The stock market tanked briefly last Friday on a misleading ABC News report that made it seem as though President Trump’s legal problems were increasing.
That report, which got an ABC News correspondent in deep trouble, said Trump gave orders to retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn (then a national security adviser) to contact the Russians before he won the election.
It was later corrected that the order came after Trump had won – during the transition. On that correction, the stock market regained most of the ground it had lost.
Friday’s action gave us a preview of what is going to happen if Trump gets into real trouble.
Early on, I was following this stuff closely and had very good sources. These days, I’m working on a story that I can’t tell you about that – if it turns out to be true – will dominate the headlines for months.
But last year, I was one of the first – if not the first – to tell you that FBI agents who investigated Hillary Clinton’s missing e-mails were in revolt because of the way then-FBI Director James Comey handled the investigation and how he let Clinton off the hook. I even reported exclusively that the agents working on the Clinton e-mail investigation were forced to sign nondisclosure agreements because Comey didn’t want them talking. That’s more understandable today since FBI agent Peter Strzok, who was high up in the investigation, has now been outed as a Trump hater. I also reported how Comey lied when he said that all the FBI agents who worked on the Clinton case agreed that she shouldn’t be prosecuted. Now, it’s clear that was also not true. Those are just a couple of the contributions I made when I was following this stuff. I also told you – in no uncertain terms – that Hillary was going to lose the election, primarily because the economy was hurting but also because she and Bill seemed to be doing too well to be honest. So now I’m going to make another prediction. Trump’s opponents seem to have given up on the tack that Russia interfered in the election and that the president seemed to have been somehow involved. Now the anti-Trump case is about obstruction of the Flynn investigation. If that fails – or when that fails – the Trump haters will try to tar the president with the same sexual harassment charges that are working successfully on other high-powered men. Will Trump be forced from office? I don’t know. But I do know what will happen to the stock market if that becomes a real possibility. Last Friday showed us that.
Published in Daily Times, December 11th 2017.