There are new developments in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Friday, former White House National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. According to Jeet Heer, Editor at The New Republic, the plea is a result of Mueller cracking down on President Trump.
“He’s used to dealing with mobsters,” Heer says of Mueller, who headed the FBI for 12 years before being appointed as a special counsel for the Department of Justice earlier this year. “The way you deal with mobsters is you get the goons first, you get the higher ups, the capos, and then you get the godfather.”
Heer believes Flynn’s cooperation means he has flipped against the president, which could eventually lead to the FBI apprehending White House Senior Advisor and President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Heer says Mueller has managed to ensure that there won’t be any presidential pardons available, as there are ongoing state-level investigations, too.
“There’s a lot of leverage and it's all on Mueller’s side,” Heer said.
Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, Senate Republicans are leading a fierce battle to pass a vote on the GOP tax plan, which is expected to raise the national debt to $1.7 trillion, according to the CBO. Heer says the bill can pass, but it has to be now or never, since the party also had a very poor performance during the 2017 off-year elections.
“Republicans are headed to a tough season, which means they should probably get whatever they can out of the way,” he said.
Face to face for just over two hours, President Joe Biden and Russia’s Vladimir Putin squared off in a secure video call Tuesday as the U.S. president put Moscow on notice that an invasion of Ukraine would bring enormous harm to the Russian economy.
Hawaii Flooding, Beijing Boycott & Disrupting Death
The White House says the U.S. will stage a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing to protest Chinese human rights abuses.
The Los Angeles branch of Planned Parenthood chapter has been hit by a data breach involving about 400,000 patients, but the group says there is no indication the information was used “for fraudulent purposes.”
With rising numbers of COVID-19 cases predicted this winter, President Joe Biden is appealing for Americans to get their boosters and get behind his plan to tackle the new omicron variant through wider availability of vaccines and shots.
President Nayib Bukele announced last week that the Central American country plans to issue the world's first "Bitcoin bond" early next year.
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority is signaling it will uphold Mississippi’s 15-week ban on abortion — and may go much further to overturn the nationwide right to abortion that has existed for nearly 50 years.
Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, is cooperating with a House panel investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.
The wife of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was sentenced Tuesday to three years in prison after pleading guilty to helping her husband run his multibillion-dollar criminal empire.
President Joe Biden is urging Americans to get vaccinated, including booster shots, as he seeks to quell concerns over the newly identified coronavirus variant named omicron.
