Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

People are weird.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Giving up is unforgivable.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / If You Haven’t Done Anything Wrong

If You Haven’t Done Anything Wrong

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Remember when that was the GOP’s rule? Good times:

In a tense meeting in early March with the special counsel, President Trump’s lawyers insisted he had no obligation to talk with federal investigators probing Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.

But special counsel Robert S. Mueller III responded that he had another option if Trump declined: He could issue a subpoena for the president to appear before a grand jury, according to four people familiar with the encounter.

Mueller’s warning — the first time he is known to have mentioned a possible subpoena to Trump’s legal team — spurred a sharp retort from John Dowd, then the president’s lead lawyer.

“This isn’t some game,” Dowd said, according to two people with knowledge of his comments. “You are screwing with the work of the president of the United States.”

The flare-up set in motion weeks of turmoil among Trump’s attorneys as they debated how to deal with the special counsel’s request for an interview, a dispute that ultimately led to Dowd’s resignation.

Hillary Clinton testified under oath for 11 hours, btw. In public.

Reader Interactions

131Comments

  1. 1.

    Elizabelle

    “This isn’t some game,” Dowd said, according to two people with knowledge of his comments. “You are screwing with the work of the president of the United States.”

    Please, Team Mueller. Screw away. We have your backs.

  3. 3.

    different-church-lady

    “This isn’t some game,” Dowd said

    MUELLER: “That’s quite correct.”

  4. 4.

    Roger Moore

    “This isn’t some game,” Dowd said, according to two people with knowledge of his comments. “You are screwing with the work of the president of the United States.”

    It would be terrible if he had to give up golf for a weekend.

  7. 7.

    scott (the other one)

    “This isn’t some game.”

    No one outside the press thinks it is.

    “You are screwing with the work of the president of the United States.”

    First of all, this president doesn’t work. Secondly, maybe your heinous side should have thought of that back in the mid-90s, when that was the entire point of Ken Starr’s panty-sniffing, and not uncovering collusion with a hostile foreign power.

  8. 8.

    Quaker in a Basement

    Hillary Clinton testified under oath for 11 hours, btw. In public.

    And owned it like a boss.

  9. 9.

    Wag

    This isn’t some game,” Dowd said, according to two people with knowledge of his comments. “You are screwing with the work of the president of the United States.”

    Absolutely right. This isn’t a game And trump needs to stop treating it as such and quit screwing with the American people.

  10. 10.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    you’re interfering with the president’s golf game!

  14. 14.

    Jeffro

    @B.B.A.: yup and also amen.

    Double standards are the lifeblood of the right…maybe that’s why they’re always so unhinged…they just can’t compete/stay out of jail when everyone’s held to the same standards

  15. 15.

    Lapassionara

    Isn’t the GOP the party of “where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” and “if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it is a duck.”

  16. 16.

    tobie

    This morning Trump blamed Mueller for leaking the questions. This evening, it comes out that Sekulow compiled this list based on his notes from the March meeting with Mueller, so the leak has to be from Trump’s team. Whenever I begin to worry that Trump & Company might succeed in anything, I’m reminded by incidents like this that they couldn’t organize a piss-up in a brewery. My only fear is that the public gets psychologically immune to this crap. I’m even experiencing outrage fatigue.

  17. 17.

    efgoldman

    @Jeffro:

    BILL Clinton had to answer a subpoena

    In a civil matter (not criminal).
    I’d guess Weasel Face’s excuse for a legal team will try to get it treated differently on that basis.

  19. 19.

    geg6

    Glad to have a Pens game with the hated Capitals going on so I only have to pay attention to this shit tonight on BJ. I can’t take much more of this garbage barrage.

  20. 20.

    GregB

    All of these new vulgarians have nothing but contempt for government until they are in power and then they declare that their position in government is the most important place in the world.

  21. 21.

    efgoldman

    @geg6:

    Glad to have a Pens game with the hated Capitals going

    If there is a hockey god, there will be an earthquake, the ice will split open like in Last Crusade, and both teams will be swallowed by the earth.

  27. 27.

    Wag

    @efgoldman:

    In a civil matter (not criminal).

    True, but the Supreme Court didn’t cut Nixon any slack with a subpoena for the tapes during Watergate.

