Need To Know Update – April 19, 2019
Finish what we started
"It's time to move forward with the Presidency, the House, and the Senate. We will not stop doing what's right. Let's get to work."
Leading Off: Mueller Report, A.K.A. The Roadmap for Impeachment
Despite two years of Donald Trump trashing the Special Counsel investigation, weeks of Attorney General William Barr’s lies dominating the news cycles, and heavy redactions throughout, the Mueller report still provides substantial evidence that Donald Trump obstructed justice — in 10 detailed episodes — to cover up his multiple crimes and financial corruption. Trump repeatedly tried to kill the investigations into his campaign to keep the American public from the truth about his corruption.
John Dean, the former White House counsel who went to jail for covering up Richard Nixon’s crimes, called it the “most damning report about a president.” The Atlantic says the Mueller report is “an impeachment referral.” By refusing to clear Trump of “criminal conduct” regarding obstruction of justice, Special Counsel Robert Mueller made it Congress’ responsibility to take action.
Mueller followed a Justice Department policy stating the president cannot be indicted — if he hadn’t, it seems like Trump would have been indicted. Mueller’s team did make a point of saying Trump could be prosecuted after leaving office, so they “conducted a thorough factual investigation in order to preserve the evidence when memories were fresh and documentary materials were available.”
We can’t wait for Trump to leave office of his own accord, because that won’t happen, and we can’t just let all this go. Call your representative and leave them a voicemail to start impeachment hearings now.
Yes Collusion!!!!!
While Mueller’s team did not think the litany of connections between the Trump campaign and Russia rose to the legal level of “criminal conspiracy,” they found ample evidence of collusion. The Trump campaign knew about Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election and was in contact with them, but rather than reporting it to the FBI like any patriotic American would have, they actively encouraged it. Mueller found that the Trump campaign “expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts.” We know that Russian operatives first tried to steal Hillary Clinton’s emails right after Trump publicly asked them to. Trump also tried to get his subordinates to commit crimes when he asked his own campaign staff to find Clinton’s emails, and told an aide after a phone call that “more releases of damaging information would be coming.” The campaign had a press strategy planned around WikiLeaks’ release of Clinton’s emails. And after Trump won, Putin “deployed his oligarchs” to make contact with the transition team.
Legal scholars say the report’s findings should worry people that “America’s own national security interests may not be guiding American foreign policy.” We still don’t know why Trump denied any knowledge of Russian election interference during and after the campaign when he knew full well it was going on. Remember, this is a censored version of the report — just imagine what’s underneath the redactions. Fortunately, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler finally issued a subpoena for the full, unredacted report and underlying evidence, and Democratic leadership has called for Mueller to explain the report in public testimony.
Trump’s abuses of power demand accountability and the constitutional recourse is impeachment. Starting impeachment hearings is the only way to ensure that the full truth is laid before the American people. Add your name to demand Congress begin impeachment immediately.
More to Know from the Mueller Report:
- The President’s written answers were “inadequate,” according to Mueller’s team, but they didn’t want to wait for long delays for an in-person interview. He answered that he does not “recall,” “remember,” or have an “independent recollection” over 30 times.
- Trump instructed former White House Counsel Don McGahn to lie about Trump’s attempts to fire Mueller.
- Trump also tried to influence Paul Manafort’s trial, attempting to sway the jury and encouraging Manafort not to cooperate.
- “This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency,” Trump exclaimed upon learning that Robert Mueller had been appointed as a special counsel in 2017.
- Mueller’s team also sent out 14 criminal referrals, only two of which are public.
NTI Tweet of the Week
As always, you can follow us on Twitter @Need2Impeach, or Instagram @needtoimpeach.
Help Us Grow This Movement to Impeach
Now that the Mueller report is out and the Republican spin machine is going full blast, we need this team to be as strong as possible. It’s going to take a concentrated effort to counter the lies coming out of the White House and push House Democrats to start impeachment proceedings. We’ve created an online dashboard that makes it really easy to share the petition and content with your friends. Will you log on and start recruiting impeachment supporters to help grow the movement? First, watch this video where we show you just how easy it is to use our dashboard — then go to action.needtoimpeach.com to get more people on board this team.
In Other News (Because Non-Mueller Related Things Still Happened):
- The House Intelligence and Financial Services Committees subpoenaed Deutsche Bank, the German lender that has loaned Trump more than $2 billion over the years.
- The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee subpoenaed Trump’s accounting firm Mazars USA for 10 years of financial records.
- A Yale history professor provides 50 reasons why Trump might owe a debt to Putin in this tweet thread.
- Last week, Trump told a government official to break the law and promised a pardon if he went to jail — now, the House Judiciary Committee is looking into it.
- Former oil lobbyist David Bernhardt, confirmed as Secretary of the Interior just last week, is already being subject to an ethics investigation from the department’s internal watchdog.
- ICE is working more closely with our intelligence agencies under Trump — and refusing to answer questions about it.
- The Trump administration is attempting to revive its policy of forcing Central American asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for adjudication.
- An armed militia group at the southern border illegally detained migrants seeking asylum. The response from the White House so far: crickets.
- The President continues to escalate his racist, Islamophobic attacks against Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, leading to death threats and increased security. Over 100 national, state, and local leaders, including our founder Tom Steyer, signed onto a letter in solidarity with Rep. Omar.