These basic contours of the situation are right there in plain sight, right there at the end of our noses for all of us to see. Here are the latest developments:
We know this because Trump himself has basically told us in his own words, again and againand again, that he believes law enforcement should function as an instrument of his political will — that now that he is president, the top law enforcement officials in the land are there at his beck and call to investigate his political opponents and to protect him from scrutiny that began during the campaign for entirely legitimate reasons.
But Ryan knows full well — since it has now been established by credible reporting — that laying the groundwork to do this is exactly why Trump wants the memo to be released in the first place. And so, Ryan and every Republican who supports its release know that he is opening the door to the possibility of a very serious escalation in Trump’s abuse of power. And if this escalation takes place, those who supported the memo’s release but insisted they didn’t want to see it used for that purpose cannot credibly claim they did not actively enable that outcome.
Update: The Post is now reporting that Trump will approve the release of the memo, with some redactions. So here we go.
- The Post reports in the clearest terms yet why Trump wants to see the Nunes memo released: “According to senior White House officials and advisers,” the president “sees it as key to making changes at the Justice Department — particularly pushing out Rosenstein.” That would be Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the Mueller investigation. His supposed misconduct is the subject of the memo.
- The Post adds: “According to a person familiar with his comments, the president has told advisers the memo might make people realize how the FBI and Mueller are biased against him, and that could give him reason to force Rosenstein out.” This would presumably clear the way for the appointment of a Trump loyalist to oversee the probe, thus potentially constraining it.
- Last night, Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.) — the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee — released a letter revealing that committee chair Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) — made “material changes” to the memo. The memo purports to “prove” that surveillance of a top Trump official was improperly based on Democratic-funded research, thus “proving” that the probe’s genesis is irrevocably tainted and that it represents a Deep State Coup to remove the president. Independent reporting has confirmed otherwise, and Democrats who have seen the memo say it’s highly distorted.
- These changes, Schiff argued, were made to the memo that was delivered to the White House after the committee voted for its release, thus rendering the process illegitimate and requiring a new vote on the memo that the White House is currently “reviewing” for release (we already know Trump has decided to release it). It is hard to know what this means without more detail, but it again underscores the degree to which Nunes has been willing to pervert basic government functionings to protect the president. If the memo is released, it should be accompanied by true transparency, i.e., the release of as much underlying source material as possible so we can all judge it for ourselves. Yet committee Republicans have not even said whether they’ll authorize the release of Schiff’s rebuttal.
- It is probably no accident that all of this comes as the New York Times reports that the Mueller probe is intensely focused on Trump’s role in drafting a statement falsifying the real rationale for the June 2016 meeting Donald Trump Jr. held at Trump Tower to receive dirt on Hillary Clinton via the Russian government. The Times reports that Mark Corallo, the spokesman for Trump’s legal team, is prepared to tell Mueller about an internal conversation about that statement that led him to think obstruction of justice was taking place.
We know this because Trump himself has basically told us in his own words, again and againand again, that he believes law enforcement should function as an instrument of his political will — that now that he is president, the top law enforcement officials in the land are there at his beck and call to investigate his political opponents and to protect him from scrutiny that began during the campaign for entirely legitimate reasons.
But Ryan knows full well — since it has now been established by credible reporting — that laying the groundwork to do this is exactly why Trump wants the memo to be released in the first place. And so, Ryan and every Republican who supports its release know that he is opening the door to the possibility of a very serious escalation in Trump’s abuse of power. And if this escalation takes place, those who supported the memo’s release but insisted they didn’t want to see it used for that purpose cannot credibly claim they did not actively enable that outcome.
Update: The Post is now reporting that Trump will approve the release of the memo, with some redactions. So here we go.
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