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: 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? 

Would I Call it Weaponization?

 

Somewhere, deep down, I feel like nothing is ever over with Republicans. Forget Benghazi or tan suits. They are going to get weird and bring up Chappaquiddick or Alger Hiss or Robert Byrd's Klan connections out of the blue.  So what do I think when Jim Jordan thinks maybe he'll target Hillary Clinton with a new investigation?

If Hunter Biden wasn't already done to death, why would the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy turning their lonely eyes to Hillary Clinton again hit any different?  I mean, Kevin McCarthy, the current and obviously temporary Speaker of the House explained out loud where people could hear that the email investigation hurt Clinton intentionally. And current crank James Comer admitted in the same vein that the investigation into President Biden's family members is supposed to help Trump. 

He still hasn't found what he's looking for, of course. The GOP can't keep track of their whistleblowers. To the extent they exist they are being paid by Trump insider Kash Patel who is a witness in the Mar-A-Lago document scandal and the first impeachment over the Ukraine president's being extorted. So that's not obviously sleazy as hell, right? 

But in the funny old round world kind of way, it comes out just now that the Trump DOJ was already investigating the Clintons via the Clinton Foundation, and they had nothing. See, unlike Trump's slush fund that he called a charitable enterprise which had to be shut down, and his kids had to go to mandatory don't run a charity as a slush fund school? The Clinton Foundation has been on the up and up. 

So--see how that seems like weaponization? And the thing where Trump get tried in courts and actually has done stuff is not weaponization? And how Durham had nothing, and most Republicans seem to be kind of distracting from 1/6 or the documents scandal by deflecting and whatabouting to other stuff? 

It's like they want to pretend "both sides" are equally as bad and they really aren't. And I would through very gritted teeth like to suggest the media report it that way, because sometimes, there are not two sides to everything (sorry current CNN management!) but one side is actually very bad, even seditious. And even undermines the very concept of rule of law via extreme partisanship. 

And what I mean by that isn't hard at all to see or hear if you're paying attention. 

TWGB: What Rats Won't Do But Durham Might

 

So, a funny thing happened in the news that probably only makes sense to old heads who have been doing TrumpWorld for all this time--apparently, the hero that was going to save Trump from the whole Russia, Russia, Russia thing still hasn't found the no good dirty scoundrels who implicated Trump in a counter-intelligence investigation to the whole-ass nemesis people sometimes quite plausibly think Russia is, but along the way he did find Italian officials who said maybe Trump was up to some financial crimes. Because it was a day ending in "y" or something. I dunno. 

Now the TWGB stylesheet having one entire unpaid employee (me) insists I interject the following observation: if it looks bad, it is bad. The baddies who said Trump's campaign was probably likely breached by Russian operatives were George Papadopoulos to Alexander Downer. Don Trump Jr. himself via email telling all and sundry folks boasting they were from the Russian government and were here to help.  Paul Manafort changing the Republican platform re: Ukraine. (Look , that article throws a whole cast of characters around and to ease your minds, hush, you know who worked for Yanukovich and has Maidan blood on his ever-loving ostrich boots, it's Manafort. Shh. Don't get it too twisted.) 

Now, I think it's just great Barr was working with Durham, bustling about Europe, raising questions about why Trump was being treated like Russia targeting him was somehow between anyone else but Russia and the Trump campaign, exactly when the 2019 impeachment thing was happening and we were discussing how Trump was fulfilling Putin's best wishes for Ukraine by denying them military hardware in exchange for Trump being given a better shot at being re-elected. 

It's just great because how stupid is anyone who isn't connecting these dots just yet--Durham will never find the damn dirty folks who implicated Trump in the Russia matter because a lot of what implicates him is him. So what else can we have? Side quests. 

They just don't go anywhere great either.  Frankly, I'd love to know what the Italian government shared about Trump. And why Barr and Durham never followed up on it. Did they bury it, the way Barr tried to bury the Mueller report? So, a special counsel is supposed to be independent, but it looks to me like Durham and Barr were cheek and jowl for a while and they covered up Trump's dirt like cats kicking about in a litter box. 

Now, in whole other news, John Eastman is up for disbarment in California, and has some supporters who are sketch as hell.  Trumpworld is like purgatory for lawyers and where folks are tested and figured out in the balance. I say supporters of Eastman are not honest--their hearts are heavier than the feather of Maat and they must do penance before they see the after-Trump life. But that is just like, my opinion. 

UPDATE: Think about the sanctions/disbarment/suspensions/need for their own lawyers that so often confronts legal professionals who work for Trump. It really seems so not worth it eventually. I would love if more people realized working for Trump will get you gout before it gets you clout. 

Durham Yeet

 

For a little while, there. MAGA had a lot of faith that the Durham investigation was going to lead to some kind of version of the Qanon "storm" where just loads of the Deep State operatives who always had it out for Trump would finally get their asses in serious trouble. The theory, as far as I can understand it, is: there were people in the USG sympathetic to the DNC who engaged in some kind of shenanigans to create a totally FAKE!!! investigation into Trump's completely innocent Russia connections to try and DESTROY HIS PRESIDENCY!

Durham was going to be the guy who uncovered the vicious plot against the one term-twice impeached wonder and suddenly, after a methodical study of all the facts, thoroughly exonerate Trump and his absolutely sterling and not at all dodgy character as not just a 2016 candidate for office but as a human, a father-figure, an aspiring Christian and a chosen leader for a more righteous America, and justify everything he ever did in his four years, forever and ever, we are not owned and turning into corncobs, AMEN!

And that did not happen, because the entire concept is incredibly faulty and not based on any facts in the entire world. So once again, Durham tries to get some kind of conviction, and it does not happen. 

TWGB: The "Raid" on Emperor Commodus

 

There's nothing like starting your damn dumb day out knowing you are going to have to post about your fucking Moby Dickless white supremacist whale, but when I cracked open yon internets this morn to finally unload about the weekend's vote-a-rama and how it demonstrates Republican fecklessness, I already knew I was committed to talking later about how the Trump presidency has gone down the toilet. Literally. 

It's been widely and accurately AFAIK reported that Trump tore up docs that were required to be preserved and may have even eaten docs he didn't care to be preserved, despite the presidential records act. For someone who derided and persecuted his 2016 opponent over records retention, it is astounding that this is the guy who presided over an entirely unaccountable wipe of DHS, DOD and Secret Service digital records. 

