom Brenner/The New York Times

 

Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump hasn't had a lot of good weeks since becoming president last January. But this one looks like one of the worst.

Trump was buffeted on virtually every front -- the Russia investigation, issues of his personal conduct prior to becoming president, staffing at the White House, crisis response -- over the past week, and, as is often the case, his own public comments made things worse, not better.

+Here's a quick review of the major -- and majorly bad -- news of the past five days for Trump:

• Special counsel Robert Mueller issued indictments for 13 Russians for their role in a massive election meddling plot that roped in "unwitting" Trump campaign officials in its web. The depth and breath of the Russia strategy to influence the 2016 election runs directly counter to Trump's attempts to cast the entire Russia investigation as a "total hoax: and a "witch hunt."
• Rick Gates, a former senior adviser to Trump's 2016 campaign, is nearing a plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller. Gates would be the third member of Trump's campaign to cooperate with the Mueller investigation into Russia's attempted meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.
• Ronan Farrow reports in The New Yorker of an alleged affair between former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal and Trump. McDougal's story of Trump's courtship of her and their alleged affair bears many similarities to account by Daniels and former reality TV star Summer Zervos.
• The Rob Porter debacle rages into a second week. Now 10 days after the initial reports of alleged domestic abuse against both of his ex-wives by the former White House staff secretary, the White House still can't get its story -- or timeline -- straight. On Tuesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray directly contradicted the White House' account that Porter's background check was in process -- making clear that the FBI had closed the case file on Porter in January. White House chief of staff John Kelly sits in the middle of this crisis communications disaster, having apparently not told his staff the whole truth at the start of all of this. Reports of Trump privately fuming -- at Kelly, at the situation -- are everywhere even as the the White House insists the president continues to have confidence in Kelly.
• Less than 24 hours after the murder of 17 people at a Florida school, Trump takes to Twitter to offer his thoughts. "So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior," he tweeted on Thursday morning. "Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!" While Trump strikes a more conciliatory tone later on Thursday, it's the tweet that gets the most attention. Trump also faced a series of calls -- from parents of the those killed in the Parkland shooting and students who survived -- to do something to curtail the number of school shootings in the country.
• EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's penchant for first-class flights went public. The Washington Post first detailed the massive expenditures for Pruitt to fly first- and business class -- often on jaunts as quick as DC to New York. Pruitt defended himself by saying he was regularly being threatened -- people know what the EPA administrator looks like by sight? -- by passengers and that the first-class accommodations were born of necessity.
• An inspector general's report shows that Veterans Administration head David Shulkin's chief of staff doctored an email and made a series of false statements in order to justify the use of government funds for Shulkin's wife to accompany him on a trip to Europe in 2017. On Capitol Hill on Thursday, Shulkin admitted to lawmakers that "the optics of this are not good."

That would be a bad month for most presidents. Hell, it might even be enough for a bad year. But this was ONE WEEK for Trump. And I didn't even include the fact that the the Trump-backed immigration plan got only 39 votes in the Senate -- with 11 Republicans defecting. Or that Democrats just keep winning state legislative seats that Trump carried in 2016, a potential precursor to a major anti-GOP wave in the 2018 midterms.

Whether you love Trump or loathe him, it's impossible to conclude that this week has been anything short of a disaster for him. On every front, things got worse for Trump over the past five days. (If you go back a week, you include Trump's tone-deaf tweet in response to the allegations against Porter and his decision not to release the memo from Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee.)

Weeks like this may not worry Trump -- whose re-election bid is still a ways off. But, for congressional Republicans desperate to hold their House and Senate majorities come November 6, they simply can't afford the Republican president to rack up many more weeks like this.