Ever since Donald Trump popped up with a tweet on Saturday admitting that he knew that Michael Flynn had lied to the FBI way back at the time Flynn was dismissed, there’s been a contest between “Ah ha!” and “Uhhh.”
Ah ha! So Trump knew that Flynn had lied from the beginning, meaning that he not only misrepresented the situation to the public, but was himself guilty of obstruction when he attempted to get James Comey to drop any investigation into Flynn.
Uhhh ... Trump didn’t really write that. It was, um, Trump’s attorney! It was John Dowd, who—previously unknown to anyone on Earth—has the ability to transmit statements in the name of Trump.
Ah ha! That still means that Trump still knew, because Dowd is his personal lawyer.
Uhhh ... See, the attorney just made a mistake. Dowd didn’t mean Trump knew in January. Just that he knows now.
Except …. The whole thing is ridiculous, because it’s increasingly, obviously, blindingly clear that Trump knew from the start.
The White House's chief lawyer told President Donald Trump in January he believed then-national security adviser Michael Flynn had misled the FBI and lied to Vice President Mike Pence and should be fired, a source familiar with the matter said Monday.
Which means that every single statement that Donald Trump made about James Comey after that date is bound to appear as part of an obstruction charge.
White House counsel Donald McGahn told Trump that based on his conversation with then-acting Attorney General Sally Yates, he believed Flynn had not told the truth in his interview with the FBI or to Pence, the source said. McGahn did not tell the President that Flynn had violated the law in his FBI interview or was under criminal investigation, the source said.
McGahn would be part of Trump’s White House legal team, someone who might, possibly, under some circumstance, have submitted some text for his Twitter account. Unlike John Dowd, who is a member of Trump’s personal team and not in any sense part of the government.
McGahn is also the guy who, just last week, was pretending to be furious over Sally Yates not giving him the info that Michael Flynn had committed a federal crime when she called McGahn up to let him know that Flynn was lying, at the very least, to the public.
All of this gives some idea of just how big a slip-up Trump’s tweet really was.
McGahn launched a media statement full of pretend anger over something that he actually knew from day one, and looked for the nearest person vaguely associated with the Obama administration that he could, even implausibly, blame.
Dowd threw himself on the grenade for Trump in claiming that he authored the tweet out of ignorance. Then he stated that he hadn’t done it directly, but had emailed the “director of social media.” And then, when challenged to produce the email, claimed that he had dictated the tweet verbally. Dowd also planted the ridiculous idea that Trump can’t be charged with obstruction, because he’s somehow the One True Judge over all American justice, a thought that is legally … ridiculous is too kind.
Those are the lengths Trump’s legal team has gone to in an effort to patch over Trump’s mistake.
Because it was a doozy.
And obstruction? That was charge number one against Bill Clinton. And Richard Nixon.
