The virus isn’t the only thing going on in Washington that Wall Street and investors need to pay attention to.
There is another Black Swan about to take flight that could poop on the markets.
As I’ve been telling you for a long time, there are going to be repercussions from the political scandals of 2016.
The time is coming soon – maybe very soon – when we will find out who will be indicted and what impact these legal actions will have on the 2020 presidential election.
John Durham, the US Attorney in Connecticut, has been investigating whether there was wrongdoing before and after the last presidential election. His focus seems to be on whether warrants were improperly obtained to spy on the Trump campaign.
But over the two-plus years since Durham has been on the case, the probe seems to have expanded. High up intelligence officers in the US seem to be the target.
Durham’s probe could turn very political if his evidence determines that actions were taken by the intelligence community to aid the Democrats.
Recently, Attorney General Bill Barr had this to say about Durham’s probe: “His primary focus isn’t to prepare a report. He is looking to bring to justice people who were engaged in abuses,” Barr said.
Barr added, “We are going to get to the bottom of it. And if people broke the law, and we can establish that with the evidence, they will be prosecuted.”
“My own view,” Barr said, “is that the evidence shows that we’re not dealing with just mistakes and sloppiness. There’s something far more troubling here. And we’re going to get to the bottom of it.”
The longer it takes for Durham to disclose his finding the more this’ll look like political payback for the impeachment antics.
Barr was supposed to go before the House at the end of March and that’s when I expected some news. That appearance was canceled because of coronavirus.
The fact that the attorney general is now making these public statements means he’s giving us a heads up.
Hopefully the virus will be old news by the November election. The results of the Durham investigation will be front and center either way.
Wall Street won’t be riled if there are indictments of US intelligence leaders and maybe even some Democrats. But the financial markets won’t be happy if the Democrats retaliate and cause legislative business to come to a halt before the virus has stopped hurting the US economy.