    Of course, this SC is a little different, and gives little deference to precedent.

  31. 31.

    LAO

    @tobie: Those questions were obviously drafted by one of Trump’s lawyers, Skelow and it’s equally clear that he’s never been in a proffer session with the government.

  33. 33.

    TenguPhule

    @Baud:

    This is Trump’s way of taking the Fifth like any other two-bit criminal.

    Two-bit criminals still have to go to court and do it before a judge.

  36. 36.

    TenguPhule

    @efgoldman:

    If there is a hockey god, there will be an earthquake, the ice will split open like in Last Crusade, and both teams will be swallowed by the earth.

    No God, only Hockey Satan.

  38. 38.

    efgoldman

    @geg6:

    The hockey god loves my team.

    The hockey gods hate whiners. The Pens have a had a series of great teams that just whine and complain and cry, also especially dirty teams. Play the fucking game! You usually have the talent to beat anybody.
    Sometime I think the whole team deserves career-ending concussions.

  40. 40.

    geg6

    @Millard Filmore:

    I’m a Pittsburgher. Never listened to him. The voice of hockey will always and forever be the incomparable Mike Lange, Voice of the Penguins. A true legend who still calls some games now and again.

  41. 41.

    efgoldman

    @LAO:

    I really don’t see a grand jury subpoena happening.

    Why? (Asking from ignorance)

  42. 42.

    B.B.A.

    @tobie: That line from “Watchmen” popped into my head today – we will look up and shout “Save us!” and Mueller will look down and whisper “No.”

    Meanwhile, Congress looks really close, and we can’t afford to be distracted from the election or to peak too soon.

  43. 43.

    efgoldman

    @Baud:

    I don’t really need to watch it to have an opinion about it.

    The Balloon Juice way!

  44. 44.

    schrodingers_cat

    @zhena gogolia: I watched the History of Britain narrated by Schama, by the time he came to the British Empire, I wanted to throw things at my TV. Also too, the Churchill hagiography was too much. Michael Wood is my favorite
    British historian, TV anchor. Why don’t you like Schama? Just curious.

  46. 46.

    TenguPhule

    @efgoldman: “The courts have made their decision, now let them enforce it!”

    I will be honestly surprised if any judge is suicidal enough to try and enforce a subpoena on Trump.

    It would cost them their job. The GOP would unleash every flying monkey to get them canned and their base would go completely off the rails.

  48. 48.

    raven

    @schrodingers_cat: We watched the 1st two but the stuff on the “Olmec wrestler” really set us back. Why would they introduce it the way they did and then, seemingly out of context, just poo poo it at the end?

  49. 49.

    geg6

    @efgoldman:

    If the hockey god hates whiners, then back to back Cups would seem to disprove your thesis that the Pens are whiners. Not to mention, my own eyes. I watch almost every game. Don’t see this whining you claim. I see a kickass team that powers through difficulties and injuries to win. Just like the owner.

  52. 52.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    I’m in Juneau, AK for work. The weather is shitty: 40 degrees, tons of heavy mist (typical Juneau weather). Sitting in a sports bar downtown because I wanted to suffer in public: the Choking Dogs are currently down to the hated Pengoooooooooins. I hate playoff hockey but then every Caps fan hates playoff hockey. Even when you are in Alaska.

    On the plus side, these events end so early here.

  53. 53.

    efgoldman

    @TenguPhule:

    The GOP would unleash every flying monkey to get them canned and their base would go completely off the rails.

    And when all kinds of flying monkeys get arrested, it will be wonderful.
    Generally federal judges are almost impossible to intimidate.
    They can’t be “canned”. They can only be removed by impeachment and conviction. No chance. Congress is assholes, but it isn’t PA or KS.

  54. 54.

    kindness

    It’d be funny if it wasn’t so sad. Hillary’s 11 hours…how long would Trump last? Zero hours. That is exactly what he’d sit for. I almost hope Mueller does issue a Grand Jury subpoena. Because one of Trump’s legal wizards would tell Trump he can blow it off because……The ensuing legal case would reach the Supreme Court. It’d take the rest of his presidency and nothing would get done. That’s the part I like.

  55. 55.

    BruceFromOhio

    Hillary Clinton testified under oath for 11 hours

    Yes, but Benghazi! And her emails! Plus, she’s a woman. So there. Libtards. Or something like that.

