Not That Truth

In Accordance with Fact or Reality:  That’s the definition of truth, for everyone except for one time America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani.  Yesterday, during a discussion about whether or not Trump would meet with Special Counsel Mueller, he told Meet the Press’ Chuck Todd that “When you tell me that, you know, he should testify because he’s going to tell the truth and he shouldn’t worry, well that’s so silly because it’s somebody’s version of the truth. Not the truth.” Todd responded “Truth is truth.” To that Giuliani answered “No, no, it isn’t truth, truth isn’t truth.  An astonished Todd responded, this is going to be a bad meme and he would certainly know about that, it was during an interview with him that White House spokesperson Kellyanne Conway first exposed the nation to the concept of alternative facts. During his Meet the Press appearance Giuliani admitted that Trump Jr’s meeting at Trump Tower was about getting Clinton dirt, but that it was okay because they didn’t get any dirt and anyway looking for dirt was a good thing.  When Todd pointed out that it was never okay to take “dirt” from Russians, Giuliani countered that Trump Jr didn’t know that Natalia Veselnitskaya was Russian, this despite her name and the communication from Rob Goldstone asking to set up that meeting with a Russian lawyer who worked with the Russian crown prosecutor.  Todd had a hard time coming up for air after that blatant lie.  Giuliani just smiled, after all truth isn’t truth, right?  Keeping with the alternative facts and reality theme, during the day Trump tweeted "Study the late Joseph McCarthy, because we are now in period with Mueller and his gang that make Joseph McCarthy look like a baby! Rigged Witch Hunt!” Trump must be hoping that his base knows little about the disgraced, red-baiting long deceased McCarthy or his role in that awful time of American history, instead trying to shape a new “truth” and define a new reality for their consumption to justify his actions and make his team, regardless of any of the crimes they may have committed, equivalent to the victims of McCarthy’s anti-Communist crusade. Anyway, it’s hard to believe that Trump, who idolized and worked with McCarthy lawyer Roy Cohn for years, doesn’t believe that McCarthy was a hero rather than the demagogue that he was. Trump’s paranoid mood may have been partially in reaction to another one of those articles published by the “failing” New York Times.  Over the weekend the paper reported that White House Counsel Don McGahn has met with Mueller’s team several times, spending a total of thirty hours detailing accounts about the episodes at the heart of the inquiry into whether Trump obstructed justice, including providing information that the Mueller team otherwise would not have learned about. As White House Counsel, McGahn represents the White House and the institution of the presidency rather than Trump himself, a distinction that the loyalty obsessed Trump has never understood. McGahn was also around and probably witnessed the discussions surrounding Trump’s decision to fire former FBI Director Comey and earlier reports indicate that at one point Trump told him to get Special Counsel Mueller fired, something he pushed back against doing. The NYTimes reports that Trump’s former legal team encouraged McGahn to fully cooperate with Mueller in the hope of speeding the investigation, of course that was probably before they appreciated that Trump really had engaged in all those questionable acts that Mueller is investigating. For his part, fearing that Trump and his legal team were trying to make him the fall guy for Trump’s bad actions, McGahn was very forthcoming with Mueller’s team, figuring that truth, the real truth not Giuliani’s style truth, was his best protection.  The NY Times also reports that McGahn’s relationship with Trump has grown strained and that the two rarely talk anymore.  For his part McGahn who has spent his time in the White House reshaping the judiciary and getting as many very conservative judges into position and who has also been responsible for getting Neil Gorsuch on to the Supreme Court and who is now working hard to do the same for Brett Kavanaugh, plans to leave his position by year end, probably right after Kavanaugh’s confirmation process is completed. His goal is to leave with his reputation intact.  Also, while Trump compared him toe that “rat” John Dean, the White House counsel whose testimony helped sink Nixon, a comparison that could well be valid, McGahn, unlike Dean, doesn’t plan to spend anytime in jail so it’s fair to assume that he told Mueller the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, all real, none of it alternative. For his part John Dean responded by welcoming McGahn to Team America.

Clearance Cancellations:  It seems like anyone who ever was anyone in Intelligence wants in on the letter calling Trump out for cancelling intelligence clearances as part of his campaign of retribution against his critics, particularly those who ever had any involvement in the Russia investigation.  To that end, Robert Gates, who was travelling and out of phone range when the original letter signed by twelve former intelligence leaders was released, the one that stated that “decisions on security clearances should be based on national security concerns and not political views,” has added his name to that letter’s signature line.  Gates’s inclusion is significant because he served eight presidents, serving as both CIA director and Defense Secretary.  Sixty-one other former senior agents, people who generally elect to maintain low profiles and who typically don’t discuss politics have signed on to a second letter and now word is that a third letter with more than one hundred names is in the works.  To be clear, many of the signers don’t agree with the views or approach taken by former CIA Director John Brennan, whose clearance stripping triggered the protest, but they all agree that he has the right to express those views without retribution particularly since, contrary to some of Trump’s defenders assertions, he has not betrayed his oath to keep confidential information confidential.  For his part, though he probably wouldn’t win, Brennan says that he is considering suing Trump for failing to follow standard procedure related to his clearance cancellation, not because he is concerned anymore about his status but because of concerns for others particularly Justice Attorney Bruce Ohr, who appears to be Trump’s next target.  To the extent that Ohr loses his clearance he would probably also lose his job since he wouldn’t be able to undertake his responsibilities without a valid security clearance.  As to the political rationale for the clearance stripping, over the weekend it was revealed that the list was prepared last month and that the plan, as designed by Communications Director and former Fox guy Bill Shine and Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is to reveal a new “stripped” name every time Trump faces another public relations crisis.  For the record Omarosa Manigault and her deep basket of tapes was the “crisis” that led to the announcement about John Brennan.  She’s got many more tapes and Trump’s got lots of troubled cronies so in all likelihood there will be more deflections announced soon.     

Crony Update:  As to one of those cronies after two days of deliberation Paul Manafort’s Virginia jury left early on Friday to accommodate one juror who had other more pressing plans.  Just the fact that they get to go home every night strikes me as especially odd since the time that I served on a jury for a relatively minor auto theft case, the court was in the process of making plans to sequester us overnight in a Queens flea trap, before we managed to reach a late evening verdict.  In any case, assuming that none of the jurors were influenced by Trump’s very public weekend assertion that Manafort is a nice guy who is being unfairly treated, they will be back in court today to continue their deliberations.  Trump’s other good friend, one time lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen has gone silent, we haven’t heard from him in a while now, leading some former Federal prosecutors working as cable pundits to surmise that he’s cooperating with the Feds.  To the extent that he has or at least is trying to, he had better have something valuable to offer up to Mueller and or the Southern District.  Over the weekend it was reported that he is may soon be indicted for obtaining over $20 million in fraudulent loans and for failing to report some income on his tax returns, notably it doesn’t appear that he defaulted on any of those loans, but since he probably provided falsified information to obtain them, he is still in bigly trouble and it doesn’t help that his former business partner Gene Friedman, the “taxi king,” is cooperating with investigators.  Lastly, the Washington Post reports that one of Trump’s other cronies, former Republican campaign committee honcho Eliot Broidy, one of the guys who hired Michael Cohen to pay off a playmate girlfriend, a pregnant one, is being investigated by the Justice Department for trying to sell his influence with the Trump administration by “offering to deliver US government actions for foreign officials in exchange for tens of millions of dollars.”  Only the best, Trump promised us only the best.