I mean, astounding for a value of being shocked when a chronic liar somehow does something the exact opposite of what he claims he finds important. 

What might get lost here is that today, the anniversary of Nixon's resignation announcement, Paul Manafort had admitted that yeah, he did give Trump Campaign polling data to someone he wants to pretend he didn't know full well was connected to GRU because why not? I mean, thanks, we have several volumes of Senate Intelligence Committee data on the various connections between the Trump campaign and Russia, but it's nice someone wants to skirt about copping to it in order to secret-boast about it. He's literally humble-bragging he does coups, you guys. Do you need an election fixer? Manafort is out here putting out feelers. He is broke and in need of the only work he knows-fuckery. Kilimnik, you guys, goes back to Ukraine shit, too. It all does.  Russia was always going to fuxxor Ukraine in Trump's second term, but they are fucked because they tried it in Joe Biden's first. 

I really wish MAGA so-called patriots tried to suss out where in their Daddy fixations they decided Trump or Putin were real men. They are baby-nard projectionists. 

Anyway, today we also got a glimpse of what an anti-democratic, pro-Nazi shit Trump is with respect to his relationship with the military and entire misunderstanding of the history of American service, which includes thinking Nazi generals were al loyal and this was somehow great (ok, Operation Valkyrie, and also, this dope heard of the idea of the "good Nazi" and thought it was a compliment?) and also there was a confirmation of Adam Serwer's most salient observation of the Trump presidency--that the cruelty was the point. We also learned Trump didn't want disabled vets at his military pride parade because he thought it would look bad. 

He thought heroes who showed physical valor in the line of duty was a problem, you guys. That their physical ordeal wasn't a visible reflection of sacrifice to a higher cause.

So how would I be shocked if Mar-a-lago was "raided"? (For a value of "raided" that means subject to a lawfully executed warrant based on probable cause because of due process.) This former president took 15 boxes of apparently classified shit out from the White House with him. 

We're supposed to give a shit that MAGAs are mad about it. Of course they are. They are conditioned to be mad because of a steady diet of mad-fuel. They believe a free and fair election was stolen with no proof at all--of course they are mad about their little God King. They literally don't know what due process is or appreciate that Trump is not inviolate but is still just a citizen subject to the same laws as anybody else. 

Literally any day could be the day when MAGAs decide to explode. They did on 1/6. It looks like for some reason some /Donald peeps thought 8/8 was some kind of big deal.  (88 stands for Heil Hitler in some Nazi iconography.) Who cares? Democracy isn't about the feelings of losers and bigots. 

And justice isn't about politics either. Sometimes, your boy is just guilty as fuck and you need to acknowledge it. The GOP is having problems with the basic idea of right and wrong. But the pursuit of the evidence and the facts matters. 

This Comment is Going To Bug Me

 

According to Michael Wolff's new book, Landslide, about the end of Trump's presidency, there's a quote from Trump that is going to buuuuuuggggg me: 

“Where would he be without me? I saved his life,” Trump said in an interview with Woolf. “He wouldn't even be in a law firm. Who would have had him? Nobody. Totally disgraced. Only I saved him.” The ex-president raged on: “I can’t even believe what’s happening. I’m very disappointed in Kavanaugh... In retrospect, he just hasn’t had the courage you need to be a great justice. I’m basing this on more than just the election.”

Okay, then. Brett Kavanaugh was a DC district court judge, so even if he wasn't appointed to the Supreme Court, he would have had a job, right? He wasn't knocking on the doors of law firms looking for something a little more certain in case this whole lifetime appointment to a federal court bench thing didn't work out, unless I'm seriously, as the kids say, tripping. And, you know, Trump talks trash about people all the damn time whether it makes sense or not. Unless....

You see, although a lower court has to dismiss 83 ethics complaints against a sitting member of SCOTUS, mentally, I can't.  I can't quite drop the idea that there was something shady about his appointment. Especially about how Kavanaugh's debts got paid.  

Sure, it could be nothing, but my axiom regarding TrumpWorld is, "If it looks bad, it is bad."  I mean, Stephen Calk was just found guilty of bribing very criminal but very pardoned Trump former campaign manager Paul Manafort with risky bank loans to obtain a role in the Trump Administration. That's the kind of people that were around Trump and a certain way of doing business.

The difference here is, Republicans got very damn cutthroat about judicial appointments, didn't they? They clearly did not seem to give a single solitary shit about any kind of ethics or moral complaint about Kavanaugh's appointment. They were going to by God have this guy on the bench. 

A federal judge serves "on good behavior" It takes a shit-ton to get a federal judge impeached. But when Trump says something like "I saved his life" or "I'm basing this on more than just the election", it really makes me think. 

It just really does.

Old TrumpWorld Grab-Bags Never Die

 

It's amazing to me that six whole months after Donald J. Trump, twice-impeached one-term president and current Florida Man, dramatically lost the 2020 election and then whined about it incessantly, I'm still writing TrumpWorld Grab-bag posts. Why can't I just treat him like any other private citizen newbie blogger trying to figure out his platform who really needs help?

Because this country either takes a long hard look at this guy right here, now, and the damage done, or nothing, not one thing, gets better. That's why. The Republican party needs to address how damaging and bad he was so they can improve, if that's ever going to be a thing. The Democratic party needs to address how damaging and bad he was so they can understand how you can not rely on Republicans' good intentions or judgment to save us. We all need to understand why crime-adjacent amoral reality show hosts aren't fucking responsible government leadership material. And we need to get to just how much he fucked up if we ever want to unfuck it.

Anyway, you might ask yourself, where is that unsealed Barr memo we were supposed to be getting? And then cursed Merrick Garland out for not wanting to release all of it. (Or, I don't know, maybe you're normal people, but if so, what are you doing here?)  So, I get the equity of the thing--the DOJ has ongoing matters and maybe not all their business needs to be out in the street, so this is protective--not of Barr, but just the agency in general. It's also a little political: 

Why, no! Nobody here is slavering for the heads and entrails of the previous administration's stalwart cover-up artists, that would be petty and beneath us and besides....

