The news that a Russian lobbyist and former counterintelligence officer was on hand for Donald Trump Jr.’s now-infamous meeting at Trump Tower wasn’t the only bombshell detonated yesterday. It turns out that Trump’s legal team knew about the email exchange that led to that meeting for three full weeks before the so-called president says he learned about it.
However, if Trump and his team are thinking about throwing Marc Kasowitz and friends under the bus, they have another think coming. After all, Trump shouldn’t have needed to ask his lawyers about that meeting. There was one person in that room at Trump Tower who should have known this meeting was inappropriate at best and criminal at worst—Paul Manafort.
Remember, folks, Manafort dates back to the Ford administration. He almost certainly knows that you do not accept oppo obtained from a foreign power—especially when that foreign power is almost certainly spying on you. He was supposedly brought on as operating head of the Trump campaign with the specific goal of professionalizing its operations. Well, in this case, he failed, and failed bigly.
The one person who could have shut this meeting down with one word failed to do so. The one person who was obligated to immediately alert Trump about it failed to do so. At best, it was because Trump created an atmosphere were he couldn’t be told “no.” If that was the case, Manafort shouldn’t have taken the job.
Lawrence O’Donnell has argued that Jared Kushner, more than anyone else, has reason to be very afraid over this meeting because he didn’t disclose it on SF-86. But the one person who was theoretically above Kushner and Donald Jr. on the org chart has some explaining to do as well.