TWGB: King Goon Found Guilty of All 34 Counts

 

Let's just take a beat to bask in what should be a solid moment for criminal justice: a trial concerning a former president with charges determined by a grand jury was brought before another jury, who, having weighed the evidence, found him guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying documents with the purpose of laundering the hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels with the intent to hide Trump's sordidness for the sake of election interference. 

Despite the jurors having to be held in anonymity for their own protection, despite Trump's repeated violation of his gag order, despite his traipsing of various political figures into the courtroom--it was demonstrated that they, the regular folks on that jury, could read the evidence and determine there was no reason but Trump's ambition to be president that accounted for these payments and the false business documents trying to cover up that a payoff had been made. It isn't rocket science, and the chain of evidence wasn't obscure. 

And because Trump is King of the Goons, the Goons are coming out to dismiss the entirety of our justice system, pretend King Goon was victimized and railroaded, and demonstrate that they are willing to destroy our faith in our Constitutional system if it didn't find their little adjudicated pussy-grabber, fraudulent, bankrupt, moron, knuckle dragger, racist pig purely innocent of what all the documentation involved, not merely the testimony of the witnesses, demonstrated quite factually he was guilty of. 

I've spoken before about the categorical error of the Republican Party that they confuse Identity Politics as being to blame for things when the reality is that people face consequences in the real world for their actions. Trump was not found guilty because he is the leader of the GOP or because he is the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee, He is guilty because he was the guy in the dock, who fucked Stormy Daniels and directed his "fixer" to pay her off, and then tried to launder it through his business. That is all. If this was the leader of the GOP and the presumptive nominee for the 2024 presidential contest and had not done that--he would not be in this situation.

He fucked up. He. Did. That. It is not the sin of other folks for noticing it and holding him to account. 

TWGB: Big and Little Lies for the Goon King

 

Crowd size--that's very important to TrumpWorld, because Trump is a size queen and tries to pretend his little fingers are a lie. Eric Trump had to use a lying Charlie Kirk post to play a game of "Make Abusive Daddy Love Me" by showing a Joe Biden crowd as if it were a turn out for his pops. It wasn't the first time the Trump crowds were inflated, they did it just recently regarding his Wildwood stand. But like, of course TrumpWorld does that--the first major kick-off lie of the Trump Administration was Sean Spicer lying about the inauguration crowd size. We get it--Trump wants everything BIGGER.

But you can see where a part of that is "manufactured consent", right? Like, pretending more people really think Trump is great than honestly do, and also, kind of implying people who don't like him are not "real Americans" at all. You can look at Michael Cohen rigging polls for 2016. They are still being rigged a lil' bit, you bet?  (Consider what fake IP addresses can do to online polls.) 

But that's just a little lie--now, that there are undocumented people registering to vote--that's a Big Lie. How can undocumented people register and have their votes even count as valid? Where's the logic, there? 

TWGB: All the King's Goons

 

It took me awhile, but I remembered when Matt Gaetz used Twitter to harass witness against Trump, Michael Cohen (he was cleared of wrongdoing for that, but you know, and I know, he crossed a line), and then again, there was this time he and his fellows stormed a SCIF during Trump's first impeachment--an actual stupid and futile gesture:

So am I really shocked to see Matt Gaetz thugging it up the 2020 election way by declaring he is "standing back and standing by" in an echo of the Proud Boys? 

Of course he is. Little Lauren Boebert, handy as always, lent her 1776 spirit to Thursday's proceedings. In an echo of unwise guy Tommy Tuberville, she copped to being there to be a disruption and say things Trump can't say under the gag order. 

TWGB: Wheels Within Wheels

 

I joke from time to time that we aren't ever leaving the 2016 election, and it's not actually that funny--we're in 2024, but the Trump hush money trial feels like old home week, what with characters from earlier in the Trump Saga popping back up. This week, we will hear from former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who plead guilty to a campaign finance violation regarding Stormy Daniels, Last week, in a story that was overshadowed by the trial, former 2016 Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort decided to step back from his involvement with the 2024 Republican National Convention--for which he was going to work for free, as he did for Trump's campaign. 

"Free" for a value of "access to our political infrastructure" which actually does have value. 

