Fear seems to be setting in as Trump threw a Twitter-Tantrum Sunday morning, claiming “Mueller and his gang that make Joseph McCarthy look like a baby!”
The walls appear to be crumbling around Trump in the wake of recent events.
The jury of six men and six women return to court on Monday to continue considering whether his former campaign manager Paul Manafort is guilty or innocent on some, all, or none of 18 counts of tax evasion and bank fraud. (The case is considered a slam-dunk by most legal experts.)
Then there is the explosive report by The New York Times that Trump’s White House Counsel has cooperated extensively with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
The White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, has cooperated extensively in the special counsel investigation, sharing detailed accounts about the episodes at the heart of the inquiry into whether President Trump obstructed justice, including some that investigators would not have learned of otherwise, according to a dozen current and former White House officials and others briefed on the matter.
In at least three voluntary interviews with investigators that totaled 30 hours over the past nine months, Mr. McGahn described the president’s fury toward the Russia investigation and the ways in which he urged Mr. McGahn to respond to it. He provided the investigators examining whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice a clear view of the president’s most intimate moments with his lawyer.
Among them were Mr. Trump’s comments and actions during the firing of the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, and Mr. Trump’s obsession with putting a loyalist in charge of the inquiry, including his repeated urging of Attorney General Jeff Sessions to claim oversight of it. Mr. McGahn was also centrally involved in Mr. Trump’s attempts to fire the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, which investigators might not have discovered without him.
Continuing, The New York Times pointed out an obvious comparison between McGahn and John Dean, White House Counsel to Richard Nixon. Dean was deeply involved in the Watergate scandal and was referred to as the “master manipulator of the cover-up” by the FBI. He eventually plead guilty and served as a key witness against the White House for prosecutors.
Trump was blaming Mr. McGahn for his legal woes, yet encouraging him to speak to investigators. Mr. McGahn and his lawyer grew suspicious. They began telling associates that they had concluded that the president had decided to let Mr. McGahn take the fall for decisions that could be construed as obstruction of justice, like the Comey firing, by telling the special counsel that he was only following shoddy legal advice from Mr. McGahn.
Worried that Mr. Trump would ultimately blame him in the inquiry, Mr. McGahn told people he was determined to avoid the fate of the White House counsel for President Richard M. Nixon, John W. Dean, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct justice in the Watergate scandal.
Mr. McGahn decided to fully cooperate with Mr. Mueller. It was, he believed, the only choice he had to protect himself.
“This sure has echoes of Richard Nixon’s White House counsel, John Dean, who in 1973 feared that Nixon was setting him up as a fall guy for Watergate and secretly gave investigators crucial help while still in his job,” said the historian Michael Beschloss.
Trump began his Twitter-tantrum with a single tweet posted shortly after the article by The New York Times was published.
“I allowed White House Counsel Don McGahn, and all other requested members of the White House Staff, to fully cooperate with the Special Counsel. In addition we readily gave over one million pages of documents. Most transparent in history. No Collusion, No Obstruction. Witch Hunt!” he tweeted.
I allowed White House Counsel Don McGahn, and all other requested members of the White House Staff, to fully cooperate with the Special Counsel. In addition we readily gave over one million pages of documents. Most transparent in history. No Collusion, No Obstruction. Witch Hunt!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2018
Trump returned to his tantrum first thing Sunday morning, in a rapid-fire release of tweets directed at everyone from The New York Times to McGahn. He also mentioned Special Counsel Robert Mueller (misspelling “counsel” three times along the way) and a host of others, such as former CIA Director John Brennon, former FBI Director James Comey, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, former FBI Agent Paul Strzok.
He also tossed in the obligatory references to “witch hunts,” “Crooked Hillary,” “McCarthyism,” “Fake News,” etc. etc.
Below is today’s tantrum, so far. We have broken his tweet up into paragraphs for clarity, but the words remain his. (You can click here for his Twitter account if you want to read them there for yourself or comment on them.)
“The failing @nytimes wrote a Fake piece today implying that because White House Councel Don McGahn was giving hours of testimony to the Special Councel, he must be a John Dean type “RAT.” But I allowed him and all others to testify – I didn’t have to. I have nothing to hide and have demanded transparency so that this Rigged and Disgusting Witch Hunt can come to a close.
“So many lives have been ruined over nothing – McCarthyism at its WORST! Yet Mueller & his gang of Dems refuse to look at the real crimes on the other side – Media is even worse! No Collusion and No Obstruction, except by Crooked Hillary and the Democrats. All of the resignations and corruption, yet heavily conflicted Bob Mueller refuses to even look in that direction.
“What about the Brennan, Comey, McCabe, Strzok lies to Congress, or Crooked’s Emails! The Failing New York Times wrote a story that made it seem like the White House Councel had TURNED on the President, when in fact it is just the opposite – & the two Fake reporters knew this.
“This is why the Fake News Media has become the Enemy of the People. So bad for America! Some members of the media are very Angry at the Fake Story in the New York Times. They actually called to complain and apologize – a big step forward.
“From the day I announced, the Times has been Fake News, and with their disgusting new Board Member, it will only get worse! Study the late Joseph McCarthy, because we are now in period with Mueller and his gang that make Joseph McCarthy look like a baby! Rigged Witch Hunt!” [emphasis added]
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