OPED: The week before Christmas 2018 was perhaps the worst week for the Trump Administration to that point. A terrible week, but just another week in Trump chaos! To be clear, this is not normal.

These 20 things happened within 10 days from Wednesday, December 12 through Friday Dec 21, 2018.

1. Stock Market Down

The stock market is crashing! Down another 500 points today. Down 14% for the year. December 2018 is the worst December since the GREAT DEPRESSION of 1931! Tomorrow will be a another bad day in the stock market. If you have stocks, sell now! But, it’s likely too late.

Stock market fell 15% and is at a 14 month low. It fell 2,000 points in one week! Trump and deplorables are the ones saying we’ll put up with all his crimes, and bad decisions because the stock market is rising. I’ve heard many Trump supporters say this! The fact that they are back-tracking now is priceless and proves they don’t know how to think, reason, and apply logic to daily life.

Trump supporters try to have it both ways…

1. Obama gets no credit for a rising stock market,
2. When the stock market fell under Obama, it’s Obama’s fault.
3. Trump gets 100% credit for a rising stock market,
4. When the stock market falls under Trump, it’s not his fault.

2. Syria Pullout

Trump announced Syria pullout via tweet with no input from his cabinet. Putin and Iran happy.

With a tweet and discussing with NO ONE, Trump pulls out of Syria causing Mattis to resign in protest. I’m for ending stupid wars, but to give up our territory in Syria to Putin and get nothing is crazy. Even when Obama gave up his “red line” he got Putin to take all chemical weapons out of Syria.

TRUMP IS WEAK ON RUSSIA. TODAY IS AN EXAMPLE! THE SANCTIONS THAT ARE IN PLACE ARE DISPITE TRUMP, NOT BECAUSE OF TRUMP! Trump literally tweeted that Putin hates this, the exact opposite of what Putin said today, and Trump apologists believe him!

The Argument to Pull Out of Syria.

Trump stays away from traditions even though tradition is usually the best approach. To achieve true greatness, you must stand on the shoulders of others. Trump refuses to even look at what others say, let alone evaluate their merit.

There is a strong argument to pull out of Syria. Here are some thoughts…

1. Legal — What legally gives us the right to be in Syria? Congress has not declared war and international law dictates that Syria must invite us in. Trump, Obama, and Bush used the original anti-terrorism bill after 911 to justify nearly every aggression since.
2. Trump ran on no more dumb wars. I suppose this could be the justification Trump is currently using, but the way he is pulling out is short sighted and strange.
3. Trump and the right criticized Obama for systematically drawing down in Iraq with a detailed plan. I’m confused by the silence by those same people for Trump’s sudden pulling out of Syria via tweet with no plan, and no plan for any troops. If a vacuum in Iraq under Obama was wrong, then a vacuum under Trump in Syria is wrong.
4. Turkey plans on slaughtering the Kurds.
5. The Kurds are looking for new allies.
6. No advanced notification to our allies, nor Congress, nor his own cabinet.

3. Afghanistan Pullout

Trump then announced a future pullout of Afghanistan too. Putin and Iran happy about that too.

4. Ryan Zinke Resigns

Ryan Zinke resigned in scandal.

5. Defense Secretary Mattis resigns

Defense Secretary Mattis resigned in protest of Trump’s inability to lead.

Read Mattis’ resignation letter. He resigned because Trump is unfit to lead. Today will be mentioned in the history books as…

On Dec 19, 2018, Trump pulls out of Syria with a tweet and with no input from his own cabinet. The next day his Defense Secretary Mattis resigns with a sobering resignation letter.

Defense Secretary James Mattis resigned Thursday, a day after President Donald Trump’s plans to withdraw troops from Syria became public.

Some on the right say Mattis is a democrat. To be clear, Mattis replied to that criticism saying, “I have never registered for a particular party in my life.”

Bottom line: No Defense Secretary should hear about the withdrawal of troops from twitter. And, it seems only Putin is happy about this decision. I wonder how Rand Paul feels about it? He’s an isolationist and should like it.

6. New Chief of Staff: Nick Mulvaney

Nick Mulvaney appointed new chief of staff for Trump apparently because he was “around” when Trump was looking.

7. Judge Strikes Down Trump Immigration Changes

Federal Judge struck down Trump’s asylum rule changes against domestic and gang violence. Once again proving Trump is clueless. The Congress makes laws. Trump needs to learn how the government works.

8. AG Whitaker Refuses to Recuse!

Acting AG Whitaker rejects DOJ ethic officials recommendation to recuse himself from the Mueller investigation.

