Last One Out, Shut the Door

Welcome to Walmart:  Associate General Counsel Rachel Brand, third in line at the Justice Department, announced her resignation yesterday evening.  Brand was next in line at Justice, after Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, so her departure is significant because she was the person expected to step into Rosenstein’s shoes, assuming supervision of Special Counsel Mueller, if Rosenstein is ever forced out or needs to recuse himself from the Russia investigation. Described as a Republican stalwart, Brand is widely respected and very ambitious.  Her position at the Justice Department was widely coveted and under ordinary circumstances is one that no one would leave, especially someone like Brand whose ultimate goal is a federal judicial appointment, one that could serve as a stepping stone to the Supreme Court.  Though those goals seem lofty, Brand was so well regarded that many, particularly in main stream conservative circles, thought they were realistic.  Brand said that she is leaving because she has received “a once in a lifetime”  job offer, it was later revealed that she will be joining Walmart as the company’s chief legal officer, a few steps up from greeter, but hardly a once in a lifetime offer for someone with her undisputed credentials and ambitions.  More likely, Brand, who has been privy to lots of the goings on in the Trump administration, jumped ship because she sees the writing on the wall, doesn’t want to be the person to fire Mueller because Robert Bork, the last person who acted on behalf of a disreputable president, sacrificed his reputation and missed out on a Supreme Court seat because he agreed to perform Nixon’s dirty deeds.  On the other hand, as a Republican loyalist, Brand also doesn’t want to be known as the Trump “Saturday Night Massacre” trigger, the linchpin who quits instead of firing Mueller.  At least for now, Brand is off to corporate America but we may get to hear from her soon.  In all likelihood, she’s already been interviewed by Mueller and may be invited back to testify in front of Congress to the extent that anyone believes that she knows where some bodies are buried.  As to Mueller and Rosenstein, they can’t be all that happy about Brand’s departure.  With Brand gone, Trump’s road to Mueller just got easier.  For the moment the Solicitor General Noel Francisco, a Trump appointee, is expected to assume Brand’s position in the Justice hierarchy.  Anyone looking for historical analogies may find it ironic that Robert Bork was the Solicitor General when he agreed to fire Archibald Cox, the Watergate Special Prosecutor.  Trump may be hoping that Francisco would happily do the same for him. Sadly, any parallels with Watergate could end there because it’s not clear that this complicit Congress would take a cue from their predecessors by rehiring Mueller or appointing another like-minded soul.  The November mid-term elections can’t come soon enough.    

More Domestic Abusers:  Maybe its because few people with relevant experience have been willing to join this White House or maybe it’s because up until now the Trump White House just didn’t think that a history of spousal abuse was a disqualifying factor, whatever the reason last night another White House staff member was shown the door after it was revealed that he, like Rob Porter, had abused one of his two former wives.  David Sorensen, a speech writer working for Stephen Miller, the guy who looks like he would be a spouse abuser if only he had one,  “resigned” after the White House realized that having another wife beater on the payroll wasn’t really such a good idea.  Sorensen denies that he ever beat his wife, instead saying that her claims that he ran over her foot with his car, put out a cigarette on her arm, or threatened to throw her overboard were the results of her overactive imagination.  The stout Sorensen admits that his marriage was volatile but claims that his rather petite former wife was the real abuser. Before working for the Trump White House, Sorensen worked for Maine Governor LePage, another odd character, where he was known for being especially combative.  Although Sorensen’s departure came too late in the day for Trump to have much to say about it, Trump did manage to get a few kind words in about Porter. Trump, who was once accused of abuse by his first wife Ivana and who thinks that Judge Moore was unfairly accused of child abuse, praised Porter pointing out "He says he's innocent, and I think you have to remember that"…."he said very strongly yesterday that he's innocent, but you'll have to talk to him about that.”  Trump, who reportedly bashed Porter internally, may be covering his own back, signaling to Porter, who probably also knows where a few bodies are buried, that he’ll get a nice reference and some good job offers if he remembers to only say nice things about him on his way out the door. Though he’s not out the door yet, Chief of Staff Kelly is under attack.  In addition to accusations that he mishandled the whole Porter situation, Kelly’s prior history of supporting an officer who was accused of domestic abuse has now come to light.  That officer, who Kelly praised, went on to become a child molester. Though the White House denies reports that Kelly formally offered his resignation to Trump over the Porter imbroglio, Kelly appears to have made it known that he will leave when and if asked, and to the extent that Trump can find someone willing to assume his position, he may be asked.  Names currently being bandied around as replacements include Congressman Kevin McCarthy, Budged Director Mick Mulvaney,  buddy Tom Barrack and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.  For his part, Kelly impressed few when he described the timeline of events related to the Porter exit.  Apparently, Kelly is now claiming that he pushed Porter out the door as soon as he learned about the extent of the accusations against him, a version of events that others in the White House dispute.  Hope Hicks, who definitely knows far too much to be fired, appears to be doing just fine.  Last night Trump released a statement saying that “Hope Hicks is absolutely fantastic. She was with the campaign from the beginning and I could not ask for anything more Hope is smart, very talented and respected by all.”  In other words, she’s staying on the inside because Hope on the outside, talking like crazy,  would be a disaster for me.  One more interesting point, dozens of other White House employees, including Jared Kushner, still don’t have permanent security clearances because of problems with their applications.  The Trump party line is that because so many member of his staff come from outside of government,  the review process has been more complicated and taken more time as compared with prior White House’s where reviews were generally completed within nine months.  Others in the know say that because Trump has decided to overlook Kushner’s conflicts and disqualifications, it’s been difficult to force others out over their infractions. No doubt a few other records of abuse or worse are lurking in some of their files.  Having family in the White House is another one of those complicated things.  

No Rebuttal For You:  What’s good for the goose is not good for the gander.  Trump, who was happy to support the release of the Nunes memo even before it was reviewed by the FBI and the Justice Department and who then released the memo over FBI and Justice’s objections, announced late last night that he won’t be authorizing the release of the Democrats rebuttal, the one that reportedly disproves much, if not all, of what’s in the original Nunes memo.  Trump’s excuse for sitting on the Democratic rebuttal is that it has not passed FBI and Justice review.  To be clear, that only matters because this is a truth telling Democratic memo, not a fictional Republican memo.  Adam Schiff and his not so merry band of Democratic aides plan to sit down with representatives from the FBI and Justice on Tuesday to work through the memo, with the goal of working out revisions, more likely redactions, that will then be passed back to Trump for his “approval.”  Trump’s efforts to squelch the Democrats rebuttal are probably going over well with his base and those who believe deep state conspiracies but have backfired by whetting everyone else’s appetite.  To the extent that the Democratic rebuttal is ever released, it will get even more attention than it might have if it had been slipped out quietly late on Saturday, after all the Sunday political shows had already been taped.  

Hello, my name is Rachel. Welcome to Walmart, recording equipment and paper shredders can be found in aisle one.  Spy Novels and Conspiracy Thrillers are in aisle ten.