  57. 57.

    LAO

    @efgoldman: I should clarify, I don’t see Trump testifying before a grand jury. In the ordinary course, after receiving a grand jury subpoena, a person who doesn’t intend to invoke his/her 5th amendment right, would agree to meet with the government in a proffer session. That session isn’t under oath, although still subject to possible prosecution under 18 USC 1001. My personal sense is, Trump never makes it into the Grand Jury.

    I’m a bit surprised by the reports Mueller is seeking an interview under oath (I have simply never heard of such a thing and question the reporting).

    EFG, in other words, it’s merely my personal opinion.

  58. 58.

    zhena gogolia

    @schrodingers_cat:

    We watched the series about Bernini, Vermeer, etc., and although the content was fine, his manner was just so offputting.

    ETA: And we tried to watch the History of the Jews, but really had to turn that one off. He kept appearing in his kipa.

  61. 61.

    BruceFromOhio

    @Baud:

    This is Trump’s way of taking the Fifth like any other two-bit ratfuck soulless criminal.

    FTFY, c’mon, we’re talking about Republicans here.

  62. 62.

    TenguPhule

    @efgoldman:

    Generally federal judges are almost impossible to intimidate.

    Federal judges also are adverse to getting into uncharted waters with the Executive branch. A showdown testing the actual limits of what the Judiciary branch’s enforcement powers against an uncooperative Executive branch are the very thing Federal judges have tried to avoid like the plague. Going into uncharted legal waters is the kind of thing that ends careers.

    Any hopes of advancing up the court system would be dead to them.

  64. 64.

    efgoldman

    @LAO:

    EFG, in other words, it’s merely my personal opinion.

    Yeah, but on Balloon Juice, at least, you’re a for really criminal defense lawyer person. With a Lab, if I remember correctly.

  65. 65.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @NotMax:

    It’s disconcerting. The only volume they have turned up is for the Toronto/Cleveland NBA game.

    I have friends who are far bigger hockey fans than me, all Rangers fans. All of em are pulling for the Choking Dogs because I don’t know anybody outside of P’burgh that ever roots for the Pens.

  67. 67.

    SFAW

    @Wag:

    and gives little deference to precedent.

    But-but-but John Roberts said he’d stick with stare decisis during his confirmation hearings. Are you suggesting that he lied? That would be SO unlike all other Republicans.

  68. 68.

    efgoldman

    @TenguPhule:

    Federal judges also are adverse to getting into uncharted waters with the Executive branch

    There are two precedents: Nixon (the tapes) and Clinton (Paula Jones suit).
    Of course, as someone else noted, this SCOTUS often goes into fuck precedent mode.

  69. 69.

    Barbara

    @Baud: Indeed. This point cannot be made often enough. Trump’s lawyers see his choices for testifying as taking the Fifth or committing perjury. Not showing up isn’t an option for anyone else and that is what they are doing, hiding behind arguments that have been rejected for others. He is above all a coward.

  71. 71.

    schrodingers_cat

    @raven: I am going to watch it tomorrow. I will let you know what I think. So far the series has not made much of an impact. Its seems too broad and superficial. Like for example, the symbolism behind idols in Hindu worship in today’s episode.

  72. 72.

    raven

    Authenticity debate[edit]
    The sculpture falls outside the norms for much of the known Olmec art:[10]

