UPDATE MARCH 23, 2017

Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D | Los Angeles County) issued the following statement regarding the CNN report that Trump associates possibly colluded with Russia to affect the outcome of the 2016 election in the United States.

“The bombshell revelation that U.S. officials have information that suggests Trump associates may have colluded with the Russians means we must pause the entire Trump agenda. We may have an illegitimate President of the United States currently occupying the White House.” “Other than allowing routine governmental functions, there must be a total and complete shutdown of any agenda item being pushed by the Trump Administration. Congress cannot continue regular order and must stop voting on any Trump-backed agenda item until the FBI completes its Trump-Russia collusion investigation.” “Congress must immediately form an independent commission and appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the collusion allegations with impartiality and independence. Congress also needs to pass the Resolution of Inquiry, authored by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and I, to compel the Trump Administration to publicly disclose information on its Russian ties to the American people. At this point in our nation’s history, there is nothing more important than finding out whether or not high crimes were committed by associates of Donald Trump or possibly by Trump himself.”

The so-called President is in deep shit.

So says Rep. Ted Lieu (R-California). Lieu is an Attorney and a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve JAG Corp so he knows his stuff when it comes to lawyering and criminal prosecutions.

The Hill reported on Saturday that Rep. Justin Amash (R – Michigan) had joined calls from Senator Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska), Lindsay Graham (R- SC) and John McCain (R-Arizona) for Congressional investigations into Trump’s wild accusations against the previous administration.

It seems that the Meister of Mar-A-Lago might have finally stepped in it, because he has – perhaps unwittingly – set up a showdown where of the three possible outcomes, and the two most likely outcomes are very very bad for him.

If there was a wiretap in Trump Tower or of the Trump Organization, then it almost certainly came with a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) Court. The Intercept reports that the FISA court did issue a warrant based on a Justice Department request. Although that does not mean the White House “tapped” anything and there is no evidence that Trump Tower was specifically involved.

Such a warrant, if it exists, would be based on probable cause of criminality. Some are now arguing that his tweet effectively de-classifies it. So if Trump is essentially right – that there was surveillance – it’s because his team was being investigated on the basis of probable cause to believe they were engaged in serious criminal activities. This is the most likely outcome and it is very bad for the so-called President.

Alternatively, Trump is lying. He’s just making shit up cause he’s pissed that his Administration is turning into a world historical collision between a raging dumpster fire and the Gong Show. He read some crap on Breitbart, connected the dots with some stuff that he was being told about Justice Department programs, and went off on an twitter rant. Even more likely is that the thinking behind this is to muddy the waters because he knows his team is complicit and has much to hide.

Well Mr. Trump, do you want more investigations? Because this is how you get more investigations.

Given that he seems reluctant to the point of paranoia to be transparent with regards to his team’s involvement with the Russian government and even more closed when it comes to his financial affairs, this would seem to guarantee an investigation that would pry deeply and publicly into these matters.

This opens up Mr Trump to exposure on whatever he has been hiding. So quite alot I would assume.

The third option of course is that Mr Trump is right and the White House was executing a wiretapping program without a warrant or the Justice Department a la the Watergate plumbers. Perhaps Obama himself slinking around Trump Towers in Verizon coveralls splicing wires. If this happened, then Obama is in deep shit.

This did not happen.

But given that Mr Trump has the power to declassify everything, it will be interesting if he chooses to clear the air by doing so or if he continues to simply to fling wild accusations without providing proof. If he does not provide transparency he is likely creating irresistible pressure on Congress to widen the investigation into the Russian affair. And given that this matter has claimed one scalp so far (Flynn) and nearly another (Sessions) – not to mention as many as 7 suspiciously dead Russians – it is not likely to end well for 45.

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