#TrumpRussia is going to take longer than we want.

Steve Marmel
Jul 10, 2017 · 7 min read

And knowing that, a final thought/plea.

I know. You’re following the Russia story and you want Trump out of office. You want people prosecuted. You want justice. I get it. So do I.

We don’t just live in an era of a 24 hour news cycle, we live in an internet cycle that can be measured in hours. Minutes. Likes, retweets, clicks and shares.

I see “why is this taking so long” often. I get it. I feel that myself. And then I go over to Wikipedia and look at the closest equivalent to high crimes being committed and the highest levels for perspective.

We’re not on the same path. But we have left POINT A and are heading to POINT B. For example…

September 3, 1971: “White House Plumbers” E. Howard Hunt, G. Gordon Liddy, and others break into the offices of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist Lewis Fielding looking for material that might discredit Ellsberg, under the direction of John Ehrlichman or his staff within the White House. This was the Plumbers’ first major operation.[2]

I think if you go back in time in our situation, I believe this is the equivalent is what Donald Trump Jr. just admitted to — a meeting with a Russian lawyer in June of 2016 which looks like it was specifically taken to work with a foreign power to get information against an opponent.

He’s got two versions of the story which means… one of them is a lie.

Damaging words they will spend time trying to spin.

June 17, 1972: The plumbers are arrested at 2:30 a.m. in the process of burglarizing and planting surveillance bugs in the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate Building Complex.

June 23, 1972: In the Oval Office, H.R. Haldeman recommends to President Nixon that they attempt to shut down the FBI investigation of the Watergate break-in, by having CIA Director Richard Helms and Deputy Director Vernon A. Walters tell acting FBI Director L. Patrick Gray to, “Stay the hell out of this”. Haldeman expects Gray will then seek and take advice from Deputy FBI Director Mark Felt, and Felt will obey direction from the White House out of ambition. Nixon agrees and gives the order. [5] The conversation is recorded.

Here’s the Comey pressure, which didn’t work which led to his firing. Are there recordings? We know there are memos.

This has already happened. So this is already in our Trump Russia timeline.

September 15, 1972: Hunt, Liddy, and the Watergate burglars are indicted by a federal grand jury.

We are not here yet. The investigation is being put together and people are doing the work but… nobody has been indicted. When that happens, that’s the starter’s pistol. The race is on. Keep in mind then, the rest of this edited time line…

January 8, 1973: Five defendants plead guilty as the burglary trial begins. Liddy and James W. McCord Jr. are convicted after the trial.

March 17, 1973: Watergate burglar McCord writes a letter to Judge John Sirica, claiming that some of his testimony was perjured under pressure and that the burglary was not a CIA operation, but had involved other government officials, thereby leading the investigation to the White House.

April 6, 1973: White House counsel John Dean begins cooperating with federal Watergate prosecutors.

Somebody has to flip. Somebody WILL flip. Somebody MAY have flipped. We don’t know.

April 27, 1973: L. Patrick Gray resigns after it comes to light that he destroyed files from E. Howard Hunt’s safe. William Ruckelshaus is appointed as his replacement.

April 30, 1973: Senior White House administration officials Ehrlichman, Haldeman, and Richard Kleindienst resign, and John Dean is fired.

May 17, 1973: The Senate Watergate Committee begins its nationally televised hearings.

May 19, 1973: Independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox appointed to oversee investigation into possible presidential impropriety.

We aren’t here yet.

Yes, there’s a trail, but until Senators feel like their job is on the line… there will be no independent special prosecutor. Mueller is doing A job, but he’s not doing THIS job. How much is he doing? How much has he done? And what is he doing to back up the work if Trump decides to fire him?

June 3, 1973: John Dean tells Watergate investigators that he has discussed the cover-up with Nixon at least 35 times.

July 13, 1973: Alexander Butterfield, former presidential appointments secretary, reveals that all conversations and telephone calls in Nixon’s office have been taped since 1971.

July 18, 1973: Nixon orders White House taping systems disconnected.

July 23, 1973: Nixon refuses to turn over presidential tapes to Senate Watergate Committee or the special prosecutor.

October 10, 1973: Spiro Agnew resigns as Vice President of the United States due to corruption while he was the governor of Maryland.

