Chaos in Washington: How Did We Get Here?

Rational Take
Aug 31, 2018 · 4 min read

It’s tough to make sense of what basically amounts to chaos within many parts of the U.S. government right now. The once-mighty are in jail, allegiances have been strained, and political borders have been redrawn. The appointment the of the special counsel and the subsequent investigations have begun a long-needed purge in Washington. Overdue house-cleaning, swamp draining — whatever you’d like to call it, it’s happening.

The results so far of the numerous investigations triggered after the 2016 election have blown the cover off festering corruption and white collar crime. America’s dirty laundry, from Democrats and Republicans, is being aired out for all to see. The establishment’s antics and corruption are backfiring and toxic politics that took form since 2016 are ending political careers just as effectively.

Let’s look at how Washington unraveled.

But Her Emails…

In my opinion, Hillary Clinton’s email controversy ranks as among the most boring, overblown political scandals in recent memory. But one must be objective here. She did indeed use and abuse technology, private servers and classified information to a fault. And I agree with James Comey’s blunt assessment that Clinton and her colleagues were “extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.” It was bad. Corrupt even. Make no mistake. But ultimately not a prosecutable case.

Clinton’s predicament was indeed a self-sown case of hubris and arrogance. Voters could no doubt smell it on her through the T.V. She paid the price due at the time. Clinton’s fall would ultimately — and justifiably — drag down Huma Abedine and her sexually deviant husband, Anthony Weiner. If Paul Manafort represents the swamp, so do Huma and Anthony.

The Russians are Coming

The liberal and conservative media groveled and cheered over the email probe. It’s not provable, but it’s likely that Comey’s late announcement about more Clinton emails so close to the election had an impact on swing voters.

And while Comey publicly announced the lack of prosecutorial merit in the Clinton email probe (a true breach of precedent), the FBI was privately nursing an investigation into her opponent’s camp. That investigation would soon balloon in scope. Various revelations about Trump associates hiding contacts with Russians dramatically unfolded in the media. The barrage of news forced Trump’s Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, to recuse himself. Number two in charge at the Department of Justice was Deputy A.G., Rod Rosenstein. Surely sensing where things were going, Rosenstein opted for the “break glass in case of emergency” option: appointing a special counsel. It was a pivotal move, one that he viewed as a necessary release valve to pressure cooker that would soon descend on Washington.

Enter Robert Mueller

Rosenstein appointed none other than former FBI director Robert Mueller III. Mueller is a Marine, a Vietnam veteran, Purple Heart Recipient, and holds a Master’s and a law degree. During the Obama administration, Congress unanimously passed a law extending his 10-year term as FBI director that began under George W. Bush because there apparently was no suitable replacement. He’s the type of career public servant that forwent private law firm money to instead prosecute homicides in Washington, DC. In the twilight of his career, he suddenly finds himself investigating monumental corruption in the very government he served for decades.

Mueller’s investigation has metastasized. He has indicted dozens of Russians suspected of interfering in the election. He’s secured guilty pleas from numerous Trump campaign officials, including the President’s own National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn. He’s most recently convicted President Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, on a bevy of fraud charges. Manafort faces additional foreign lobbying charges in Washington in September. He’s also referred several criminal cases on Republican and Democratic lobbyists alike to the Southern District of New York, including charges against Michael Cohen, President Trump’s personal attorney. Cohen plead guilty and implicated Trump in campaign finance violations in the same dramatic afternoon that Manafort was found guilty on eight felonies.

(It’s also worth mentioning that almost all of the government officials involved in the genesis of the special counsel probe have been Republicans.)

I could go on about the multiple investigations into the Trump Organization, which have already produced deals with the government for immunity, but doing so would be verbose at this point.

What Happens Now?

This is not to say corrupt administrations haven’t occupied the White House before. They most certainly have. But the Trump era merely represents an elevated level of law breaking and dishonesty that Washington is not used to. Trump’s attacks on the press and his own constitutional restrains are bending our democratic system.

Simply put, the level of brazen criminality emanating from the President’s network is striking. Who knows if it directly touches the President himself or if collusion is even still the focus of the investigation (because there have been plenty of other criminal activities discovered along the way.) One thing is clear, Mueller’s probe and its sister investigations are handing out some badly needed indictments for white collar crime and corruption. I hope this continues and that politicians and lobbyists on both sides of aisle are held accountable for their abuses.

Rational Take

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Politics and culture commentary. Mourning the death of intellectual honesty on all sides.

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