Many believe

Matthew Whitaker was appointed by Trump as acting AG after Trump fired Sessions. Likely unconstitutionally. Likely to obstruct justice. The ethic advisers told him to recuse himself. He refused. That is unheard of! Originally, Whitaker was appointed by Don McGahn. There’s reporting that McGahn has given Mueller about 30 hours of testimony and that McGahn feels an obligation to the U.S., not Trump. There’s reporting that Trump mistakenly thought McGahn was “his” lawyer.

Why? Did Trump and his team look for protection? Mueller likely knows if Whitaker was put there explicitly to obstruct justice. McGahn is the one who put Whitaker in the DOJ as Session’s Cheif of Staff. And, McGahn is fully cooperating with Mueller. Reporting indicates abuot 30 hours of interviews.

• June 21, 2017: said Russia did not conspire with Trump campaign…how would he know?
• June 22, 2017: said there was not enough evidence for an investigation…how would he know?
• July 10, 2017: defended Trump Jr. for meeting with Russia
• July 26, 2017: said Trump or AG should cut Mueller budget
• August 3, 2017: said Rosenstein should stop Mueller from investigating Trump finances

9. Federal Judge calls Flynn Dishonorable and a Spy

Judge Sullivan criticized Flynn for treason, and essentially called him a spy in the white house. Refused to move forward with a light sentence. Flynn is now to cooperate more fully and stop lying about the FBI.

10. Michael Flynn

See Flynn Timeline. Mike Flynn is a war hero and a 4 star general. He knows right from wrong. He made some bad mistakes. Really bad. Flynn is a life-long Democrat. I wish this wasn’t true. He and his son are conspiracy nuts. For example, his son with support from dad actively promoted the Hillary Pedophile Pizzeria conspiracy.

Flynn was Trump’s NSA for a short 23 days. Prior to that he worked on the Trump campaign and lead a “lock her up” chant at the Republican convention. Karma is a bitch! Flynn poked fun at Hillary, leading the chant “Lock Her Up”. Many have reacted strongly to this because HRC is a good person, committed no crimes, fought for us all her life, and never was a foreign spy. Flynn lied to the FBI in the West Wing of the White House, and he was a foreign spy working for Turkey. Flynn is now awaiting sentencing for lying to the FBI.

Flynn willingly and fully cooperated with Mueller and is involved in two investigations. One of them he is an unindicted co-conspirator looking at no time while his partners are looking at 15 years.

JUDGE CALLS FLYNN A SPY, COMMITTED TREASON!!

Judge Sullivan criticized Flynn for treason, and essentially called him a spy in the white house. Refused to move forward with a light sentence. Flynn is now to cooperate more fully and stop lying about the FBI.

This judge is usually hard on government abuses, and over reach so this was unexpected. The judge put Flynn under oath at sentencing on Dec 19, 2018 and interrogated him. Basically, are you or are you not fully 100% guilty of being a Turkish spy, and committed federal crimes while in the White House!!

In all fairness, I think this judge is pissed that Flynn is trying to both plead guilty and say the FBI did something wrong. It’s also clear that this judge is pushing back against Mueller basically saying, this guy is a traitor to our country, and he did some of that while NSA IN THE WHITE HOUSE. Then, Trump fired the people trying to enforce law and order in the FBI.

For Judge Sullivan, and many others, Flynn’s biggest public sin is that Flynn lied to FBI officials on White House premises in the West Wing. For Judge Sullivan and many others, that is completely unforgivable.

Regarding the unindicted charge, Flynn launched an illegal kidnapping of an American resident for money. He and his partners were to get millions of dollars from the Turkish government once he was delivered. His partners are facing 15 years in prison for the crime. Flynn pursued this while working for the Trump campaign and held that position AFTER Jan 20, 2018 while NSA. That has offended many. Flynn dishonored the American flag and was LITERALLY a foreign spy being paid lots of money by Turkey to carry out spy missions, and by Russia for speaking engagements.

After Flynn was appointed NSA and while he was one of Trump’s National Policy Advisers, but before Jan 20th, Flynn took money from a foreign country. Flynn was a Turkish spy AFTER he was appointed NSA.

Also…

Nov 9…30 2016: Flynn Meets Secretly with Sergey Kislyak
In this time frame right after the election, Flynn met privately with Russia’s top spy master in the U.S. and ambassador. Then Flynn lied about it publicly and to the authorities. It is believed this meeting is one of the reasons Judge Sullivan was reluctant to give Flynn a light sentence. We know this from Flynn’s court documents.