We are never leaving 2016. The Russian disinfo op that tried to blame Ukraine for the DNC hack that profoundly affected the 2016 election (in Trump's favor?) still has echoes in the Trump impeachment and the current-day GOP House still trying to impeach Joe Biden. The story of what happened to Stormy Daniels, now a little bit better understood as coerced sex--a situation not much different from the "casting couch" or the cartoonish image of a boss chasing a secretary (just imagine it in the White House) reminds us of all the stories we just barely heard in 2016 in the wake of the Access Hollywood video, which were drowned out by Wikileaks.

TWGB: Von Shitzinpantz

 

Trump: I’m not allowed to testify. I’m under a gag order pic.twitter.com/4qeH81ERWo

— Acyn (@Acyn) May 2, 2024

It's hard not to view Trump's latest lie--that being under a gag order means he can't testify in his hush money trial--as living down to Michael Cohen's charming nickname for him: "Von Shitzinpanz". One could very well assume he's chickening out, knowing full well that nothing he says will actually help him. But does his reluctance to testify mean he is, literally or figuratively, shitting his pants over it?

Although it's desperately unethical, I can imagine a world where exhausted lawyers just give Trump the impression that the gag order does so mean he can't testify because it's simpler than telling him he's a great big dotard and no competent lawyer would put him on the stand. Maybe his lack of campaign events (other than the two on Wednesday, where he navigated sentences in his mother tongue as if said tongue had come to a shocking fork) is also a tricky bit of advice--sure. The gag order. Because having most of one's campaign fundraising money go to legal fees means not holding as many events and certainly not for the purpose of screwing himself harder by yapping freely about why having suspected Democrats on the jury is jamming him up. 

It's a dangling dagger, a sword of Damocles, a sharp set of scissors for a toddler to be running with--today, he gets fines, but it really could be jail if he keeps it up. 

TWGB: This Situation is not Hypothetical

 

In today's SCOTUS hearing, Samuel Alito argued that immunity for former presidents is good, actually, because without it, ex-presidents might refuse to leave office peacefully if they lose reelection...

Make it make sense. https://t.co/HepJVcgN2Q

— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) April 25, 2024

If I were to take Justice Alito as a good-faith interrogator adhering to the actual facts of the Trump presidency--the actual president this case is about, and not some future generic president we're just having a classroom thought-experiment about, are we supposed to play along and imagine a path where 1/6 does not happen because Trump can rest safe in his bed at Mar-a-Lago certain that no ill shall befall him, because he had immunity. So, he just gracefully turns over the keys to the established firm:

And maybe that even means he is just fine keeping those documents from the White House that he doubtless acquired during his presidency--several boxes of, in fact--and selling them, because we are just going to assume a president does official things officially, and not shady-ass criminal stuff because one has always been a shady-ass criminal? 

On a day where Justice Brown-Jackson noted that immunity (or should we rather call it, impunity?) would turn the Oval Office into a center of criminal activity, we received testimony that Hope Hicks and Sarah Huckabee Sanders were in contact--via their White House offices, with David Pecker regarding the election interference/hush money cover-up scheme. 

TWGB: Where's the Cavalry?

 

Trump's trial, in a way, involves a bit of myth-making--today we learned that, per an agreement between Trump and David Pecker of the National Enquirer, stories were placed in the paper regarding Trump's 2016 political opponents that were wholly false. So if you were wondering about Ted Cruz's dad, the mad assassin, or Marco Rubio's love child, well--they were bogus. This puts a real damper on the idea that the 'catch and kill" part of the deal, where the public did not read negative stories about Trump's wayward libido had something to do with Trump's desire to protect his family--it was about politics, i.e.--election interference.

Trump also seems to want to create another myth--that there ARE SO throngs of supporters who would be protesting the case against him right now, if they weren't being thwarted by...something. There just...aren't, though. And he's been telegraphing as hard as he can via his gag order violations that he wants someone to save him so bad, too! Where is the cavalry?

Yeah, about the gag order. Trump's lawyers didn't have a great defense for Trump's multiple gag order violations that survived actually looking at the posts Trump has made. But there's nothing accidental about the violations--I think they are very intentional. Trump is what could be called a "habitual line stepper" in any event, but he's smacking right up against witness intimidation and jury tampering quite deliberately, both to see how far he can go and to try and draw a penalty in the hopes it signals to his cavalry that the time has come. 

TWGB: Where Did it Go?

