Obsession--notes

 

I’m reading Obsession by Byron York right now.

I wanted a thorough recap of the Trump Russian collusion stuff that didn’t bog down too much in legal detail. I think I have a good summary in my head of the events that led to it. I never understood the connection between each of these different issues though. I remember the George Papadopoulos stuff. It always felt like a setup to me. George sounded like some half-wit from the press reports, a guy boozing it up and giving away state secrets. Nothing could be further from the truth. He came out sounding like a guy that got screwed by a process crime (making false statements) for the sin of joining Trump inc.

There is too much to rehash here with Papadopoulos. The basic framework: expert on Mid East joins Trump and is given information about Hilary's emails and Russia. That information is used to begin an investigation on him and make it look like the administration was fishing for dirt on Clinton. 

I wasn’t as clear on Carter Page. That was one story I didn’t remember too well. He’d gone to Moscow apparently but there was nothing in his background that sounded devious or untoward. In fact, later we found out that he was working with the CIA, a piece of info that was specifically ignored so the FBI could surveil him. Everyone thought he was guilty as hell-including a lot of conservative writers who couldn’t believe that Page was actually a decent public servant.

It’s a testament to the power of the media that other media types also got duped by false notions about Page.

I remember the meeting with Don Jr, Jared Kushner and the Russian woman (Veselnitskaya) who lobbied to have some legislation removed that prevented (adoptions I think) between Russia and the U.S. Of all the possibilities pointing to collusion this one at least seemed the most likely. But like the others it was a big dud. Looking back it seemed designed to make the most noise for the press, big spashy headlines and secret meetings.

“Meeting with Russian agent at Trump Tower” or “Russians trade dirt on Hilary for Sanction Relief”. This looks particularly intriguing on a chyron graphic.

The sketchiest piece of the whole thing was the email sent to Don Jr. from the Russian woman’s publicist about “dirt” on Hilary. Jr. replied that he liked what he heard. It looked bad to be meeting with a foreign official for dirt on your opponent. But it was a smokescreen to setup the event, nothing more. So Jr’s willingness to get dirt might have sounded dodgy but no crime was committed. The meeting itself was a ruse to promote an unrelated idea. The campaign thought the whole thing a waste of time.

The Michael Flynn incident still isn’t resolved. He was placed under an FBI investigation before Trump even took office and basically got railroaded by the investigators. Even Bryon York isn’t clear on why he was placed under surveillance by the FBI. Officially he talked with the Russian ambassador before taking office (during the transition period) and asked him to hold off on any big moves until the administration was in place. This is proper for an incoming National Security Advisor to do. He was asked about it by the FBI and said he didn’t remember. He was asked by Mike Pence about it and apparently lied to him. That got him fired. I’m not sure how much is true regarding Flynn and what he told the FBI or didn’t. He clearly didn’t think he was under oath at the time. It might not seem like much but if they are going to charge you for it they need to let you know you are under oath. That’s a basic legal standard. I blame James Comey for that one.

York mentioned something that I wasn’t familiar with, Trump’s supposed “gutting” of the Republican platform on Russia. This one is the biggest lie of all. Nothing was changed except for some language promising to support Ukraine. It did not promise weapons though. A delegate from Texas wanted tougher language on Russia and specific sanctions. They rejected changing it. As Byron York says, the platform actually looked much tougher toward Russia than previously. It’s a dumb thing to do anyway if you plan to pimp for Putin and the boys. Why signal your intentions by changing a platform? Platforms are mostly for domestic politicking. I can’t imagine they have any lasting influence on foreign policy. I guess this is why I’d never heard of it, it went away faster than Steve Bannon.

I’m only a few chapters in but it’s clear by late 2017, Mueller and his team have nothing. Here is where it devolves into a fishing expedition. Mueller’s guys start turning the whole fiasco into a way to find obstruction of justice since collusion was a dead end.

The surprising part for me was how committed the Trump team was to helping Mueller end it quickly. They handed over almost all documents requested by the team and even met with Mueller himself to emphasize how quick they wanted it to end. I guess most of them figured by helping out, playing ball, it could all go away quickly. And if there really is nothing illegal, why not help? The investigation was cutting into the regular affairs of governing. Not to mention Trump looked weak and hobbled whenever he would meet with world leaders. They were understandably reluctant to engage with a president who might be gone in a matter of months. That a serious problem for a new president.

But Mueller had different ideas. The fact that the investigation started digging like this is proof, it was never about Russian collusion.