Dec 22, 29 2016: Flynn Asks Russia to Ignore the Current President

See Flynn Timeline. On Dec 29, Flynn asks Russia to limit it’s response to Obama’s sanctions diminishing the effect of an act of the current President. On Dec 22, Flynn asks Russia to delay a pending UN Security Council resolution. Flynn knowingly broke the law. Specifically the never used Logan Act forbids incoming administrations from undermining the current administration. Something General Flynn would know. Later, on Jan 24, 2018, Flynn lies to the FBI about this communication–an indicator of a guilty mindset. He later pleads guilty to lying to the FBI. In the guilty plea, Flynn admits he was directed by multiple senior members of the Trump transition team huddled at Mar-a-Lago.

Jan 24 2017: Flynn Lies to the FBI about Russian Sanctions
CRIME: Lying to the FBI (U.S. Code, title 18, section 1001). On Dec 17, 2018, Judge Sullivan orders the FBI 302 of Flynn Interview released.

Open Questions:

1. Did Trump direct Flynn to lie to the FBI? Did Trump know he lied to the FBI? If either is true, that could be an impeachable crime. Nixon was impeached for a similar crime.
2. Who is involved in the two unknown investigations Flynn cooperated with Mueller on. Mueller was to investigate Russia, Trump and anything he came across. This could be related to Trump?

11. Trump Foundation Forced to Dissolve

Trump Foundation forced to dissolve because of blatant criminal acts including Federal Campaign election fraud. Trump used “charity” to benefit himself, not others.

Trump gave Pam Bondi $20k, Pam then dropped the TrumpU investigation. Furthermore, when questioned, Trump said they sent the money to Kansas, not Florida–a lie and evidence of guilt. The money for veterans was used in coordination with the campaign which is not legal.

12. Signed Trump Tower Moscow Letter of Intent Released

On Dec 18 CNN’s Chris Cuomo Released a copy of the signed Trump Tower Moscow Letter of Intent. Just days after Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuiliani said Trump never signed the letter of intent, Chris Cuomo releases the signed document. Embarrassing! Trump signed a letter of intent on Oct 28, 2015. Trump would spend his candidacy, transition, and 23 months in office denying it. And Russia knew, and had leverage over Trump during the campaign, and for 23 months of Trump’s presidency. CNN’s Chris Cuomo uncovered the document and published it on Dec 19, 2018. During the campaign, Trump lied to his voters and said he had nothing to do with Russia. He said no one at Trump Org, or with the campaign has any business with Russia. That was a lie. BIG QUESTION, WHAT, IF ANYTHING, HAS RUSSIA MADE TRUMP DO? AND, CAN MUELLER PROVE IT!

13. Flynn 302 Interview released proving Flynn was not tricked

On Dec 17, 2018, Judge Sullivan orders the FBI 302 of Flynn Interview released. This interview made it clear that Flynn knew this was a formal FBI interview and that he chose to break Federal law.

14. Flynn’s co-Turkish Spy Indicted

Trump was likely not involved with this conspiracy at all. Dec 12, 2018 indictment of Flynn’s business partner released. This court documents shows Flynn was facing decades in prison. The next day on the 18th, Judge Sullivan puts Flynn under oath and Flynn admits he knew he was lying, and hat it was a big deal. The judge essentially calls Flynn a traitor that dishonored the American flag.

15. Senate Releases 2 Russia 2016 Election Interference Reports

The Senate released two new reports prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee by independent researchers. They reveal that Moscow’s intelligence officials reached millions of social media users between 2013 and 2017. READ BOTH REPORTS HERE.

From these reports we learned or confirmed…

• Russia favored Trump over Clinton.
• Russia targeted African Americans.
• Russia focused on political and national security issues–not the election.
• Russia’s influence was wider than most thought–not me, I saw it clearly during the campaign.

And, Russia’s strategy worked! For example:

• In MI, Stein received 51,463 votes. Trump won by 10,704 votes.
• In PA, Stein received 49,678 votes. Trump won by 46,765 votes.
• In WI, Stein received 31,006 votes. Trump won by 22,177 votes.

16. Government Shutdown Looming

The government shut down 4 days before Christmas because two right-wing entertainers criticized Trump. Remember, the Republicans control the House, Senate, and Presidency and still cannot govern! The government shut down 3 times in 22 months under Trump and Republican rule. That has never happened before.

Remember, Trump indicated to the Senate what he wanted. The Senate in a bipartisan unanimous vote agreed to what Trump wanted. Then, Trump shut down the government because two entertainers got mad at him. Limbaugh and Coulter spoke out and got mad. Trump, a weak leader, then called Rush Limbaugh and kissed agreed to do as Limbaugh and Coulter demanded. Trump is asking for $5 billion to build the wall when he’s only spent a small amount of the $1.6 billion he has now to spend. Why would we give him more money when he can’t even spend the money he has now? Also, $5 billion is a lot of money. Trump, Republicans, and entertainers like Rush Limbaugh are currently saying this is a small amount of money so just spend it on the wall. What?