We have time.

The idea that DOJ doesn't go after a sitting president is one of those known but untested things--it's right up there with the extent of executive privilege. Mueller took it for granted in his report. I keep going back to the "murder on 5th Avenue" hypothesis though--what if you got him dead to rights? What if the president is engaging in unlawful activity for no discernible national interest at all, but only self-interest? That's an investigation in and of itself--what is the interest, which might not be readily discernible but still exists, for a president to ostensibly be covering up his own dirt like a cat in a litterbox? But you know--for the people? My gut feeling says --no Trump was covering up his own dirt for himself. 

Maybe Congress will have the Russian investigation obstruction elucidated for them a bit when former White House counsel Don McGahn testifies in a closed-door hearing as soon as next week (instead of like, a year and half or so ago when it should have been).  McGahn has always been a little fascinating to me as having been involved in a complicated maneuver (as I understand it) of being asked to fire Mueller, and then lie about whether he was asked to fire Mueller, and then be asked to lie about being asked to lie. (Trump loves to get people fired, even if it's stupid--getting Comey fired got him the Mueller investigation. If Mueller was fired, that would have been super Saturday Night massacre. And he also wanted to fire his own appointed FBI Director, Christopher Wray, because something something Russia, something something "election security".  Weird, right?

Anyhow, in more Mueller-era stuff, some of the redacted information from the Manafort trial has been unsealed, and whoo! Manafort and Gates were just all over the place contacting Konstantin Kilimnik with polling data and whatnot and discussion of a Ukraine plan that would have Russia in control of part of the region. (Yes, this mattered during 2016, and regarding the first impeachment. TrumpWorld using Ukraine to get/keep Trump in power. It still matters.)

If we're still getting stories relating to the 2016 election--here in 2021? How long will be be looking at the 2020 shenanigans--what with the ongoing rehashing of the election results and the attempted insurrection and all? (And what shenanigans they were! And in the case of the "fraudits" and voter suppression laws, still are!) I may very well be writing these things forever.

TWGB: Like We Said....

 

So about the hot one that just dropped from ODNI--it's sure to be a beloved classic in the TrumpWorld Grab-Bag library because it pretty much says, "Oh hell yes, Russia was interfering, the election was legit, but masses of US conservatives in Trump's orbit were absolutely help laundering disinfo." In other words, Putin tried to steal this one and Republicans helped, then sat back and cried they were the ones that got robbed. The report doesn't name names of who exactly Russia was using Ukrainian cut-outs to launder disinfo to in Trump[s circle, but, like, if you all were following along during the first impeachment--you kind of know, right? 

And well, that's probably coming.

(And for that matter, the actors in question probably should have understood very well who they were dealing with, which makes them willing accomplices, not mere useful idiots. Although they were idiots, too, obviously. Also, it's funny to me that the old DNI was Trump's biggest apologist.)

Just as an aside, do you think we've heard the last about the Kavanaugh investigation that wasn't, or nah? (I guess I always wanted a follow-up on whether the whole nomination, etc. wasn't kind of, well, you know.)

TWGB: Corrupted, Absolutely

Asked about Roger Stone, Trump says he has an “absolute right” to tell the Justice Department what to do pic.twitter.com/AZRv9Aff7P

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 11, 2020

In the same statement where Trump claimed an "absolute right" (which, like the "absolute immunity" claimed by his associates and the power like we wouldn't believe conferred upon him by what he believes Article Two of the Constitution grants him, is mostly a bad misunderstanding of law and history) to tell the DOJ what to do, he also suggested that he would like to see the recently-fired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman see some form of military discipline for the godawful crime of, apparently, snitching. Trump is also wrong in every particular about whether Vindman did the right thing per his chain of command--he apparently feels that, as commander in chief of the military, there is nothing he can do that a person in uniform should question. So it is that he can determine, outside of the code of military justice, that a person who has committed war crimes should be pardoned (of course, pardon power is his by virtue of the Constitution) but a person who lawfully reports a potential problem through his chain of command or responds, again, lawfully, to a congressional subpoena, should be hounded for that act.

That probably could make one think, if one had the mind. But the question of whether Trump has the "absolute right" to tell the DOJ what to do is the meaningful part of his remarks today--as four prosecutors resigned from the prosecution of Trump associate Roger Stone after senior officials at DOJ walked back their sentencing recommendation of nine years as being too harsh. This Tuesday protest is a reminder of the "Saturday night massacre", when, in the course of the Watergate investigation, ethical people resigned rather than commit an act they thought was improper.

The fucking stupid thing about all this is, if the senior folks at DOJ were reducing the sentencing recommendation of Stone because of Trump's whinging about it on Twitter (the only "official" correspondence on that issue we all happen to know of), the whole quandary could have been resolved by the aforementioned "power of the pardon". Like, who cares what Stone's sentence even is if you can just wipe it out, right?

Unless, of course, it would look bad. I guess that could look bad for Trump's re-election, possibly reigniting some belief that there definitely was some consciousness of collusion-like activity via WikiLeaks (a rodent dildo employed jointly by Russia and the Trump campaign in 2016) and the reminder to all that the 2016 Trump campaign in truth had more Russian contacts than a Moscow optician. But couldn't Trump just trust Stone to stick it out until after the election? And like, see to him in November, regardless?

Maybe he thought that would look bad, too, or didn't trust Stone not to give a command vocal performance once in stir, regardless of the relatively minor duration of months. It definitely feels like he went to a bigger to-do over Stone's potential stretch than he ever did over former campaign manager Manafort's (although Manafort is staying shtum). Of course, Trump and Stone seem to have been a little closer than he and Manafort. Also, too, and this is important, Trump has been impeached now, and is losing his fucking mind over it.

So is the cronyism, and the vindictiveness, and the involvement of Trump in things regarding the DOJ that he shouldn't be anything new? Yes and no. I guess it's a matter of degree. Does it mean he did not, as Sens. Alexander and Collins hope, learn his lesson?

Yes, it means he never was being schooled in jack-shit, but for what it's worth, most of the GOP senators earned their obedience school certificates. They can roll over and play dead, now. If that is good enough for them. (It wasn't, obviously, enough for Mitt Romney. Who probably sleeps just fine at night.)

