“President Trump’s lawyers and aides are scouring the professional and political backgrounds of investigators hired by the special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, looking for conflicts of interest they could use to discredit the investigation — or even build a case to fire Mr. Mueller or get some members of his team recused, according to three people with knowledge of the research effort.”
It may take many months for Special Counsel Robert Mueller to complete his investigation of Trump and his aides into whether they colluded with Russia in the 2016 campaign, but already Trump’s lawyers and aides are looking for conflicts of interest they could use to discredit the investigation — or even build a case to fire Mueller or get some members of his team recused.
It’s all part of Trump’s 4-part strategy to survive even if collusion is discovered:
(1) discredit Mueller’s investigation,
(2) sow distrust toward the intelligence agencies that found the evidence,
(3) undermine the credibility of the press that report the results, as “fake news,” and (4) sell the absurd idea that Vladimir Putin is really a good guy whose help we need fighting Islamic terrorism.
Trump figures he can survive even if only his core supporters believe this because they’re a majority of Republican voters --all he needs to stay in power as long as Republicans control the House and Senate.
Am I being too cynical?
By Michael S. Schmidt, Maggie Haberman, Matt Apuzzo