 

So, it looks like Trump is broke. He got Chubb to do his E. Jean Carroll thing, but they'll be fucked if they are standing his fraud trial bond. His lawyers say he can't get that bond, and no shit. This man had debts before he even ran for president. He has big loans from all kinds of people. And he barely owns any properties at all in full or outright. This is actually a pretty old story--Trump never has been worth what Trump says he is.  Trump's value has been about Trump's word--and we know what his word is worth now. 

Even after the NY AG seizes his properties, he may still owe. That's where we are. Because I don't know for sure that he put anything up for collateral for the Chubb bond for the Carroll case, but probably? And what isn't encumbered? 

But here's my naïve question for you all, my readers, in all seriousness, if Trump has been overstating his property valuations to get favorable loan terms, and evading taxes on his business wherever he could, and engaging in various frauds, like Trump University and his slush fund charity and so on, and money laundering and the like--where does his money go that he can't find a half billion in liquidity? Is it a thing where the money is gone and he's just a whole shitting inept businessman who frauded his face off and still ended up in a hole? Or did he invest elsewhere (offshore, you could say) where the money is available to him and he isn't letting other motherfuckers get hold of it? 

Do you think if he graciously lets us see his tax returns for the last couple of years like a responsible presidential candidate, we'll even know? 

TWGB: Broke and Losing It

 

Donald, man. Check the tape. pic.twitter.com/PwXb9iqP4j

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) February 29, 2024

I would call that mean, and unfair, and I would call it ageist and far, far out of context, except, I have written about how Trump never would have come up with the idea of him being a "stable genius" and defended that tooth and nail if he wasn't already well aware his stability and intellect were being regularly challenged. I also don't think much of the sarcastic "jokes" of a person who doesn't seem clear about what sarcasm is. Or what jokes are. Trump has long been a bully, and what I like about Biden is, he doesn't care for bullies and comes at them--no malarkey. 

Anyway, Biden got a physical recently and did not get a cognitive test because he didn't need one. Trump has to constantly talk about his. Trump takes the slight regarding his mental state very seriously. It's all about the Democrats! They are making him look crazy! 

OK, but what Democrats are doing this man's make-up and hair and dressing him? Just asking. 

I think the real thing on what's left of Trump's mind now, though, is being broke. He recently tried to play "Let's make a Deal" regarding his NY civil fraud trial damages, offering $100 million. Or maybe a little delay while he searches the sofa cushions in every one of his properties. (He was not aware, to use a very good turn of phrase, that the cruelty of the fines he faced, were, in fact, the point.)  He wanted to apply for an appeal of the E.Jean Carroll damages by fronting nothing at all. The plaintiff side argued that Mr. Broke might not be good for a bond for one thing and his financial situation wasn't getting better for another.

TWGB: Flipping Bricks

 

Well, here's to having the kind of week in the news where a journey into TrumpWorld actually feels like a bit of a vacation. And before I get things started, let's hear it for this week's TrumpWorld winner, though he doesn't even know it, Jim Jordan, for not becoming Speaker of the House. I used to joke about a tough job as "leading the clowns and following the elephants"--and that's what GOP Speaker would look like right now. Jimmy--enjoy doing less. I hope to enjoy you doing less and less in the future. It suits you. 

Now on to TrumpWorld--obviously, the big story this week is out of Fulton County where Sidney Powell and now Kenneth Chesebro have entered plea agreements with cooperation.  This does a handful of things--shocks TrumpWorld because some folks probably thought Powell was too batshit to get flipped: nah, she's a lawyer and figured out how screwed she was--and with the addition of Chesebro, um, probably Jenna Ellis and Rudy Giuliani should be getting on the phone about getting correct, you think? 

By admitting guilt, they are highlighting that the conspiracy was real and by agreeing to talk about it without Trump and the other co-conspirators getting the benefit of watching those speedy trials get played out for them, they are giving some folks specters of not a penny or a dime dropping, but a whole Coinstar machine falling out. Happy Halloween being haunted with the ghosts of felonies past and sentences future, you guys!

