Blake Shuart: Peter Strzok gives Trump daylight in Mueller investigation

President Donald Trump has been Teflon since back when John Gotti was still a Don. While Trump was busy building his real estate and casino empire one shiny, eponymous skyscraper – and one near-fatal financial disaster – at a time, Gotti was busy dodging convictions.

But then a blood-thirsty Department of Justice supervisor named Robert Mueller brought Gotti’s Teflon to its melting point. A quarter-century later, Mueller is once again out for blood, but this time it’s Trump and his associates who are feeling the heat. Can Trump stay cool enough to persevere?

Trump has proven repeatedly that if you give him a seed and an inch of daylight, he’ll grow a forest, then bury a scandal in its depths. Give him just a sliver of space to maneuver and he drives a tank right through his opposition, crushing them under the weight of his denials, threats and aggressive counter-accusations. This is how Trump used to do business as a real estate magnate, and it’s how he does business now as leader of the free world.

When it comes to the Mueller investigations, Peter Strzok is all the daylight Trump may need. Strzok has worn two important hats recently in his capacity as a top-level FBI agent.

First, Strzok led the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server as second-in-charge in the counterintelligence division. It has now been revealed that it was Strzok who changed former FBI Director James Comey’s description of Clinton’s mishandling of classified information in his report – describing her actions as “extremely careless” rather than “grossly negligent.” This was hardly semantics, as the federal statutes governing the mishandling of classified material set forth penalties for “gross negligence.”

Second, Strzok was the FBI official who signed the paperwork officially opening an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. He initially joined Mueller’s team of investigators, but was removed from the role last summer after an internal document review uncovered messages Strzok had exchanged with another FBI expert assigned to the Mueller team during the 2016 campaign. The messages were reportedly pro-Clinton.

Will Trump hesitate to drive a tank through the Mueller investigation on this basis? If you’re thinking it’s unlikely the president will overlook that a one-time member of Mueller’s investigative team wrote messages supporting Clinton and making fun of Trump during the campaign, softened key language in Comey’s draft report relating to Clinton’s e-mail server, and then signed the paperwork opening Mueller’s investigation, you’re correct. Trump has already taken to Twitter to voice his outrage. Meanwhile, Strzok is set to appear before the House Intelligence Committee.

Regardless of whether Trump is legally capable of “obstructing justice” in his capacity as commander in chief, any impeachment proceedings would be primarily political in nature. Several of Trump’s Republican colleagues would have to vote to impeach, and this already seems unlikely, given the president’s high approval rating within his own party.

But the Strzok revelations may have now given Trump the daylight he needs to completely discredit Mueller and his investigative team. This is the opportunity he has been waiting for. Rest assured – it will not be laid to waste.

This story was originally published December 11, 2017 at 4:27 AM with the headline "Blake Shuart: Peter Strzok gives Trump daylight in Mueller investigation."