Donald Trump is facing pressure from all corners as he prepares to announce his replacement for John Kelly as White House chief of staff and for the conclusion of the Russia investigation led by special prosecutor Robert Mueller. Donald John Trump is the 45th and current President of the United States. Before entering politics…
Donald Trump is facing pressure from all corners as he prepares to announce his replacement for John Kelly as White House chief of staff and for the conclusion of the Russia investigation led by special prosecutor Robert Mueller.
Background
Donald John Trump is the 45th and current President of the United States. Before entering politics, he was a businessman and television personality. Mr Trump won the Presidency in a controversial election which saw him lose the popular vote by 3 million but garnered more electoral college seats than the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton.
The biggest controversy around the 2016 Presidential Election was the alleged Russian interference which helped Mr Trump win. Mr Trump has denied that his campaign sought help from any external agencies. The Trump Presidency, however, has continued to be plagued with controversies, frequent resignations and the infiltration of misinformation or “fake news” in the American mainstream media outlets.
The ongoing Special Counsel investigation is a United States law enforcement and counterintelligence investigation of the Russian government’s efforts to interfere, with the primary focus on the 2016 presidential election. This investigation includes any possible links or coordination between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and the Russian government, “and any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation.” Robert Swan Mueller III is the Special Counsel in charge of the investigation.
Analysis
Donald Trump is poised to announce his replacement for John Kelly as White House chief of staff as he prepares for the conclusion of the Russia investigation led by special prosecutor Robert Mueller.
Mr Trump in the weekend said Mr Kelly was a “great guy” and that the retired general would leave the position this month. “John Kelly will be leaving toward the end of the year,” said Mr Trump, who added that he would announce his replacement over the next few days.
Mr Kelly’s departure comes as Mr Trump faces mounting scrutiny over his ties to Russia and possible campaign finance violations during the 2016 campaign.
Recently, Manhattan prosecutors said Michael Cohen, a one-time lawyer for Mr Trump, took actions during the 2016 race ordered by Mr Trump that was aimed at influencing the outcome of the election.
Rep. Jerry Nadler, the incoming chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, described the details in prosecutors’ filings Friday in the case of Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, as evidence that Trump was “at the center of a massive fraud.”
In a court filing, Southern District of New York prosecutors said Mr Cohen had paid two women — porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal — to stop them from publicly claiming that they both had sexual relationships with Mr Trump at a time when he was married.
“As Cohen himself has now admitted, with respect to both payments, he acted in coordination with and at the direction of Individual-1,” said the prosecutors, adding that he “sought to influence the election from the shadows”.
Experts had said that “Individual-1” was a reference to the president, but the prosecutors wrote explicitly for the first time that it was a reference to Mr Trump — linking him directly to a felony.
In a separate court filing, Mr Mueller said Mr Cohen had met with his investigators seven times and had provided information that was “core to its investigation”. One of the revelations outlined in the document was that a Russian national contacted Mr Cohen in November 2015 to suggest a meeting between Mr Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin that was pitched as a way to help the then-real estate mogul build a Trump Tower in Russia.
In the filings, prosecutors in New York for the first time link Trump to a federal crime of illegal payments to buy the silence of two women during the 2016 campaign. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s office also laid out previously undisclosed contacts between Trump associates and Russian intermediaries. They also suggested that the Kremlin aimed early on to influence Trump and his Republican campaign by playing to both his political and personal business interests.
Assessment
Our assessment is that Mueller investigation’s final act could effectively end Trump’s presidency. The alleged charges are serious violations of the electoral campaign regulations of the US and we believe that the Special Counsel will not indict anyone without sufficient proof. We also feel that Donald Trump Jr. may be one of the first Trump Family members to be indicted.
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