I've Got a Secret

Drip, Drip, Drip: The thing about secrets is that they are hard to keep, particularly in leaky Washington.  So it isn’t all that surprising that the details regarding a hugely significant one, the whistleblower complaint that the White House has directed acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph McGuire to keep from the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, are starting to surface.  The Washington Post reports and NBC confirms that the “secret” disclosed by the whistleblower to Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson came from an intelligence officer who became alarmed after learning about what he or she concluded was a “troubling” promise made by Trump to a foreign leader during what is believed to have been a phone conversation made in August while he was at his Bedminster retreat.  It’s not clear who the call was with or what was promised but a review of Trump’s communications at the time of the call point to Trump’s good buddy Vladimir Putin. To be clear, it’s not certain that the world leader was Putin, Trump met with and/or had correspondence with other leaders during that time period including his other bestie Kim Jong un but to the extent the commitment was made via phone, the list of suspects shortens making Putin the most likely recipient of the “troubling” promise.  The Inspector General determined that the complaint was “credible” and of “urgent concern,” the legal threshold that ordinarily requires notification to the Congressional Intel committees which is why he alerted the Chairs of the House and Senate committees about the existence of the whistleblower complaint, but it’s up to the acting DNI to share the content of the complaint and at least for now, under the direction of the White House, he’s remaining silent although late yesterday House Chairman Adam Schiff who brought this issue to the public’s attention reports that he has agreed to show up to a closed door meeting of the House Intel committee next week.  As to the content of the promise and the source of the leak, at least for now those specifics remain under wraps but it’s notable that the August timing of the call in question coincides with the departure of former Director of National Security Dan Coats and his highly respected second Susan Gordon, both of whom could be possible and highly credible sources for the leak.  It was also around that time that Trump decided to move money from the defense budget to the building of his wall; notably some of that moved money had previously been allocated to bolstering European defenses against Russia, projects that really irk Putin.  As to that wall, Trump visited a section of it yesterday, launched into a soliloquy about its strength, the way the concrete was poured and was about to disclose something about its super-secret design before he was shut down by an official who said that what he was about to say wasn’t for public disclosure.  Oh, and that section that he visited, it wasn’t new, it was just one of those parts of the wall that had been recently repaired.       

The Revolving Door:  Yesterday Trump appointed Robert O’Brien as his new national security advisor.  O’Brien, who previously served as Trump’s chief hostage negotiator, was the person responsible for getting A$AP Rocky out of the clutches of not so hostile Sweden after he’d been arrested for beating someone up during a street fight. Like his most recent predecessor John Bolton, O’Brien has a reputation for being hawkish but unlike Bolton, he is also viewed as a bit more obsequious, a trait that Trump values. For his part John Bolton has already started to talk about his days at the White House. During a closed door foreign policy luncheon without specifically naming Trump he criticized his decision to invite the Taliban to Camp David as disrespectful of 9.11 victims, questioned pulling all troops from Afghanistan and blamed the recent attack on the Saudi oil installations on the failure to launch a retaliatory strike against Iran after they downed one of our drones, an opinion shared by Trump’s usual ally Senator Lindsey Graham.  Trump, who still hasn’t decided what, if anything, beyond more sanctions to do to punish Iran for the Saudi attack, responded to that criticism by blaming Bolton and Graham for getting us into the war in Iraq in the first place, a fair point.  To the extent that Trump gets around to it, he now has a few more positions to fill.  Yesterday, the seven month old nomination of Jeffrey Byard to serve as the head of FEMA was pulled over disclosures that he had been involved in a barroom altercation.  Also, the White House fired Homeland Security General Counsel John Mitnick, promoting a junior lawyer with little experience, to serve in the acting role for now or forever given this administration’s track record at filling positions.  As a result virtually everyone at Homeland is now just “acting.”       

Guns, Guns, Guns: The White House has circulated a draft of proposed background check legislation to Republican Senators for their review but since none of them are convinced that Trump would actually support it most say that they won’t even take the time to read the proposal until Trump goes on record saying that he will because they’ve got better things to do with their time.  The NRA has already said the proposal it’s a non-starter and the only person in the White House who will even admit that the draft originated in the White House is first daughter Ivanka Trump who either supports increasing background checks or thinks its good for her “brand” to say that she does.  Though it’s not clear she’s seen it, Ivanka’s views may have been influenced by a recent public service announcement released by the Sandy Hook Promise organization.  The “back to school” message shows students trying to survive a school attack using backpacks, skate boards, and sharpened pencils as defense weapons.  If you haven’t seen it, check it out, its alarming and spot on.

Footnotes:  The New York Times has come under criticism for the decision to edit out a sentence from its weekend piece about Justice Kavanaugh and his alleged sexual predations. The omitted sentence revealed that the additional woman who a credible witness insists was flashed by Kavanaugh during one of those Yale beer parties has no recollection of the event. That sentence is included in the book, “The Education of Brett Kavnaugh” that was summarized by the piece that the NY Times published.  Kavanaugh’s supporters, including Trump, have used the omission of the sentence, which has been edited back into the Times article, as proof that the piece was just another fake press hit job on Kavanaugh by the failing NY Times. The NY Times has to up its game, it’s a really bad time for sloppy editing. In other news, during a closed door meeting with members of her Democratic caucus Speaker Pelosi reportedly chastised House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler for getting ahead of his skis by saying that impeachment proceedings have begun.  She then said that people were welcome to leak her remarks if they wanted to.  Either there really is a bigly disagreement between the more moderate and more liberal wings of the party, or possibly, Nancy is engaged in a good cop/bad cop routine, helping committee chairs like Nadler fend off primary challenges from their left while also helping more centrist at risk Democrats maintain their seats.  In any case, Pelosi, who is known for her vote counting skills knows that though a majority of her Democratic coalition supports impeachment she doesn’t have enough votes to move forward on the House floor.  She did however say that she believes that Corey Lewandowski should be held in contempt for his recent deceptive and obstructive testimony before the House Judiciary Committee.