So, how bad does it look? What do I ever say? It looks bad because it is bad! If Trump could have just pardoned Stone, but doesn't because he's feeling like exercising his recently-acquitted swagger, who knows what's next?

You hear me--it better be more investigations and new articles of impeachment. This man is impeached forever because he earned it forever, and every day fosters some new outrage. But maybe the House needs to scrutinize Barr. That's the Roy Cohn Trump didn't think he had in Jeff Sessions. That is the taxpayer-funded mafia fixer for Trump. I think you want to get to the bottom of Trump, that's who you need to immobilize. As he has likely frozen certain actions into Trump that would be most illuminating.

TWGB: The More Things Change, The More Trump Is the Same

Wow, Donald Trump just got booed out of the building, into his limo, onto Air Force One, and back into the White House residence.

Even the majority bro crowd at #UFC244 hates this guy’s guts.pic.twitter.com/ohI7Cs7opS

— TrumpsTaxes (@TrumpsTaxes) November 3, 2019

Was Trump supposed to not get booed at when he went to MSG for a night of UFC action? Like, did he expect something different from what he experienced at game 5 of the World Series because he was nestled in the bosom of his hometown (of which he no longer considers himself a resident) instead of that ballpark frequented by employees of the Deep State?

Maybe the president doesn't need to take it so personally. Everyone gets booed sometimes. Maybe people just go to sporting events to not think about politics, and feel like Trump is a polarizing presence. Me, I boo Trump for real from the privacy of my home, because unlike normal people I'm writing a TrumpWorld Grab-bag as once again, the news continues to make it pretty damn clear his whole presidency is snake shoes and fish tits.

Like, let's just take the Attorney General and the Secretary of State I mentioned in my last post as a kind of messed-up example of what's up with TrumpWorld. You've got the guy running the US State Department, Mike Pompeo, a department ostensibly about foreign policy, international relations, that kind of thing, with a weird kvetch about a Ukrainian conspiracy theory and a propensity for spending time in Kansas. I mean, when he isn't confusing folks in Italy (as has Bill Barr) or wherever else with his trying to personally track down the mysteries of what happened in 2016. It's very weird that he thinks his job is alienating allies and proving Trump right about debunked things, whilst some part of him clearly wants to click his heels and murmur "There's no place like home." And we also have Barr, who ostensibly runs a Department of Justice, who seems to want to overturn the results of numerous investigations into the Russian hack of the DNC to get a result more favorable to one person--President Trump. As if he was not an officer of the law, but a defense lawyer for Trump.

"Time is out of joint, o cursed spite," but I was ne'er born to set this right, myself--only to serve as your humble reporter. Today's impeachment inquiry has a lot to do with Ukraine, in fact, it has a lot to do with what Trump tried to do and how White House lawyers tried to cover for Trump. It is important to know, however, that Trump has a very odd idea about Ukraine--and appears to loathe the country:

“They are horrible, corrupt people,” Trump told them.

So far, a dozen witnesses have testified before House lawmakers since the closed-door impeachment inquiry began a month ago. One theme that runs through almost all of their accounts is Trump’s unyielding loathing of Ukraine, which dates to his earliest days in the White House.

“We could never quite understand it,” a former senior White House official said of Trump’s view of the former Soviet republic, also saying that much of it stemmed from the president’s embrace of conspiracy theories. “There were accusations that they had somehow worked with the Clinton campaign. There were accusations they’d hurt him. He just hated Ukraine.”

But if you want to get at the genesis of this loathing--you have to go back to 2016. (We never, ever, leave 2016. It is like a Stephen King short story from a collection he demanded be taken off the store shelves that circulates amongst fans of a very particular kind of horror.) Information obtained recently from the Mueller memos by Buzzfeed and CNN enlighten us a little on that score: Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort and his former NSA Michael Flynn both pushed Ukraine even back when in 2016 as being the source of the hack and the reason for the rumors that would inevitably occur that the campaign was helped by Russia. And even if the involvement of the GRU has since been greatly clarified, Trump is sticking with what his very good and not at all corrupt friends that he would like to pardon one day told him. That he is not at all a loser who got help from a foreign country. (But, if I consider Trump out of the loop on Russia's actual involvement and believing of a sweet-sop cover-story regarding Ukraine corruption, how does one account for Trump's willingness to spout the Russian line on things? Ah, faith--the belief in things unseen! He doesn't look the gift horse in the mouth, but he trepidatiously rides it all the same.)

So Trump believes in a bleak weird thing where 30 thousand emails that were on Hillary Clinton's server (which never were hacked) are on a single server (the entire fuck? a ginormous outfit like DNC has a cloud set-up with like, over a hundred servers) that are somehow in Ukraine because he's fixated on Hillary Clinton's emails (no, really, he was and his mega-fans still are) and even though his campaign and apparently the RNC coordinated with WikiLeaks in dribbling out the DNC emails, he loved them, but didn't actually get that they were two different things. To put it gently, "Pops is confused."

Which is why his "perfect phone call" to Ukraine was so damn confusing, because what in the hell of any of the CrowdStrike shit would have made sense to Zelenskyy? For that matter, for all the folks who want to say random things about whether Ukraine's president felt pressured or not based on what he said sharing a stage with Trump: Really? Go along with you! And would a battered woman standing next to her husband not say she got her black eye from walking into a door? And does that door have four fingers and a class ring? Yes, it was a very complicated door, indeed. Which is why, even if Zelenskyy can't deliver the right investigation outcomes, there are signs some kind of accommodation is in the offing.

I don't know what is worse in all of this, the dishonesty, the cover-up, the sheer incompetence required to get all of this going. and yet, we are only experiencing some information from the closed-door impeachment hearings, about which the transcripts in full will come to light, and open hearings will occur (even though for now, the White House is trying to prevent many key players from talking--and what does that even mean, one might legitimately ask!) There will be more Mueller memos distributed via Buzzfeed and CNN, which seriously means that the Mueller report is not dead, but has powerful new significance because of what it could have, but didn't include (so much obstruction of justice, apparently, though). But why so much obstruction? For what? Why? What is Trump hiding with all the vehemence he reserves for his net worth and the real story of his vital statistics?

