The Fugitive at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

These are sad days for our Republic, unless we truly recognize the road before us, which began at the framing of our Constitutional system.

In April, of 2019, we learned of the partial outcome of Robert Mueller’s 22-months long prosecutorial effort contained within those hundreds of pages.

Any fair reading of just its early pages leads to the conclusion that Mr. Mueller nearly begs the Congress to now pick up the ball. After an open and outright defiance of our constitutional structure, the House acted. It impeached Donald John Trump.

And while the House Impeachment did not expressly include the allegations of the Mueller Report, its findings are still available to the Congress and the Courts to prove the persistent pattern or modus operandi of a criminally-inclined President.

Nevertheless, Trump and his “base” seized upon a few straws to desperately and falsely claim that Congress had not impeached him. And despite a Supreme Court decision holding Trump lacks absolute presidential immunity as to criminal process, he continues his pattern of criminality.

Somehow, I think Robert Mueller anticipated all of this conduct. Even as he filed a Report declining to make “traditional prosecutorial judgments,” we can now see that Mueller’s experience plainly counseled that an unrepentant criminal like Trump would simply re-engage criminal behavior as soon as he believed the “cop on the beat” was gone.

One must now wonder if Mueller’s limited determination that no criminal conspiracy with the “Russian government” could be chargeable was as tactical as it was discretionary — just as police let a suspect leave custody so they can watch him return to the scene of the crime.

Did Robert Mueller fully anticipate Mr. Trump’s gloating of “game over” even while there still existed an abundance of evidence that Donald Trump committed “constitutional crimes” — including Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Justice?

And now, despite having been impeached and denied his specious claim of absolute immunity, Mr. Trump feels so certain that he has “rigged” the system that he continues lawbreaking — including funneling money from his campaign coffers to his personal business.

This behavior shows us more than ever that we need to remember carefully Mr. Mueller’s analysis of Obstruction of Justice in Mueller Report Volume Two — -if for no other reason than it provides insight into what he (Trump) may be doing right now to undermine and subvert a potential criminal investigation.

We must conclude that the evidence and testimony hidden by the impeachment “stonewall” was even more damaging than in the Mueller Report. For instance, suppose Trump knew of Putin’s plan to pay bounties on U.S. troops?

Suppose Trump and Putin reached a “thieves bargain” whereby Trump would deny Ukraine its military assistance and Putin would delay his payments to the Taliban in exchange. Suppose that is why Trump refuses to now confront him with this as he is sworn to as Commander-in-Chief?

If so, we can better understand Trump’s desperate efforts to get a Mitch McConnell to conduct a Senate Trial without witnesses. Trump knew that far more damaging evidence could be forthcoming from sources wholly beyond his control. Like John Bolton.

Now following the Supreme Court decision in Trump v. Vance, Mr. Trump knows it is all just a matter of time.

If he loses in November, not only might he be indicted by Vance in New York State but he may face a sequence of uncontrolled leaks from his national security personnel — some of whom may realize the need to escape potential criminal liability if they participated in a scheme to conceal the Russian bounty program.

And of course, Trump can now plainly recognize that it will really only be a matter of time before either of his two possibly criminal schemes is revealed. One would be the fraud scheme apparently being investigated by the Manhattan DA; the second a betrayal of his country so immense that a pardon could never wipe away the shame.

We can see that Donald Trump. is a fugitive living in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And in the final analysis, he is unlikely to ever escape the clear verdict of history.

-Albert Turner Goins

[This essay is based on an essay I wrote in April of 2019.]