After President Donald Trump acknowledged his son tried to get Clinton dirt from Russians, conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin said POTUS is prosecutable after he leaves office.
“Before he goes out the door, maybe he wants to resign the presidency, and have Vice President Pence pardon him,” she said on AM Joy. “Because he’s going to prosecutable as soon as he leaves office, so put a pin in that.”
Trump insisted that a meeting like that is commonplace in politics.
“This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics – and it went nowhere,” Trump tweeted. “I did not know about it!”
But pundits suggested he might have tripped himself up with that statement. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, and that includes alleged collusion by the Trump campaign.
“In this tweet, the president admits his campaign did willingly reach out to Russians for dirt on Clinton,” wrote NBC’s Chuck Todd. “Attempted collusion?”
“SOME COLLUSION!” snarked The New York Times‘ David Itzkoff.
The Times broke news about the meeting last year. Donald Trump Jr. first said the meeting was about adoptions, but changed his story after the outlet obtained emails showing he was offered Clinton dirt.
“If it’s what you say, I love it, especially later in the summer,” he wrote.
In a report declassified in January 2017, U.S. intelligence officials said the Kremlin wanted Trump to win. Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen reportedly claimed that Trump knew about and approved of the meeting ahead of time.
[Screengrab via MSNBC]