TWGB: TrumpWorld is Definitely Not OK

 

You know, all I wanted to do last night was post a little bit about Rudy Giuliani fixing to sue President Biden, but I fell asleep at the computer because it got so deep in the weeds, and as of today, there was more to the story:

Look, I think it's great that Rudy Giuliani found lawyers to take this case even though he is being sued by some of his other lawyers for not getting paid and can't seem to keep a Georgia-based counselor to save his behind. He's getting sued by Hunter Biden, of course, and by a former employee alleging sexual assault and harassment which is a case involving details that are profoundly stomach-churning. But these guys believe enough in Rudy Giuliani to pursue a case where his allegations are that Joe Biden's crack about Giuliani being a Russian pawn spreading disinfo cost him his reputation and millions of dollars of business--

In a way actually being a source of Russian disinfo, making wild pronouncements about a stolen election with shoe polish running down his face, putting on a presser at a landscaping service, farting COVID into the face of his stolen election co-counsel, losing his license to practice because of his shoddy ethics and being so frequently intoxicated that it's part of the investigation into the attempt of the Trump Team to steal the 2020 election are not the ACTUAL THINGS that screwed Giuliani's reputation? 

TWGB: Seething Contempt

 

The former guy seemed a little confused about how he ended up with no jury. His attractive strip mall attorney who also does traffic beefs forgot to check a box! (So weird! By his own admission, Trump is always checking boxes.) But anyway, instead of being mad at his counsel (and really, they are what he can get) Trump trained his ire on the AG (of course) calling her a reverse racist again and the judge, which is exactly what you would do if the decision in this case came down to (checks notes) that guy. 

TrumpWorld has poisoned my brain. I start looking for the obvious fuckery every time. Is Trump baiting the judge so he can declare everything was biased against him? Is he baiting him to get contempt ruled on him? Is he just pretending he doesn't know how he ended up with no jury so he can turn around and waste time with an incompetent counsel appeal? 

I have no idea at all. Maybe none of the above (I don't think any of that would pass the smell test, anyway) and it is really just a sad, farcical clusterfuck where the stable genius is watching his life pass in front of him. But he says he's going to testify on his own behalf, and goddamn if that doesn't sound worth the price of admission!

And maybe he also wants to duck the deposition for the Michael Cohen libel trial he initiated because he realized he'd incriminate himself because he's a big flipping dumbass. Because at some point, isn't somebody gonna ask: But wasn't he working for YOU? Like, Michael Cohen didn't get himself into the shit for you without you, hon.

Third Time's a Start, Mr. Trump (UPDATED)

 

The above court sketch is Trump pleading not guilty at his third arraignment. His defense plan is to re-litigate the 2020 election, which doesn't sound like a great idea because, as I recall, his campaign legal team lost over 60 cases, and his supporters floated easily debunked lies about the dead voting and more ballots being submitted than had been requested than were requested, and some outright weird stuff regarding Italian satellites, German servers, Chinese thermostats, and Venezuelan voting machines haunted by the ghost of Hugo Chavez. 

In retrospect, the 2020 defense he wants to make still reeks of desperate batshittery and I guess I wonder what sort of lawyers are happy to make this case. But let's face it, Trump is going through lawyers like Kleenex at the moment.

For a fun glimpse into how it's going so far based on yesterday, the case is being made that the DOJ has to demonstrate that Trump knew he lost and that these charges are about Trump's freedom of speech, not his entering into a conspiracy to defraud. Well. That's supposed to be the case. But Alina Habba admitted that everyone knew Trump lost, and John Lauro admitted that Trump did enter into a conspiracy to delay the congressional proceeding on the basis of his false claims. 

So, you know. It's going gggggrrrreeeeeaaaattt.

Oh well. It's Trump fans that should be questioning his representation since, you know, they're paying for it. Same as they paid for the suit that clarified that yes, it is fair to call Trump a rapist. And the way they will pay for the hush money trial and the case against Michael Cohen that could incriminate Trump some more and the stolen docs trial....

UPDATED: Trump thought he'd be cute the very next day:

Donald Trump swore in court yesterday he would not attempt to influence or intimidate witnesses, retaliate against anyone, or in any other way attempt to obstruct the administration of justice.

“Are you prepared to comply?” the magistrate judge asked.

“Yes,” Trump replied. pic.twitter.com/UWxcz0nZ1d

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) August 4, 2023

We all know what he was trying there; I've pointed out that he doesn't have to be explicit for his little fan club to get the jist and that gagging him because of his fat mouth was always a likelihood--one Trump also would have expected. The above Truth Social post for all the world looks to me like he's threatening retaliation on prosecutors and witnesses, etc. And I would say there's a good argument for pre-trial detention because this unfit man either can't or won't help himself from doing and saying such things. 

