Pence Lawyers Up: the Beginning of the End

[Non Sequitur]

So the Trump regime thread seems to have become a lot like the random politics thread in that it collects a whole bunch of topics that could be their own thread discussions. So this news came out the other day

Vice President Pence has hired outside legal counsel to help with both congressional committee inquiries and the special counsel investigation into possible collusion between President Trump’s campaign and Russia.

The vice president’s office said Thursday that Pence has retained Richard Cullen, a Richmond-based lawyer and chairman of McGuireWoods who previously served as a U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia.

Pence’s decision comes less than a month after Trump hired his own private attorney, Marc E. Kasowitz, to help navigate the investigations related to the Russia probe, and a day after The Washington Post reported that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is widening his investigation to examine whether the president attempted to obstruct justice.

Link

I think this marks the true beginning of the end for Trump. For the last month the only outside lawyer involved in this has been Trump's personal lawyer. The advantage there is that one lawyer with one voice can tell everyone to fall in line to keep the administration going.

However, as soon as you have multiple lawyers, each looking out for the welfare of their own clients I suspect we will start to see cracks in the administrations already sloppy defense. I predict that the rest of the administration's senior team will soon retain counsel and then we will begin to see them turning on each other as they attempt to jump ship.

[Michael]

Actually, I think Pence is only the latest to 'lawyer up'. Quite a few of the top dogs have already done so.

And I do think you are right about the dynamics. The 'domino effect' is usually how the good guys unravel of the illegalities and nail high ranking people with crimes.

[Donkey]

Trump's Lawyer has even lawyered up.

Whatever happens, I hope fervently that Pence is as caught up in it as Trump.

[dilettante]

Originally Posted by Donkey

Whatever happens, I hope fervently that Pence is as caught up in it as Trump.

Would you much prefer a President Ryan?

It's an odd situation. If the goal is simply limit the GOP's ability to further its agenda, in some ways it would be better for the Democrats to make sure Trump stays in office. He doesn't actually seem to be very good at getting legislation passed even when his party controls both houses of Congress. One assumes Pence (or Ryan) would do better at organizing the party.

[Michael]

Originally Posted by dilettante

Would you much prefer a President Ryan?

It's an odd situation. If the goal is simply limit the GOP's ability to further its agenda, in some ways it would be better for the Democrats to make sure Trump stays in office. He doesn't actually seem to be very good at getting legislation passed even when his party controls both houses of Congress. One assumes Pence (or Ryan) would do better at organizing the party.

There are indications that Ryan is as useless as a legislative manager as Trump obviously is.

The only senior Republican with any legislative skill is Mitch McConnell (and he's damn good at it). Ryan seems like he's in over his head with the House. Remember that John Boehner gave up trying to control this Republican House Caucus - and he was pretty damn good at herding Congress-critters with many years of experience. Ryan has delivered absolutely zero accomplishments as Speaker/HouseLeader.

[Tom Palven]

Originally Posted by Donkey

Trump's Lawyer has even lawyered up.

Whatever happens, I hope fervently that Pence is as caught up in it as Trump.

Yup, it looks like you guys are right.

According to David Stockman, the advent of Deep State hack Robert Mueller means that the end is near for Trump and probably Pence, leaving apparatchik Paul Ryan in charge to maintain status quo.
http://original.antiwar.com/David_St...reat-big-coup/