The polls and the boos and the news show that something is changing in how Trump is viewed. But for now, he stays the same: in denial, and thinking he is a beloved leader who can survive his multiple scandals by changing address or brazening them out. I don't expect a lot from Trump. I expect a lot from us all, in voting, finally saying the best, most brutal kiss-off "Goodbye" to him. The final, most raucous, boos.

He will never get better from this point on. The worst is yet to come, and will be astonishing. Flynn's ongoing trials and Roger Stone's trials still continue, and more will be revealed.

TWGB: Is This a Good Look?

Great night with the President. Republicans are united! pic.twitter.com/Ea60bt1EWM

— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) October 30, 2019

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy seems to believe that presenting a united front as a party is of more benefit to him than taking a strong interest in the impeachment process is. This is reasonable--I remember a handful of years back when the Freedom Caucus had so little use for him that they'd rather Paul Ryan be Speaker when John Boehner stepped down. They didn't even especially want him after Paul Ryan stepped down. So I reckon keeping tight with Trump keeps his fractious minority in some kind of unity--although that's kind of like teaming up with Manson to get your Gacys in a row. I mean--Trump is not what we'd call a mollifying influence on the Republican party's excesses. That's something to keep in mind when Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer suggests that Trump might shut down the government over the impeachment inquiry.

There's a reason the founders put the power of impeachment in the hands of congress, and then left process pretty much alone. Not to play at reading minds, but the powers vested in a unitary executive without oversight--without a check, leads to a destructive imbalance. Thus, the powers of government lie in separate branches with distinct powers to act as a check on a corrupting absolute power. They might have written extensively on this sort of thing, as it happens. Does that mean President Trump can't take his very good friends to dinner? Probably not. But does that mean his very good friends should think about the propriety of that image when they are determining whether he has committed high crimes and misdemeanors when a serious deliberation of that question is ongoing? On the off-chance it politically backfires as new details come out, or establishes House GOP members as less than independent representatives of their constituents' interests and more the subjects and cronies/lackeys of a makeshift majesty? And if Trump endangers the livelihood of any member's constituents in a petty flail against the due process he is getting while mostly being sad at being held accountable to the public he is supposed to serve--how does that make them look?

In other words--is this a good look for you, Kev? Or for your unmanageable caucus of coots--your Gym Jordan, your Matt Gaetz, your Ted Bleeding Yoho--eligible to attend depositions but refraining because the big words bore him, your Mark Amodei-incapable of finding extortion and solicitation of bribery in black and white, or even consider them wrong if they hypothetically happened.

What fine, principled motherfuckers McCarthy is leading! Loyal to their capo, dedicated to crimes. A great and amazing look for you, certainly. Do go on.

In the meanwhile, right-wing media covered itself over in less-than-glory in trying to smear Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman as I guess a Ukrainian double agent? This was so gross in aftermath that John Yoo, torture apologist and all-around unitary executive enthusiast, tried to walk this shit back. Yeah bruv, but we got you on the digitals. Smearing soldiers, like outing whistleblowers (one of Devin Nunes' friends is on that tip and House GOP tried to get the whistleblowers' name out of Vindman, but he says he doesn't know) or CIA agents is basically long been a part of the GOP deal, but--hmm! Still not a good look.

So what did Vindman say that was fucking them up today? Well, he indicated that the Bidens were a huge part of Ukrainian discussion despite denials of that by other senior officials and that yes, indeed, it was noted as being problematic. And if Perry or Sondland wanted to say this wasn't the case, they were straight-up lying. Also, Vindman was a first-hand recorder of the July 25th call and realized there were issues, and he explains that the White House-issued call summary is missing some valuable details that hammered home the quid pro quo aspects and indicate that Trump believed there was a tape of Biden pressuring someone.

This sounds to me like we would all really benefit from a full readout of the call. You know, in the name of transparency, which we are all supposedly about, right? Anyway, something about what Vindman recalled seems to have Sondland wondering if he understood what he was saying just right. It's amazing what things do look like when there is, uh, negative corroboration?

In the meantime, while we consider these bombshell-like things, let's also not forget that Trump's sloppy legal team is also paid in some sloppy interconnected ways with all kinds of folks. Keeping in mind Trump's weird Turkey phone call that precipitated some much movement in Syria, it is interesting to know that Trump was casting about for deliverables for Turkey's Erdogan. (I am warming up to this word-"deliverables". It has been used in connotation with Trump before.)

Let's also keep on the TWGB* back-burner the weird fate of former NSA Flynn, whose formerly great plea-deal has now devolved into a game of "I lied in my plea, so cut me a better one." I just...I mean....I am not a lawyer, but, is that even a thing? Or is the Flynn defense now suffering from what has been called Flynn facts? Also, consider the attempts of Giuliani et als in trying to put the 2016 election hacking on Ukraine--is this an attempt to clear Manafort in the public view enough to justify pardoning him for the favor of staying shtum? (I don't know, Ukraine is just a hinky-ass world to me.)

Is any of this a good look? We will probably have a better view once public hearings have started--want to bet?

(*"TrumpWorld Grab-Bag". I am doing a whole series and have collected the set here.)

TWGB: That's Not What She Said!

Wow -- Manafort's attorney, Kevin Downing, is shouted down outside the courthouse after he falsely claims "2 courts have ruled no evidence of any collusion with any Russians."

"Liar! That's not what she said!" someone yells. pic.twitter.com/gGqdrP2ihJ

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 13, 2019

Paul Manafort, President Trump's former campaign manager, has now been convicted and sentenced for a variety of crimes, some of which he plead guilty to (the ones being addressed here). Last week, he was sentenced to 47 months for tax and bank fraud. The judge in that case. T. S. Ellis, commented to the effect that his downward revision of the sentencing guidelines were being made in respect of Manafort's "blameless life"--which was really just so extra when a good hard look at Manafort doesn't really indicate "blamelessness" at all. Only a chilling lack of accountability, and a startling level of heretofore not getting blamed.

In the case where Manafort was just sentenced, the judge had a different view taking in the evidence of obstruction of justice and avoiding full compliance with a plea deal with all the other evidence of Manfort's selfishness and failure to show remorse. The most striking sentence of her comments to me was something on the lines of "saying 'I'm sorry I was caught' is not an inspiring call for leniency". The lawyers for Manafort tried to make a case that Manafort was only in court because he had participated in the 2016 campaign for Donald Trump.