TWGB: It's A Bad Week. For Trump, That Is.

 

This is a short one, but Trump got told to shut his face, he really is considered a rapist by regular folks, and also, too, he can't move his hush money trial to federal court because why even?  

So, I know, I know, these aren't the biggest things on the big old list of Trump fails, and especially not while we're awaiting the 1/6 indictments or looking forward to his charging in Georgia, and so on. But I just wanted to point out that Trump is definitely getting his time in court for his huge, big, being a sleaze stuff. 

Which people are noticing more and more. 

UPDATE: You know it's bad when he's like this:

Donald Trump says that it would be "very dangerous" for Jack Smith to put him in jail because of his "passionate" supporters. pic.twitter.com/DsWNbRMWZR

— Republican Accountability (@AccountableGOP) July 20, 2023

Is that a threat? Maybe he should be charged for making threats. It really feels like all the more reason why he, and the unreasonable and violent people who like him, should be held accountable, right? Because he's going off.  Off like old raw bacon in the sun. 

UPDATE: If Trump was going to do something he never did before, what would it be? Please a woman? Tell the truth? Give to charity? Be entirely honest? Act like an adult? Pick up the tab? I am sure he's trying to be threatening, but um. There's an awful lot Trump can be trusted to have not ever done before.

TWGB: Credibility Gaps

 

Imagine being Fox News, in the midst of trying to settle a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit while still retaining some credibility as a news organization, even to the extent of running a full-page ad in the New York Times trying to bolster their reputation (which is bullshit, actually) while the ratings cash cow they fraudulently supported keeps mooing at them to go and lie some more.

Their bum steer has them on the horns of a dilemma, one might say? 

Probably not. I've been saying this regarding the GOP and Fox alike--your Trump problem is you made him, but you also can destroy him. He's a Golem--rub out the magic words that got him moving and fear him no more. The GOP has stuck themselves to him such that other potential 2024 primary candidates are disadvantaged in trying to challenge him (an imaginary box created by the delusion he can't be criticized or called on his bullshit in any way) and so has right-wing media. 

And yet, Trump exists because of attention--he's trying to have all his trials be made in the court of public opinion. This isn't how anything works--for example, his bid to have his defamation/sexual assault case delayed because of all the unwanted attention following his Manhattan indictment has been rebuffed for the simple reason that he is the one who keeps calling attention to all his trials, and also, there are so many trials he's got going on a delay isn't doing him or the courts any favors. 

TWGB: We Ain't Seen Nothing Yet

 

So, it wasn't actually Tuesday that the indictment of former president Donald Trump happened, and I'm not really surprised, because why in the world would we take for granted something he says, anyway? While his planned protests (a disturbing idea in and of themselves) weren't especially robust, he got the turnout I should have known he would have been looking for--a lucrative one. Because it's all about that grift, isn't it? He plucked the pigeons for over $1.5 million. 

The emails are kind of disgusting if you aren't a MAGAt. Save our country (from, what, due process of a reasonably-suspected felon?) and it could happen to you! (sure, I don't know how many porn stars you've ever had to pay off to protect your presidential campaign, but sure--it could happen to you!) They operate on the same absurd logic he used during both of his impeachments--they aren't doing this to me--they are doing this to you. 

But of course that is stupid. He pays fines himself. He goes to prison alone. You, the hypothetical Trump supporter, do what political supporters of other candidates have done since forever. You loved Nixon, but now you are okay with Ford. You wanted George Bush but you got Ronald Reagan. You wanted John McCain, but you got George W.  You wanted Newt Gingrich but you got Mitt Romney--look, there has to be a morning after Donald Trump. He's not the only Republican on the face of the planet who can credibly run for president if you can call running for president after one disastrous term with two impeachments, a net loss of jobs, an insurrection and a post-presidential term classified documents scandal plus the threat of multiple indictments on the docket a credible run! 

Nunes Left Congress for This

 

Anyway, you know the TMTG media thing that Trump launched after he left office and that looked like a pump and dump thing because the project seemed to have little material investment and lots of puffery?  The thing that started being investigated right away because wow, if it looks bad, maybe it is bad?  Anyway, subpoenas were issued to TMTG by the SEC and a grand jury for the SDNY--but Trump and Don, Jr. and a handful of other folks were already off the board. Apparently. It's amazing how that happens. 