BOTTOM LINE: MEXICO NEEDS TO PAY FOR TRUMP’S STUPID WALL THAT WILL DO NOTHING BUT STOKE RACISM. REPUBLICANS ARE STILL 100% IN CHARGE RIGHT NOW AND EVEN THEY DON’T WANT TO PAY FOR THE WALL!

17: Maria Butina Plead Guilty, Agreed to Cooperate, Not Mueller, US Attorney

On Dec 13, we learned from court transcripts and documents that…

• From 2015-2018 Butina worked as a Russian Secret Spy and conspired with others to attack America running covert operations lead by the Kremlin. We know from other court documents and reporting that Maria Butina conspired with Americans including Republican politicians and the NRA to attack America. (So far, the NRA has only admitted publicly that they only received about $2,500 from Russia, and a small gift from Torshin.)
• In the court documents we also learned that Republican activist Paul Erickson received a target letter and the government is looking at charging him as a co-Russian spy!
• We learned Torshin was Butina’s handler. (Butina agreed to cooperate last Thursday, Torshin resigned from the Russian Bank on Friday.)
• In Mar 2015 both Maria and Paul agreed to conspire with the Russian government. Their covert operations would be directed by their handler Torshin for the Kremlin to affect politics in America.
• In August 2016 Erickson setup a “very” secure back channel between Republican leaders to the Kremlin and directly to Putin using the NRA. This was setup using their handler Torshin.

Note: We also now know that Maria Butina has testified to a Grand Jury. We know this because prosecutors accidentally posted a court document that was supposed to  be under seal for a few hours and a reporter got “some” of the court filing.

18. AMI Non-Prosecution Agreement Released to the Public

On Dec 12, the AMI agreement was released to the public minutes after Cohen was sentenced to 3 years in prison. The agreement is contingent on continued cooperation by AMI. What other secrets did the National Enquirer conspire with Trump to hide? We now know why on July 22, 2016, Trump said the National Enquirer should have won a Pulitzer. This absurd statement is part of the evidence of the Campaign Fraud Conspiracy.

The McDougal scam emerged just days before the election when the Wall Street Journal reported about her agreement with the National Enquirer. AMI lied and said, “[it] has not paid people to kill damaging stories about Mr. Trump.” In 2018, an article in the The New Yorker documented the tabloid practice of “catch and kill.”

From court transcripts and documents, we learned…

• AMI entered a cooperation agreement and named Trump, Trump Org, and Trump campaign as co-conspirator.
• AMI, the parent company of the National Inquirer, admitted the Karen McDougal payment of $150k was specifically to help elect Trump!
• AMI admitted paying hush money to help Trump ahead of 2016 election.
• Both Pecker and David Howard, VP at AMI, were offered immunity by Mueller.
• AMI admitted the payment was designed to influence the election and in concert with Trump, the Trump Organization, the Trump campaign, and maybe others–that’s conspiracy.
• Weisselberg was given immunity and was the only non-Trump that can write checks. The other 4 are Trump, Trump Jr, Eric, and Ivanka. Everybody involved is either in prison or received immunity. Expect indictments.
• We learned this criminal conspiracy was launched in August 2015, Donald Trump, Michael Cohen, and David Pecker launched a CRIMINAL conspiracy to defraud the American voter. They agree to buy and hold any negative stories that come out about Trump.
• We learned that at least one of the AMI agreements that was seized in the Cohen raid mentioned that the story was to be held until after Nov 6, 2016 (election day).

19. Cohen “Statement of Admitted Facts” released

On Dec 12, agreement released minutes after Cohen was sentenced to 3 years in prison.

20. Cohen Sentenced.

On Dec 12, Trump’s longtime personal lawyer and fixer was sentenced to 3 years in prison. Cohen was convicted on 9 federal crimes including 2 with Trump. And, Trump directed the 2 crimes he is named in. The president is an unindicted co-conspirator. Crimes included tax evasion, false statements to congress,  etc. Think about that! The president’s personal lawyer is going to prison for 3 years for doing work for Trump!

In court documents we learned…

• Two of the federal crimes committed by Michael Cohen were directed by Trump.

This week! Stock market down. #SyriaWithdrawal #RyanZinke resigned. Mattis resigned in protest. New chief of staff. Whitaker refuses to recuse. Judge criticized Flynn for treason. Trump Foundation dissolved. Signed Tower Letter Released. #ShutDownGovhttps://t.co/UWNjjvtD1r

— Mike A Prestwood (@TouchstoneTruth) December 21, 2018