    The sculpture has no overt iconography, in contrast for example to Las Limas Monument 1.
    Whereas seated Olmec figures almost invariably have a broad base, this figure’s base is narrow in proportion to its torso.
    The rotation of the upper body is unique in surviving Olmec sculptures, as is its “sensitive detail” such as the foot, complete with arch and rounded toes.
    In their petrographic analysis of Olmec artifacts, Williams and Heizer found that the basalt “is distinctive and . . . no other monument seen by us in Veracruz or Tabasco is made of the same material.” They speculate that “it may be an imported piece . . . and its non-local origin is also suggested by the remarkable realism which is displayed”.[11]
    The art historian Nancy Kelker of Middle Tennessee State University argues that a vague provenance, atypical stone, unusual carving of the back, nonstandard posture, recent publication of scholarly material on Olmec jades, and an urgent interest among Mexicans to find a myth for their origin in antiquity all suggest that it is a modern sculpture.[12] In response to these arguments, the archaeologist Michael Coe and the art historian Mary Miller, both of Yale University, defended the sculpture as authentic, arguing that its similarity to Monument 34 from the Olmec site San Lorenzo, and the fact that we know little about Olmec art make it probable that this is an Olmec masterpiece from antiquity.[13] At a separate time Coe stated that if Heizer felt the sculpture was a fake based on the petrographic analysis, then “something must be wrong with the petrographic analysis!”.[14] Susan Milbrath also argues against the possibility of a forgery. Milbrath maintains that its 1933 discovery, well before archaeologists defined Olmec culture or excavated Olmec sites, precludes falsification. She suggests that the Wrestler represents “a little known aspect of Olmec monumental art”.[3]

  77. 77.

    LAO

    @efgoldman: I wanted to add, that generally, I agree with you about federal judges, not easy to intimidate.

    PS. Beagle/pit bull mix. Although I finally sent in her dna kit, so maybe who knows?

  79. 79.

    efgoldman

    @LAO:

    Beagle/pit bull mix

    We may be looking for a dog in the next year or so. With a five year old granddaughter, and a grandson on the way, no way do I want any part pit in the house. Unfair? Possibly. I don’t care.
    I remain astonished about how many people in NYC keep fairly large, active dogs in small apartments.

  81. 81.

    Shell

    Is anyone watching PBS Civilization?

    Anyone remember Kenneth Clark’s Civilization, back in the 70’s?

    God, Im old.

  82. 82.

    zhena gogolia

    @raven:

    Wow, and we never started so I can stop asking my husband if he wants to watch it since he never does.

  84. 84.

    zhena gogolia

    @Shell:

    Not only do I remember the show, I had the book and read it cover to cover. Dead white males!

  86. 86.

    Mike in NC

    At 10 PM tonight, “Frontline” on PBS is doing a story about the crisis in Puerto Rico, where the Trump administration’s response was rated as A+ by Fat Bastard himself.

  88. 88.

    LAO

    @efgoldman: I understand, Maggie is small (36 lbs but short legged). She loves children, I have 5 nieces and nephews and all of the children in my apartment building play with her. It pretty funny to watch how excited she gets when she sees a kid she knows.

    It’s hard in NYC, most rescue dogs are part pit but I get your hesitation.

  91. 91.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    I come here 2-3 times a year.

    This weekend I take a day trip down to a fjord. The next day I’m kayaking up the coastline to a couple of waterfalls. As an ultramarathoner, the hiking stuff here is awesome.

    I couldn’t live here tho, way too damp and overcast.

  94. 94.

    MisterForkbeard

    @tobie: You’re not even kidding. Trump accused Mueller of leaking an internal document written by Trumps lawyers and that Mueller never saw.

    Nice. And the document in question isn’t even “questions Mueller will ask”, its “Our awful lawyers’ best guess of what Mueller will ask”. Nice.

  100. 100.

    mad citizen

    I was driving tonight to get some food and Steele and Ungar on Sirius POTUS were “both sides”-ing the WHCD comedian, two wrongs don’t make a right, etc. Then I noticed the pickup in front of me turning right had a “Hillary for Prison 2016” bumper sticker. Both sides my ass. I guess it’s time for “Trump for Prison 2018” stickers and signs.

    Can I put up any signs along with the candidate signs during election season? Our primary is Tuesday (I early voted), but am thinking I should put up some “interesting” signs in the fall.

  101. 101.

    Duane

    @Roger Moore: Trump should go on the TV he loves so much and tell the American People why the Special Counsel has all these questions that he wont answer. Even though he said he would. Coward could take the opportunity to resign, but he hasn’t the class. Im sick of his golfing too.

  103. 103.

    jonas

    @tobie: I feel the whole country is being conditioned to just give a collective “shrug emojii” when all the shit about Trump’s utterly felonious business, campaign, and corrupt administration is finally made public. “Well, that’s politics fer ya!” ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  104. 104.

    tobie

    @B.B.A.: All true. We’ve got to get every one of our voters to the polls in November. Everything comes down to that.

  105. 105.