So, according to the records, Devin Nunes, who left Congress for this, is still the CEO. It's very likely that the merger stuff between TMTG and Digital World was already in the can when he came aboard, and per Truth social posts, TrumpWorld is denying that Trump is really off the board. It's all a misunderstanding and a witch hunt. Except...

Is it? There's something really weird about a "successful" billionaire always being investigated to the extent Trump is (you know, like Trump University, and the Trump Foundation, and the tax fraud..) and always seeming to be dodging accountability (like, being himself or having associates in contempt of court for not turning over documents, which is still going on--would you believe?) that makes it seem like, maybe, just maybe, this Trump character isn't a great businessman, but a kind of possible...crook?

I'm not saying I know for sure. Maybe he's just extraordinarily unlucky. I mean, imagine the odds that Trump "foes" (also known as public servants who were just doing their jobs) like Jim Comey and Andrew Mccabe were selected for intrusive IRS audits by an agency run by a partisan Trump pick? Then throw in the odds that Michael Cohen fell under their gimlet eye as well (although that one doesn't necessarily feel as remote). 

The astronomical bad luck, am I right? You'd have to have some especial low opinion of how the world works (or at least, how certain people work in it) to see a not-so-hidden hand there, given how obviously bullies actually work in the open, yeah? 

Anyway, Devin Nunes, who left an influential seat in Congress for this, once sued an internet cow among other people who said very bad things about him on the internet, all of which were true. I think his current position is udderly ridiculous, and he should be cheesed off about it. 

TWGB: Friday Night Foolishness

Comparisons to the original "Saturday Night Massacre" for anything happening in TrumpWorld already seem super-cheesy and done-to-death. I mean, what about Sally Yates, or Jim Comey, or maybe Andrew McCabe? Peter Strzok? Jeff Sessions? (And it sure looked like the end of the Mueller Report and Mueller's own exeunt was stage-directed). All of these IG's, lately? Basically, the one thing we can count on for sure about the Trump Administration is that it's always Celebrity Apprentice decision time, and if you are doing some law enforcing (or even allowing some law enforcement or maybe thinking about it) that is inconvenient to Trump--you're fired!

So the curious case of the resigned US Attorney who did not agree to resign, Geoffrey Berman, isn't some great irregularity in the Trump system, or shouldn't seem like much more than another flashing light amongst the Las Vegas strip of flashing lights. US Attorneys are sometimes removed, is all. Except--

Yeah, well but it's the SDNY. Could there be an attempt here to interfere with an investigation to do with Deutsche Bank? HalkBank? Jeffrey Epstein? The Giuliani investigation? The mind friggin' boggles.

And here I was thinking the most TrumpWorld Grab-Bag thing today would end up being a release of a less-redacted bit of the Mueller report that kind of does hint at a bit more collusion than we were told. Folks--there is always something more in the Grab-bag. The Trump Universe is a cornucopia of crime. It's all just a grift with some government stuff attached. Trump views his biggest fans as the biggest marks.

This is why he doesn't care what happens to them at his pick-me-up rally. Marks aren't people--they're lunch.

I think this gives Congress a lovely opportunity to get AG Bill Barr to answer some really probing questions, though. As he is not Trump's personal lawyer, I do wonder what he would say if someone actually held his feet to the fire since he really should be working for the people of the US? Ha, hah but no, really his entire ass should be impeached.

TWGB: This Bullshit All Over Again

The news cycle lately has me doing TrumpWorld Grab-bags every other day, which is a dump of like, twenty-something tabs each time I wade into the saga of the terrible little White House that should not have ever happened. I grow weary.* 

Anyways, Trump's cornpone Renfield, Lindsey Graham has offered the "incoherent defense that Trump's foreign policy was too incoherent to even cobble together a decent "quid pro quo".  If only "We weren't evil, we're just incompetent" was gong to suffice at this juncture! See, we already heard the "too incompetent to collude" defense regarding Russia, and I would still call that defense shaky at best. After all, the best part of collusion with Russia lay in staying still and not reporting anything to the FBI when weird people reached out and offered things. But ah, whatever. Let's concede the Trump Administration has an incoherent Ukraine policy. Let's just stipulate that the policy started to get weird when the Trump campaign backed down on aiding Ukraine against Russian aggression in the party platform for the RNC in 2016 for some damn unknown reason. And there is no good excuse, at all, for accepting a presidential candidate who has a basically incoherent approach to foreign policy. 