That is very much a case of saying "he would not have been caught unless you were looking". What a cynical take!

The judge had also stressed that her pronouncement regarding the charges was no reflection on the collusion claim, which was somehow interpreted as claiming there was no collusion by Manafort's counsel in the above video, which smart protestors were quick to claim "That's not what she said!" I think the most important thing that she actually did say, if not directly, was "Lock him up!

TWGB: Everyone's Lying For Some Reason

Special counsel prosecutors say they have communications of Roger Stone with WikiLeaks https://t.co/baHXXYHiMi pic.twitter.com/Z4NTwaa9Sg

— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) February 15, 2019

There's a weird common thread that runs through all the Trump World Grab-Bag posts: people just keep lying about things. Michael Flynn lied about contacting Russia. Jeff Session lied about it, too. Michael Cohen seems to have lied about things having to do with Russia because Trump told him to. It hasn't become an issue just yet, but Don Trump Jr. has apparently lied to Congress.


It's been established now that Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign manager, lied about certain particulars involving the Trump campaign and this voided his plea agreement. He's now looking at about 20 years or so in prison, which for a man his age, is basically a life sentence. Roger Stone sort of told on himself about contacting Wikileaks, and seemed kind of forthcoming about the depth of his WikiLeaks contacts, but this picture looks to be complicated.

The big, operant question here is, "Why does everyone around Trump lie?" Just recently, two of Trump's other attorneys were openly suspected of having lied about details regarding Michael Cohen's hush money deals, and this sounds pretty much in line with how Trump wants his circle to operate. With "alternative facts".


Pretty much everyone around Trump lies. For some reason.


And even regarding the congressional investigations, we already know Rep. Devin Nunes didn't always tell the truth (actually, he straight up lied) about matters dealing with the Russia investigation. But for that matter, it looks like Senator Richard Burr is also falling short of accuracy, with claims (picked up by the White House) that he sees no evidence of collusion. But Burr is basically lying about how accessible Christopher Steele has been, and Burr, just like Nunes, can be connected to the Trump campaign.

It's not a curiosity or a coincidence when you see this pattern of lying. It looks like a coordinated cover-up, and that means that the parties involved know very well what it is they don't want to be known because it's real and it's bad. It's Manafort is willing to void his plea agreement bad. It's Cohen goes to jail bad. It's Roger Stone's last ratfuck bad. It's respectable people will possibly become anathema bad.

My mantra all along has been "It looks bad because it is bad." Lying can temporarily make things look like they are not bad. But badness will out.

TWBG: The Trump Theocracy

One of the things that strikes me as astonishing about Trump's biggest fans is that they may even know that he is actually incurious, ignorant and lazy and basically spends the first five hours of his day watching news shows and Tweeting shitposts but on a spiritual level, they don't care. The real Trump, the one that pays off porn stars or cheats his employees and the government, is nonetheless "good for the evangelicals" that make up a strong part of his base. It reminds me, in a way, of how George W. Bush (in standee form)  was made a literal item of worship for the kids in the documentary "Jesus Camp".

The president may be fake, but the worship is real. Ish.

This is why Trump can assert, in the midst of a flurry of pious falsehoods, that he will never let the folks assembled at the National Prayer Breakfast this past week down. He won't, because they won't let him let them down. They will believe in him, because he is improbable and could only happen if God willed him.  (But then again, folks, some believe God willed Hitler, so...YMMV.) And he can also gaffe and state that people of faith can be celebrated for the "abolition of civil rights".   (But is that just a gaffe, or is it more of a Kinsley gaffe? Because while the modern religious right likes to pretend they always convened over something like, well, the "right to life" , which is nothing to do with the rights of mothers with respect to prenatal health care or maternal mortality or even doctors, nurses, or patients at reproductive health care clinics for whatever reason when harassment, closure, or even terroristic threats and actions may be concerned) but probably has a lot more to do with the kind of white nationalism Trump more or less advertently espouses.

And all of this makes it a fine time to take note of how the National Prayer Breakfast was used to insert Maria Butina into the right wing social circuit because as luck would have it, the RW evangelical set had gotten a bit of a crush on Putin, and well, it was for the kinds of anti-Muslim and anti-gay things you might think. (Consider the relationship of Scott Lively to anti-gay laws elsewhere in the world with Manafort picking Mike Pence to be Trump's running mate--a guy who basically tried to make segregation for LGBT people a thing. This is the religious right in the US influencing and being influenced by an authoritarian current in the world.)  But this sort of thing becomes very awkward when it is revealed that Maria Butina was in favor of arming anti-American, pro-Russian Crimean separatists to be totally acting in self-defense and Paul Manafort was still working on Ukraine politics even after his indictment.

This really makes me wonder to what extent the religious right here in the US is letting their hot buttons about things like LGBT marriage and participation in the military and telling women they are murderers for having fetuses they can't carry to term or will to live even if they desperately wanted to, has them choosing to ignore things like absolutely naked corruption and graft.  And how this lets them ignore detailed documentation of the real money-grubbing connections, soundly and roundly lied about, between Trump and Russia even during the 2016 election.

This isn't even really about how Russian adoptions or the placement of South American children in the care of an agency connected to Betsy De Vos--except it is--about how the religious right concerns (like raising the theocratic children of the future) can influence US policy in ways that immiserate  millions, undermine US democratic institutions, and work with foreign influences that don't have the best interests of our republic at heart whether because of apocalyptic (it doesn't matter because we'll all be dead in the long run" or absolutist (destroying current day America to create a better, more pure tomorrow) reasons.

The Trump Theocracy isn't strictly religious--but it has aspects of a cult, with hidden knowledge (Q Anon) and shunning of family and friends who aren't on board. Reinforcing the god-cult of infallible Trump seems to be an important part of conservatism at the moment, with many Republican figures assumed to be sane mouthing words that make no sense except as respecting Trump as a kind of sacred figure who cannot be criticized. Which is absurd and demeaning--he is a man, elected for a four year term (barely) and can obviously be challenged.

Unless his installation as president had an indispensability for some force, somewhere, that had nothing to do with his actual competency for the job, which still appears to be slight to nonexistent.  But about that, I can only assume this serves the highest bidder based on the swampiness of Trump associations.

