Sweaty times for Trump and Co. as Mueller turns up the heat

The numbers 19 and 70 must be weighing heavily on the minds of certain people in the Trump administration, including President Donald Trump himself.

We learned late Tuesday that the president’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, as part of a plea agreement, has been interviewed 19 times by attorneys from special counsel Robert Mueller’s team and by other Justice Department attorneys, providing “documents and communications” and “substantial assistance in a criminal investigation.” That assistance has been substantial enough that Mueller, in Flynn’s sentencing memo, recommends the retired Army lieutenant general serve no prison time after pleading guilty to lying to federal agents about his communications with Russian officials prior to Trump’s inauguration.

The lenient sentencing recommendation for a serious crime indicates that during those 19 meetings, Flynn provided the special counsel and other investigators with a wealth of information regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election and the extent of communication between Trump’s team and the Russian government.

If you’re Trump, or if you were a member of Trump’s presidential transition team, or if you’re Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who, according to several news reports, directed Flynn to reach out to the Russians, then the number 19 is causing you to lose weight in sweat.

And then there’s the number 70. That, according to ABC News, is the number of hours Trump’s former attorney and personal fixer Michael Cohen spent talking with attorneys from the special counsel’s office.

Last week, we learned that Cohen reached a plea deal with Mueller. The attorney admitted he lied to Congress about when a deal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow fell through. Cohen told Congress the deal ended in January 2016, but he acknowledged in his plea deal that negotiations with Russia continued through June 2016, while Trump was securing the GOP presidential nomination and claiming he had no deals or contacts with Russians.

Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Toobin wrote in the New Yorker: “It’s true that Trump had the right to do business in Russia during the time when he was a candidate, but the public also had a right to know where his true financial interests lay. It would have been highly relevant to the public to learn that Trump was negotiating a business deal with Russia at the same time that he was proposing to change American policy toward that country. Not only was the public deprived of this information but Cohen’s guilty plea indicates that voters were actively misled about Trump’s interests.”

If you’re a person who likes to parrot the president’s crowlike caws of “WITCH HUNT!”, you might want to start easing back a bit closer to reality. Because while the details of Mueller’s investigation remain murky — huge swaths of Flynn’s sentencing memo were redacted, indicating a stockroom full of shoes left to drop — the scope of it is beyond question.

And however much presidential perspiration the numbers 19 and 70 might be causing, sweat buckets will be needed by the end of this week. On Friday, Mueller is expected to file sentencing memos for Cohen and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

The Manafort memo will explain how Manafort has, according to the special counsel’s office, breached his plea agreement by lying to prosecutors. It will detail those lies and, more important, the evidence that shows Manafort has been lying.

That all makes for a sweaty White House. We’re talking antiperspirant-defying, post-marathon-level sweatiness. Clammy hands and foreheads.

The nervous sweat you get when you know the crooks you’ve surrounded yourself with have had 19 meetings with the good guys and 70 hours with the hounds on your tail. And two more doses of bad news are coming before you even get to the weekend.

The numbers are not in the Trump administration’s favor.

Here’s to a sweaty, sweaty winter.

Handicapped parking fees add to burden

To the officials of Fort Lauderdale who voted to institute the requirement that handicapped people displaying the appropriate parking permit to park in a handicapped space in a municipal garage must now pay the parking fee:

Why do you think handicapped persons have gone to the effort of consulting with their doctor, having the necessary forms filled out and submitted to the DMV, and park in designated handicapped spaces?

Because they can walk pain free? Wrong!

Now you are asking them to walk to the pay station, stand there while they get a ticket, walk back to their car, then lean in to place it on the dashboard. All of that painful effort on the part of each of those people just to bring in a few extra bucks?!

Shame on all of you who voted for this mean-spirited idea!

Not exactly welcoming to tourists either. Janice Doyle, Plantation

Lantana mayor deserves support of residents

It upsets me to read in the news about the accusation made against Lantana’s mayor, David Stewart.

I am a neighbor who has known Dave for over 30 years. He has always been an honest, reliable and above all, an ethical man. Just like many of us, Dave has made a silly comment or two. However, he would never demand anything in return for a favorable vote at the Town Council.

On a number of occasions, Dave gave me a ride home from a meeting. As we would joke and laugh about things, Dave remained a gentleman.

To see a Dave Stewart investigation turn into a Judge Kavanaugh episode, would be awful. Mayor David Stewart has served Lantana very well and deserves the support of his constituents.

Karen Zacker,

Lantana