Look at the above and think about Pence. This could be coming as well. Pence has THOUSANDS of E-mails that he’s trying to keep out of the pubic eye.

What’s in there? It could be damaging, but it could be ten thousand e-mails telling his wife he’d pick up butter on the way home.

October 12, 1973: Gerald Ford is nominated as Vice President under the 25th Amendment.

January 28, 1974: Nixon campaign aide Herbert Porter pleads guilty to perjury.

February 25, 1974: Nixon personal counsel Herbert Kalmbach pleads guilty to two charges of illegal campaign activities.

March 1, 1974: Nixon is named as an unindicted co-conspirator in an indictment against seven former presidential aides.

March 4, 1974: the “Watergate Seven” (Mitchell, Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Colson, Gordon C. Strachan, Robert Mardian, and Kenneth Parkinson) are indicted.

April 5, 1974: Dwight Chapin convicted of lying to a grand jury.

April 7, 1974: Ed Reinecke, Republican lieutenant governor of California, indicted on three charges of perjury before the Senate committee.

April 16, 1974: Special Prosecutor Jaworski issues a subpoena for 64 White House tapes.

April 30, 1974: White House releases edited transcripts of the Nixon tapes, but the House Judiciary Committee insists the actual tapes must be turned over.

May 9, 1974: Impeachment hearings begin before the House Judiciary Committee.

June 15, 1974: Woodward and Bernstein’s book All the President’s Men is published by Simon & Schuster (ISBN 0–671–21781-X).

July 24, 1974: United States v. Nixon decided: Nixon is ordered to give up tapes to investigators.

July 27 to July 30, 1974: House Judiciary Committee passes Articles of Impeachment.

Early August 1974: A previously unknown tape from June 23, 1972 (recorded a few days after the break-in) documenting Nixon and Haldeman formulating a plan to block investigations is released. This recording later became known as the “Smoking Gun”.

Key Republican Senators tell Nixon that enough votes exist to convict him.

August 8, 1974: Nixon delivers his resignation speech in front of a nationally televised audience.

August 9, 1974: Nixon resigns from office.

And that’s me cherry picking specifics. It took a lot. It took a while. 23 months from grand jury to Presidential resignation.

If we do the math from when we found out about Donald Jr.’s meeting, 23 months puts us to June of 2019.

I know, I know.

This is the road trip. It’s long, it’s winding, we’re going to hit blocks, Trump will use every trick he can pull to knock this thing off course. That will include using the powers of his office, his social media and all the complicit right wing media.

But… Here’s what I believe. The Trump family, and their associates, have been able to be shady for decades. Of course they brought that arrogance and attitude with them as they put together their campaign.

Of course they lived in a world where they could get away with anything they wanted. Trump is a man who boasted he could shoot a guy and get away with it. Even if that was a metaphor, there’s a mentality behind that.

But there’s a sloppiness to that kind of corruption combined with arrogance. It’s hard to keep ALL the lies straight. So It’s Jenga. One piece is being pulled at a time and eventually…

…and it will fall on Trump.

But folks, it’s going to take time, even in this digital age.

And in the meantime, we have to KEEP IT TOGETHER because we have a House and a Senate that is working feverishly to do great harm to a great number of people before it all falls down.

The senate is working to destroy Healthcare. Kris Kobach is working on voter suppression. Jeff Sessions is doing GOD knows what.

Multi-task. The next few weeks for me is about #Trumpcare.

They are in session for three weeks. Executive orders can do damage, but if the ACA is repealed and the GOP’s terrible new health care plan is signed into law, it is game over.

So I look at the long road of Watergate and realize… people smarter than I are on it. I hope they succeed, but I also that this could be litigated in the 2018 and 2020 elections.

Whenever it feels like forever, remember the road of Watergate and Nixon’s resignation. That took years. That’s frustrating, but it should also give you hope and strength that at some point, it willc ome.

Until then, what will you do, what battles will you join and what will you devote your free time to?

And with that, I’ve got some Senators to call.

Cheers.

— Steve

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Steve Marmel

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Steve is a writer, a stand-up comedian doesn’t shut up about politics... and on Wednesday is neck deep in new comic books

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