eYe commentary on Rudy Arrest Watch ... 10/16/19
According to CNN the federal probe into Rudy Giuliani includes a counter-intelligence investigation. This news, if true, is a very big deal. It is also the least surprising news we've heard all week. As we've already learned, Rudy has gone into business, literally and figuratively, with associates of the Russian election interference team from 2016. In some cases, they're not even associates but the same actual people. He wants their help to "prove" Russia and Trump were framed.
Whether this is a conspiracy or "colluding" or just maintaining robust channels of communication with the foreigners who are helping you, it's the same team they were working with four years ago. By any rational standard, of course this would draw the attention of US counter-intelligence.
What is weird is that Bill Barr apparently hasn't locked things down sufficiently to prevent it. Rumors continue to float that Rudy is about to get arrested. The problem I see with the FBI/SDNY investigation is they seem to be only focused on one lane of his influence peddling (helping Ukrainian politicians/oligarchs get deals in the US) while completely ignoring the other lane (helping Trump leverage those UKR interests for Trump’s political benefit).
They've siloed themselves and won't touch any of the Ukraine stuff that the House is investigating. Why? Because they're clearly scared shitless of Trump and Barr after everything Trump has done to root out those who dared to investigate him.
This is an ominous development and could be very bad.
The FBI and SDNY act like there's a Venn diagram between themselves and the House investigations where the two circles don't intersect or overlap. In truth, they widely overlap. The connection is Rudy. The common thread is the removal of Ambassador Yovanovitch. The Ukraine oligarchs wanted her out to make UKR nice and corrupt again to their benefit. Trump wanted her out to be able to set up the shakedown of Zelensky for the illegal in kind campaign donations.
[OT: I've repeatedly cited illegal in kind campaign contributions and extortion as the "laws broken" for the dense one known as krl97a who toils under the delusion Trump broke no laws because no one has bothered to take the time to dumb it down to him. Maybe one of you have more patience than I to clue him in, though I'm not holding my breath.]
But back on topic, right now there are two hands emerging of this investigation. SDNY/FBI is only looking at one of them with the other tied behind their back. This is frustrating.
The case against Rudy in these UKR influence peddling matters is strong. He has no savings and is entirely dependent on these foreign lobbying efforts to make ends meet. But let's keep it real. The only reason anyone talks to Bloodsucker Rudy is because he has influence with the GOP and Trump. The only reason Trump talks to Rudy is because he covers up and explains away crimes for him and carries out criminal operations to the benefit of his 2020 presidential campaign.
And because SDNY is looking only at what the right hand is doing and ignoring that there is even a left hand, nabbing Rudy now puts him in the criminal justice system with the protections of a criminal defense attorney and the 5th Amendment. It's a way to shut him up. If SDNY never asks him for information about the Trump side of his business dealings because they claim it's not part of their scope (b/c they're scared shitless of Barr) it's a way to close down or delay a liability track for Trump.
That means if Rudy is arrested, we might have a situation where Barr was given a green light to take him off the streets to shut him up behind defense counsel so that he doesn't testify against Trump. He will avail himself of fifth amendment protections.
What SDNY should be doing is sidelining Barr because he's a declared co-conspirator on the UKR matter. They should be trying to force his recusal and work with House Intel to prosecute the matters that are common to both probes and eventually be the conduit to prosecute all criminal referrals made from the House. This would extend to Pence, Mulvaney, Sondland, Rudy, Pompeo and yes Trump, WH Counsel's office (all of them) et al.
Unfortunately they don't appear to be taking what I consider the necessary required steps to work in concert with the House inquiry. Only should Trump feel the heat from the stick of criminal charges can I see him being forced to resign. What should be crystal clear and alarming to everyone right now is that Trump has been doing everything he can to rig the 2020 election to ensure he remains in power. The Dem candidates should have been hammering this point on rinse and repeat at last night's debate. Yet they did not.