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Meuller Trump investigation unfolds on Twitter [UPDATES]

By Chris Burns/

We're living through a day that'll be remembered in history books, and we're getting in-the-minute updates from Twitter. News on the ground comes from the same online social media platform current-President Donald Trump used over the past half-decade to build himself up and tear others down – this is where we see everything happen in real time. Connections are made as revelations from the news media appear, especially from one Law Professor and Attorney Seth Abramson.

Today is the first day of major indictments made by Robert Mueller in his investigation of the Trump administration's potential for illegal Russian collusion during the 2016 election for President of the United States. As such, it's an important day to watch the news – or it would have been, had we been in this situation a decade ago. Today we look to Twitter to see what's happening as it's happening.

Abramson can be found on Twitter as @SethAbramson and his Tweets read as you might expect from a professor in Journalism and Law. These messages on Twitter aimed to educate and to explore the topic in a way that's simple to understand.



Abramson spoke about the implications of Meuller's team's actions on this day, from an attorney's perspective. In the next couple Tweets (embedded below) he mentioned why Meuller indicted Manafort first – and what that means in the grand scheme of things.



Next we've got a few documents from the case as it stands today. These papers, in a gallery below, in screenshots, came from the New York Times. Perhaps the most important point in this document is that COUNT ONE is "Conspiracy Against The United States". This is a major offense.

As Abramson suggests, Conspiracy Against The United States can mean many things. But it remains a major offense – and one that'll be "most key for bail" as such. While several charges rest in financial crimes, Meuller's moves before today were much more grandiose than financial crimes would require.



Next is a key point made by Abramson. Because of Manafort's past work with the Ukraine and Russia, there's a real connection with Putin. That connection with the Russian government is absolutely vital to the furtherance of this investigation. Further, that is, than the money laundering in the initial list of charges.



Again, this is not the end, it's just one of many phases in this investigation. The future is potentially long-ranging, and includes many major names from within the Trump camp.



As Abramson was covering the events as they unfolded today, it was revealed that Papadopoulos had plead guilty 25 days ago. On the 5th of October, 2017, Papadopoulos flipped – AKA he began to speak freely to Mueller's investigative team. He began to give massive amounts of details to Mueller, likely having made a plea agreement in some form or another.

The above clipping is from the linked document in which it's revealed that Papadopoulos had already spoken with Meuller back on the 5th of October, 2017. Nearly a month later, it's quite likely Meuller has a LOT more information than what's presented in this document.

Above you'll see the Abramson tweet linked above – a little after 9:30 AM – in which the document containing Papadopoulos' statements and evidence of a plea are released / leaked. As of 3:07 PM here on October 30th, Donald Trump stopped tweeting at 9:28 AM. This is very uncharacteristic of Donald Trump, indicative of behind-the-scenes action without public reaction.

UPDATE: Per WhiteHouse.GOV, President Trump had lunch with the Vice President as well as Jeff Sessions. Sessions recused himself from the FBI's Trump campaign/Russian collusion investigation which Meuller currently heads. After recusing himself from said investigation, Sessions recommended to Trump that James Comey be fired. Comey at that time was leading the FBI's investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

"In the afternoon, the President will have lunch with Vice President Mike Pence and Attorney General Jeff Sessions." – White House's "1600 Daily" for October 30, 2017

Below you'll see the three-tweet string which lays out Papadopoulos' most damning moment in this investigation. If Trump ordered the GOP to change their platform before the 2016 RNC, before P's meeting to set up a channel between a future President Trump and the Kremlin, but before the hacking and release of DNC emails, there's real conspiracy at work. Collusion has been proven.

Abramson believes this is the beginning of the end for President Trump. And his Twitter-based coverage continues. Keep your ear to the web as we roll down this path into utterly uncharted waters over the next few weeks and months.



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