WASHINGTON, D.C. Oct. 31 (DPI) – Yesterday’s indictment of lobbyist and one-time Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and two colleagues sets the stage for a more criminal charges against more of the President’s men, readers across the political spectrum are agreeing.  “We’re just getting started,” wrote Glen Handler, whose online pseudonym is “Socrates,” on NYTimes.com yesterday.  “This is a test to see whether Donald Trump can cope with the rule of American law.”  The comment was most recommended among nearly 900 posts yesterday.

While many comments on the right-leaning Wall Street Journal site question Mueller’s motives and suggest he’s ignoring past misdeeds by Democrats, particularly Hilary Clinton, several more comments agreed Mueller is still in round one of long bout.  Mueller “already caught one fish and is reeling in two others.  He’s just getting warmed up.”

NYTimes.com most popular reader comments:

Now I understand why the Republicans are so hell bent on investigating the uranium deal, it’s so they can lead the investigation to the then head of the FBI, Robert Mueller, and therefore try and force him to step aside from being the Special counsel investigating Russia. I’m so disgusted that the United States is being run in such a fashion. What ever happened to integrity, honor, and country before party?

Every New Yorker knows that the path to unmasking Trump is through money laundering, tax evasion and other illegalities. The law allows people to mask their identities when they purchase real estate through LLCs. The whole industry is an invitation to corruption and Trump invented the category.  Every expensive condo in NY is laundering huge sums for wealthy people from all over the world.

Follow the money…toward Trump’s tax returns, where we will see the connection to Russian money laundering, millions owed by Trump, and the incentive to cozy up to the one segment of the world that Trump has never criticized nor denigrated.

Mueller is playing chess. Sweet that he held back releasing the news of Papadapoulous plea and cooperation until Trump had tweeted that there was no bad news for him in those indictments. As soon as the info about Papadopoulos was released, Trump went silent. He’s still silent now.  Well played, Mr. Mueller.

I’m convinced that Mueller already has unearthed damaging information against Trump. Mueller has had access to Trump’s tax returns and just about everything else. You can just imagine what information that he’s unearthed and holding. It’s going to be interesting to see what strategy Mueller uses going forward. Firing Mueller is not going to make the truth go away now. It will probably only escalate it going public.

Alexis de Tocqueville noted that one of the strongest elements of American democracy was our civil society, that sector of our nation that is controlled neither by commercial interests nor the government. It contains our non-profits, our churches, our unions, as well as less formalized congregations of citizens who are able to organize around a specific cause, even temporarily, in order to achieve an aim. It will be that American civil society, along with our free press and political reporting, that salvages us from this dreadful time in this country’s history. Corporate America won’t resist. The Republican led government is already deeply enmeshed in the tragedy. It will be the active and engaged American citizen, informed by the American press, both free under their Constitution, that sees us through this.