That much, right there, would be absurd. And yet, that is something Graham is trying to sell us about the Trump experience as if it were a feature, not a bug. (Of course, Graham himself has promised that he doesn't want to read any stinking transcripts, so the mindset there is basically "bugs all the way down.")

Now, this isn't by far the stupidest defense of Trump--you have the "attempted but failed" folks, who would tell you that even if Trump wanted to get an announcement of a Biden investigation from Ukrainian president Zelenskyy, for the low, low price of military aid that was already approved and promised by the US Congress, then it totally failed because he got his aid, thanks, and the Biden investigation never came off. (As if attempted manslaughter, attempted burglary, etc., were never charges people went to trial over.)

TWGB: Obligations

Sometimes, I find it amazing the things that people feel obligated to do over the things they are genuinely supposed to do. Take former White House Counsel Don McGahn, who defied a subpoena out of a sense of obligation, perhaps, to President Trump, despite the real possibility of being held in contempt of Congress and any penalties that might pertain to that. 

It's questionable that Trump has a legitimate reason to direct McGahn not to testify--he is a former, not current, employee of the White House, and he would have been questioned regarding things he already discussed in about 30 hours of questioning by the Special Counsel's team. I'm just an old D-list blogger, but that doesn't look like his testimony should fall under anything like executive privilege to me. It seems less questionable, though, that Trump has a less-legitimate purpose in having McGahn refuse to testify; one of the more disturbing items in the Mueller report is that McGahn was told by Trump to fire Mueller, didn't do it, and then was advised by the White House to publicly state that Trump never tried to obstruct justice (even if it seems like he knew Trump did). 

If requesting McGahn dodge the hearing is another form of obstruction, we've got like, three layers of obstruction, right there. This is the deeply weird place we're in, where we can just watch this sort of thing unfold in all its transgressive enormity. But why wouldn't McGahn dodge when AG Barr has yet to be penalized for being found in contempt? And there is an additional wrinkle:

If McGahn were to defy Trump and testify before Congress, it could endanger his own career in Republican politics and put his law firm, Jones Day, in the president’s crosshairs. Trump has mused about instructing Republicans to cease dealing with the firm, which is deeply intertwined in Washington with the GOP, according to one White House official and a Republican close to the White House not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.

Even if McGahn felt no specific obligation to Trump, having his personal career fucked with in this way certainly could have been convincing. (I can't say how well this reflects on Jones Day if they encourage their attorneys to ignore subpoenas over a business issue, you know, if that's what they did.) And he (and Barr, as well, for that matter) may still find themselves in some bother over contempt. (AG Barr seems to be concerned about the enforcement and wants everyone to be very pleased if he offers something short of full compliance which is, I think, pretty cute, but, just no. It seems to me he should have more of an obligation to the Constitution in general rather than to covering Trump's ass.)

There's something familiar in the obligation trap McGahn is in to recently unsealed transcripts of private testimony Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen gave to House members. He discusses being offered assistance if he stayed loyal:

Cohen said Trump and his legal team dangled pardons because they wanted to keep people in the joint defense agreement. He withdrew from that agreement, he told lawmakers, because “there was so much that was going on, that I had just decided it was time to stop with the lying, stop protecting the president.”

At one point, though, Cohen was exchanging emails with a lawyer named Robert Costello who touted his “back channel” to the White House — Giuliani. “I spoke with Rudy,” Costello wrote Cohen in April 2018. “Very Very Positive. You are ‘loved.’”

According to emails Cohen shared with the panel, Costello wrote that Giuliani saw the “communication channel” as crucial, and told Cohen to “sleep well tonight, you have friends in high places.” Cohen told Congress he believed Costello was referring to Trump.

Trump and his legal team created an environment intended to produce certain results--namely, not being honest and forthcoming when questioned about Trump's activities. There's a word for that.

While I'm on the subject of obligations, though, apparently, a federal district judge and IRS legal staff seem to agree that House subpoenas regarding Trump's tax documents should be complied with. It seems to me that if the law and Trump are in contention, the law really should have the benefit of the contest, but you'd be surprised how many people don't actually agree with that.

Anyway--more subpoenas are being issued. We will just have to see who feels obliged to comply.