    RandomMonster

    I guess I’m the only one who doesn’t mind Schama. I quite liked his book Landscape and Memory.

  106. 106.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @mad citizen: Why don’t you listen to music while you drive? I am now afraid of being hit by a maddened jackal listening to PBS. Finding another Saab would be too emotionally scarring.

  109. 109.

    B.B.A.

    @jonas: At this point, Trump could murder a roomfull of coal miners and nobody would care, which I know because WV is about to elect a Senator who did murder a roomfull of coal miners and nobody appears to care.

    (Blankenship is down in the polls, you say? Yeah, they said the same thing about Trump.)

  111. 111.

    tobie

    @jonas: Oh no, I’ve sent you into despair. Don’t go there! Yes, 40% of the country will shrug at whatever Trump has done but fortunately they’re also a diminishing portion of the population. Just keep focused on everyone else who hates the bastard and do what you can to get them registered to vote.

  113. 113.

    Ruckus

    @LAO:

    I have simply never heard of such a thing and question the reporting

    Sounds like a good idea to question this.
    However……
    We’ve never had a president as quite possibly/probably involved in illegal activity, depravity, stupidity, generally full of shit, deranged and this much of an asshole. Not to mention dangerous to the world. And while some of that may not be illegal, just completely beneath the office and at least a good percentage of the citizens, a lot of it is, if true. IOW this is an unusually bad president and may take unusual things to fix.

  114. 114.

    mad citizen

    @Omnes Omnibus: I alternate between sports talk, XM Potus talk, and music all the time. I did turn on some tunes, been spinning Jim James Tribute To 2 recently–tons of echo on a cool selection of covers.

  115. 115.

    Sm*t Cl*de

    @MisterForkbeard:

    Trump accused Mueller of leaking an internal document written by Trumps lawyers and that Mueller never saw.
    Nice. And the document in question isn’t even “questions Mueller will ask”, its “Our awful lawyers’ best guess of what Mueller will ask”.

    Don’t forget the bit about “None of the questions mention ‘collusion’, which proves that the whole witch-hunt is about ‘collusion’, which isn’t even a crime”.

  116. 116.

    mad citizen

    @Ruckus: “We’ve never had a president as quite possibly/probably involved in illegal activity, depravity, stupidity, generally full of shit, deranged and this much of an asshole. Not to mention dangerous to the world.”

    Well said. Maybe it’s just 1.5 years or reading this blog, but we should be at Defcon Infinity as far as I’m concerned. Tonight in my car I thought of joke: The only thing that would make me vote for Trumpov for term two would be a promise to play AC/DC’s Big Balls during the inauguration.

    Idiocracy was spot on.

  117. 117.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @mad citizen: I was actually somewhat serious. Use the car for music or silence. A place of respite. I like driving, so I try to avoid anything that makes it less pleasant.

  118. 118.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Sm*t Cl*de: Right? None of the questions we made up and wrote down used the word “collusion”, therefore witch hunt.

  123. 123.

    mad citizen

    @Omnes Omnibus: It’s a great point, and I’m a huge music listener. I should probably drop the satellite radio; I tend to do Seinfeld’s joke on men and tv remotes: I don’t care what I’m listening to now, only what ELSE is on the next channel. Well I’m not that bad, but I do flip around. This was just a 6 minute trip; when I’m commuting I have a longer attention span.

  124. 124.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @mad citizen: Driving is therapeutic for me if i am on an open road. Music is therapeutic as well. When I can synchronize the two, I can ignore the rest of the world for a while.

  125. 125.

    mad citizen

    Doesn’t seem to be too many up in here now, but just in case over on neilyoungarchives.com the Horse is getting ready to play within the hour, free livestream from Fresno. First show since 2014 or so.

  127. 127.

    Jay

    @LAO:

    We got pitties first, then the kids. I would have never had kids with out pitiies to protect them.

    Pitties, and Pittie X’s, ( depending on the X), are one of the few dogs, that are just as happy snorking on the couch, as a walk, 5 mile run, an afternoon at the dog park or just a short car drive to the nearest drive through.

  130. 130.

    Tehanu

    “You are screwing with the work of the president of the United States.”

    As an old person I can’t help but hear, in my mind’s ear, Maynard G. Krebs recoiling at the thought of “Work!”

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