TWGB: A Tale of Two Lawyers and Other Stories

Michael Cohen and Rudy Giuliani seem, on the outside, pretty different characters. Cohen was Trump's "fixer"--not like a regular lawyer. He was the guy you could trust to threaten reporters or pay off inconvenient people, or maybe even rig polls. He's an okay lawyer from a not-great school who has thug connections. And Rudy Giuliani was once "America's mayor" and even ran for president!

Well, whoopie shit. Giuliani is in the process of learning something that Michael Cohen has probably known for some time. Being Trump's legal counsel, IMHO, looks to be the keto version of a shit sandwich--hold the bread! I am very much reminded of a story about two previous attorneys who worked with Trump, and discovered they needed to sit with him in tandem to make sure he didn't forget things.

Which simply sounds adorable until you realize it's actually pretty abusive. Because it means Trump wanted to lie and make his lawyers help him lie and the "forgetting" and "interpretations" were actually his way of being entirely crooked AF.

This sort of explains why Giuliani is caught saying things like: "I've been through all the tapes...I shouldn't have said tapes." But sure--why not say "tapes"? Because there definitely are Michael Cohen/Donald Trump tapes.  Over a hundred of them. Because Michael Cohen was dealing with Trump alone and needed a backup in case Mr. Trump "forgot things". And some of Giuliani's "gaffes" might be the result of Trump "forgetting things" like telling his counsel the entire story. This leaves Giuliani negotiating a minefield of swearing something isn't so that could very well get revealed later.

Like the Moscow Towers signed LOI. And like the apparent actual development plans, that would not exist if, as Trump always claimed, there weren't any active dealings in Russia.

That is why there are so many "Giuliani is incompetent/a liability/making Trump mad" stories out there right now. It truly does look like "ineptitude".  But I don't know that Giuliani is really in any danger, because his messaging about Trump, even while it incrementally moves the goalposts on Trump's potential liability, stays positive, and because his main function is probably "squid ink" anyway. He blurs the timeline because he can't very well reveal a whole picture he might not even have, right?

It's a dirty job. One Roy Cohn or even maybe Michael Cohen would understand "how" dirty.

But there is another, probably more fraught thing going on in the Cohen/Trump/Giuliani triangle--Michael Cohen recently postponed his House Congressional testimony "indefinitely" because of threats to himself and his family coming from Trump and Giuliani. This seems to have to do with dark-tinged Tweets and murmurings from Trump aimed at Cohen's wife and father-in-law. But I'm not counting out that Giuliani has also, in a way, obliquely crossed a line by hinting at what obstruction of justice is and is not:

“A president firing somebody who works for him, if he does no other corrupt act other than just fire him, can’t obstruct justice because that’s what Article Two of the Constitution gives to him solely. Not Congress. Not anybody else. If, for example, a president said, ‘Leave office, or I’m going to, you know, have your kids kidnapped,’ or, ‘I’m going to break your legs.’ Obstruction—I prosecuted a lot of obstruction cases.”

It's not Jim Comey's life he's suggesting could be turned into a Liam Neeson movie. Why is he saying these things are a possibility for anyone? Because there is someone who does have potentially "reachable" family members. (And anyone might, really. Depending upon how well you understand their points of leverage and social connections.) But probably particularly one of Bob Mueller's most reluctant songbirds.

The one who is still subpoenaed by the Senate Intelligence Committee (the one still gaveled by GOP) and will attend next month regardless of all that. Which will make for some lit number of Sunday talking head shows. Lucky spokeslawperson, Rudy Giuliani. Who is, if I am reading his relationship correctly, not actually going to skirt the crime-fraud exemption regarding attorney-client privilege by the time the subject gets to him (because Trump and friends always be criming).

Now, I know there was a conviction in absentia for former Ukraine President Yanukovich for treason and some stuff with Deripaska and sanctions (are they off, or what?)  and other valuable Manafort-related material which I am not addressing, which is probably the really key Trump campaign/administration collusion shit we should be looking at. And I haven't even worked in all the shit about Kushner's security clearance, and how Deustchebank is all up in this.

I will get there soonish--but I had to dump my open tabs right about now. I just got this weird blogger-sense that I better be ready for tomorrow. Because, well, tomorrow is another day! And there will I truly believe be more shit.


UPDATE: If you enjoyed this post, you might enjoy the entire TrumpWorld Grab-Bag Series. I have linked a lot.

TWGB: Persistent Illegality

There's something indelibly shady about Donald Trump that casts a kind of fug around the people in his orbit and all the things he does. Maybe not for his base, the brain-wormed bastions of MAGA minions who believe Trump's turds can be polished into gold, but for the people who have become increasingly dubious not about Trump's good intent, but whether he's ever capable of it. Take his charity--oh, wait. NY has already taken it. The Trump Foundation has been ordered to shut down and sell off its assets (such as portraits of Trump, purchased with Foundation money and presumably on display at properties he holds) due to "persistent illegality". 

Trump is not a generous man; he is tighter than a flea's withers and about as small about his purse. He once basked in applause for crashing a charity event for which he gave exactly nothing whatsoever. For kids with AIDS.  Washington Post's David Farenthold during the 2016 campaign did a bang up job of trying to track down whether there was even a whiff of the philanthropic about Trump, and found that Trump's foundation was made up of other people's money as of late, distributed to satisfy Trump's own needs. Sometimes the donations out of the fund looked like a reward for doing business with the Trump Organization. And looking at the 990's, I wondered myself if the foundation was being used as a Trump Campaign Kickstarter. He used Trump Foundation funds to donate to the campaign of Florida's AG Pam Bondi, who had settled the Trump University complaint for him. Trump can brag that he never charged his foundation for rents or whatever using his properties, but this is because his "board" (which included his children as fiduciary members) didn't apparently have any meetings. (But is that really so--see the Trump's structuring of their deal for a golf outing for St. Jude. Sad thing is, Eric Trump might have wanted to do better, but that old Donald Trump shadow just fugged him up.)

