An explosive new report has been published by independent journalist Murray Waas in the The New York Review of Books, detailing the mountain of clear evidence that Robert Mueller has amassed against Donald Trump with respect to obstruction of justice.
Waas reports that new evidence, including evidence gathered through “highly confidential White House records and testimony by some of President Trump’s own top aides” — leads to “some of the strongest evidence to date implicating the president of the United States in an obstruction of justice.”
The central focus of Mueller’s obstruction case involves Trump’s handling of the Mike Flynn matter, and the pressure Trump put on James Comey to let Flynn go. Trump’s lawyers have argued that Trump could not have obstructed justice in the matter because Trump believed that Flynn had been cleared. (Which, can I point out, is “Only Trump” logic? If Trump thought Flynn was cleared, why would he be telling Comey anything?) Regardless, what Waas reports destroys that theory forever:
I have learned that a confidential White House memorandum, which is in the special counsel’s possession, explicitly states that when Trump pressured Comey he had just been told by two of his top aides—his then chief of staff Reince Priebus and his White House counsel Don McGahn—that Flynn was under criminal investigation. This memo, the existence of which I first disclosed in December in Foreign Policy, was, as one source described it to me, “a timeline of events [in the White House] leading up to Flynn’s resignation.” It was dated February 15, 2017, and was prepared by McGahn two days after Flynn’s forced resignation and one day after Trump’s meeting with Comey. As I reported, research for the memo was “primarily conducted by John Eisenberg, the deputy counsel to the president and legal adviser to the National Security Council,” who, in turn, was “assisted by James Burnham, another White House counsel staff member.”
That kind of timing is too perfect to rebut. Trump pressured Comey at the time precisely because Trump knew exactly how much trouble Flynn was in, and did what can only be described as classic obstruction of justice, attempt to get the cop to lay-off his guy.
Oh, and disabuse yourselves of any notion that Waas has turned up evidence that Mueller will now need to get. Mueller has it, and has already incorporated into his case:
The memo’s own statement that Trump was indeed told that Flynn was under FBI investigation was, in turn, based in part on contemporaneous notes written by Reince Priebus after discussing the matter with the president, as well as McGahn’s recollections to his staff about what he personally had told Trump, according to other records I was able to review. Moreover, people familiar with the matter have told me that both Priebus and McGahn have confirmed in separate interviews with the special counsel that they had told Trump that Flynn was under investigation by the FBI before he met with Comey.
It is certainly true that – especially of late – we are much more interested in the evidence that Mueller has regarding how Trump conspired with Russia (have you noted that the White House is now transitioning into “there is no crime of collusion” defense? They know that the evidence is about to come out and are attempting to soften the ground as much as possible, the fact is that probably up to one third of Trump’s supporters don’t care if he did conspire with Russia, if that’s what it took to beat Hillary). But, the obstruction matter ties directly into the conspiracy with Russia, as this paragraph notes:
The sequence of events that led first to the firing of Flynn and subsequently to the president’s pleading his case with Comey began on December 29, 2016. On that day, after Trump had been elected president but not yet taken office, Flynn had several phone conversations with the then Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak. Flynn counseled Kislyak during these conversations not to retaliate against the US for economic sanctions imposed that day against Russia by the outgoing Obama administration. The sanctions were imposed to punish Russia for covertly intervening in the 2016 presidential election with the purpose of helping to defeat Hillary Clinton and helping Trump win.
Whatever else is proven, we know that as of December 2016, the Trump team (not yet president), had enough of a relationship with the Russian government, that a Trump “team member” could call the Russian ambassador with instructions as to how to react to the sanctions about to be imposed upon his nation – and Russia followed instructions.
Perhaps Russia followed Flynn’s advice because it knew it need merely wait until Obama left office and then it could kick out half of our diplomatic corps – which it did, without fear of reprisals or even harsh words. Recall that Trump praised Putin for cutting the State Department payroll? Russia got a free-hand to kick out our best spies and diplomats, with centuries of collective experience and all the relationships that go with them, again, free.
Please go to the report. There is much more. We writers only make money on our efforts by people visiting pages, and this man has put the time and effort into putting together the most comprehensive and damning report that I have seen. Oh, and you can pass this article around, too.
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