But this post isn't really about the persistent illegality of the now-defunct Trump Foundation (anyone in the market for a Trump portrait, though?) but rather, what the TrumpWorld aura seems to do to people--take Flynn's sentencing delay. The same day that we heard about the Trump Foundation being kaput, Mike Flynn (having been wished "Good Luck" by the former boss) thought he was going to have a great time at his sentencing because Mueller said he shouldn't have any jail time, and his defense agreed, except for the whining about it. Because the FBI was being meanies asking him questions like he was supposed to be responsible like the head of some kind of intelligence agency and whatnot, you guys. And they wanted him to be truthful which was supposedly amazeballs and tew much. Gah, adulting, amirite?

Now, I outsource my legal opinions these days because I was a literature major which means I should doubt my capacity for close readings, but I have complaints with the reading where Judge Sullivan was incorrect for dropping the T-word. Flynn has a clear violation of FARA in addition to making false statements, plural. There is more redacted in what's up with Mike, and Sullivan has read it. Flynn was given a great deal, and trying to insert some conspiracy theory nonsense in the proceeding was dumb as hell and those supposedly intemperate words were about waking Flynn's ass the hell up and reminding him that to whom a fucking raft has been given, a failure to float equals drowning. Maybe Flynn thinks a pardon is his best bet, but the legal wheels are trying to get him on the cooperating path. Trump's good luck nod is wishful that nothing has been given up. But it would be out of Trump's actual make-up to deliver without seeing the goods. He is not charitable. 

What's fascinating is to see what Trump's recent maneuvers post the terrible day where Flynn's sentencing is postponed (contingent upon his very good cooperation with the Mueller investigation) and the death of his slush fund. Oh, wait--and the revelation that he signed a letter of intent regarding Trump Tower Moscow, because that could be a big thing. See, that--that right there, makes the statement he made about not having an financial interest in Russia during the 2016 campaign a total lie, and also makes Rudy Giuliani, who admitted that maybe there were talks about a Trump Tower Moscow up to November 2016 but that no LOI was signed, a bit of a liar, unless he was just being blindsided by the kind of thing Trump wouldn't necessarily see fit to share with his defense counsel. 

Because he is innately shady. Made of shade. Shadulent. Foggular. Of and pertaining to a thing very much of not clear and clouded with complications. 

Anywho, when his NSA is possibly a little bit treasonous and his charitable foundation is a slush fund and he's been caught with his wee hands in the Moscow Tower cookie jar, of course the next day he is pulling out of Syria and cancelling sanctions on Oleg Deripaska. (I never know where Deripaska really stands in Putin's estimation, do you?) I do know ISIS is probably not really a victory because the Pentagon says it isn't. But since when did Trump trust our nation's best intelligence? (And maybe we know one of his hand-picked intelligence geniuses did a failure to be anti-ISIS because of being on Turkey's payroll.)

Am I saying Trump is making presidential decisions based on his personal animus, his need to deflect, his natural shadiness, his allegiance to foreign powers? I don't even know! But there is a shadow of persistent illegality about things Trump does. We can't just assume his reasons are any good, ever. 

TWGB: The Messy Things Called "Details"

Even though I'm just a normal person who waits with bated breath for things like surprise indictments of peripheral Trump/Russia figures or who refreshes Twitter threads about secretive federal Grand Jury hearings like a twitchy addicted lab animal looking for a fix (especially on Fridays), I'm also kind of relieved that Saturday was relatively quiet on the news front, so I could finally catch up with some of the hanging news out there. There are times when taking in Trump World news is a little like trying to drink from a fire hose.

On Thursday, Maria Butina plead guilty to engaging in a conspiracy to infiltrate the political sphere of a certain political party with the goal of influencing US/Russia relations as a foreign agent working in hand with Russian billionaire Alexander Torshin. Some people might quibble over whether political folks who met her through the NRA should have been a little suspicious over whether she was just a little...obvious or whether being an agent of Russia or a spy are different things, but I think The Daily Beast article includes a pretty valuable perspective:

John McLaughlin, former deputy director and acting director of the CIA, described Butina as an example of Russian “espionage lite,” operating openly but hiding the direction and support she got from the Russian government.

Steve Hall, a former CIA chief of Russian operations, said Thursday, "It's my theory that Butina is not actually a staff officer of any Russian intelligence service. She is somebody who has been co-opted by somebody else in the Russian government to do a job."

So maybe not a spy like a "secret agent"--but some kind of agent, anyway.  I kind of suspect her gun rights org was a cut-out but what do I know? But did US people think this back when she was making friends and influencing people--and did they care?  Eh, details!

In other news, we got a further corroboration of the activities of Individual One with respects to Michael Cohen's activities: Donald Trump was in the room with Cohen and AMI's David Pecker when they discussed what to do about Trump's long and winding road vis a vis horndoggery--in August 2015. So the idea that Trump would be making arrangements regarding the silencing of troublesome wenches was not a spur of the moment post TMZ video thing; it was known to Trump that this would be a problem (how big, though--a real quote from Steve Bannon in Wolff's Fire and Fury suggested Trump's other attorney, Marc Kasowitz, handled maybe "a hundred"). It was a part of Trump's entire campaign strategy to minimize a seedy existence (which may entail snorting Adderall and sleazing on underage beauty contestants--stuff which was known about, but never really addressed, by MSM during 2016 when it might have mattered--thanks!) But eh, details!

It also turns out that Paul Manafort, of the maybe kinda/sort of JDA with the Trump defense even since his plea deal and the being too close to Russia to stay on as campaign manager in 2016, but who still shaped the Trump transition, also gave Trump advice about how to discredit the lawful investigation of his activities by the FBI. Who would have thought? But there was so much suggestion of obstructing justice and lying to create a bad opinion about the FBI's work. And it really seems in retrospect like this is what Trump did--with a will! Take the regular snipes against McCabe (who offended Trump I guess because of the opening of an obstruction of justice investigation that was totally well-deserved?) and the low-hanging fruit of the Strzok/Page relationship, which, while interesting, never resulted in any leaks from their Clinton investigation or from their general distaste for Trump, and never actually resulted in any out of the way cover-up by the FBI of their texts. Some RW pundits are maintaining that the standard resetting of returned electronic devices to factory specs (as is procedural) was somehow a "wiping" (great shades of the "acid-washing" of Hillary Clinton's emails!) of damaging material--but no. Information was recovered because that is how data retention works. But eh, details!