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How has so-called President Trump, Illegitimate President Trump obstructed justice-let us count the ways. He continued his assault against the FBI, the Russia probe, and any witnesses who can corroborate James’ Comey’s version of events in Trump’s firing him by vindictively firing Andy McCabe-who was already retiring to deprive him of his pension.
FN: See Chapter A for much more on that whole very problematic episode with McCabe.
However, this story that broke on March 7 is particularly egregious. Trump spoke to both former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and his current WH Counsel, Don McGhan about their Mueller testimony.
The special counsel in the Russia investigation has learned of two conversations in recent months in which President Trump asked key witnesses about matters they discussed with investigators, according to three people familiar with the encounters.
“In one episode, the president told an aide that the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, should issue a statement denying a New York Times article in January. The article said Mr. McGahn told investigators that the president once asked him to fire the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. Mr. McGahn never released a statement and later had to remind the president that he had indeed asked Mr. McGahn to see that Mr. Mueller was dismissed, the people said.
In the other episode, Mr. Trump asked his former chief of staff, Reince Priebus, how his interview had gone with the special counsel’s investigators and whether they had been “nice,” according to two people familiar with the discussion.
The episodes demonstrate that even as the special counsel investigation appears to be intensifying, the president has ignored his lawyers’ advice to avoid doing anything publicly or privately that could create the appearance of interfering with it.”
Legal experts said Mr. Trump’s contact with the men most likely did not rise to the level of witness tampering. But witnesses and lawyers who learned about the conversations viewed them as potentially a problem and shared them with Mr. Mueller.
I’m a little surprised to hear that it doesn’t rise to the level of witness tampering. If so what would rise to that level then? Clearly Priebus and McGahn were concerned enough about it.
But apparently it does at least further raise troubling questions and further pique Mueller’s interest.
“The experts said the meetings with Mr. McGahn and Mr. Priebus would probably sharpen Mr. Mueller’s focus on the president’s interactions with other witnesses. The special counsel has questioned witnesses recently about their interactions with the president since the investigation began. The experts also said the episodes could serve as evidence for Mr. Mueller in an obstruction case.”
“It makes it look like you’re cooking a story, and prosecutors are always looking out for it,” said Julie R. O’Sullivan, a law professor at Georgetown University and expert on white-collar criminal investigations.
She added, “It can get at the issue of consciousness of guilt in an obstruction case because if you didn’t do anything wrong, why are you doing that?”
Exactly-consciousness of guilt. But then again, if Trump were NOT guilty of collusion then why fire Comey in the first place? At the minimum if he weren’t guilty it was a massive blunder on Trump’s part.
As for his conversations with other witnesses, it gives him an unfair heads up as even basic information can help him shape his own testimony.
Trump’s conversations with McGahn started after a January 25 NYT article that chronicled that McGahn threatened to quit in June, 2017 after Trump asked him to fire Mueller.
“Mr. Trump’s interactions with Mr. McGahn unfolded in the days after the Jan. 25 Times article, which said that Mr. McGahn threatened to quit last June after the president asked him to fire the special counsel. After the article was published, the White House staff secretary, Rob Porter, told Mr. McGahn that the president wanted him to release a statement saying that the story was not true, the people said.”
“Mr. Porter, who resigned last month amid a domestic abuse scandal, told Mr. McGahn the president had suggested he might “get rid of” Mr. McGahn if he chose not to challenge the article, the people briefed on the conversation said.”
“Mr. McGahn did not publicly deny the article, and the president later confronted him in the Oval Office in front of the White House chief of staff, John F. Kelly, according to the people.”
“The president said he had never ordered Mr. McGahn to fire the special counsel. Mr. McGahn replied that the president was wrong and that he had in fact asked Mr. McGahn in June to call the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, to tell him that the special counsel had a series of conflicts that disqualified him for overseeing the investigation and that he had to be dismissed. The president told Mr. McGahn that he did not remember the discussion that way.
“Mr. Trump moved on, pointing out that Mr. McGahn had never told him that he was going to resign over the order to fire the special counsel. Mr. McGahn acknowledged that that was true but said that he had told senior White House officials at the time that he was going to quit.”
So that was quite a tense confrontation between Trump and McGahn, his White House Counsel.
As for Reince Priebus, he might be wiser to avoid speaking to Trump at all but he has continued to maintain some contact. The conversation regarding Preibus’ interview with Mueller occurred in 2017:
“Mr. Priebus met with the president in the West Wing in December, according to the people with knowledge of their encounter. Allies of Mr. Priebus, who left the White House in July 2017, have cautioned him to keep his distance. But Mr. Priebus, who is seeking to build a law practice as a Washington power broker who can open doors for clients, has maintained contact and occasionally visited the White House to see Mr. Trump and his own replacement, Mr. Kelly.”
“Mr. Trump brought up Mr. Priebus’s October interview with the special counsel’s office, the people said, and Mr. Priebus replied that the investigators were courteous and professional. He shared no specifics and did not say what he had told investigators, and the conversation moved on after a few minutes, those briefed on it said. Mr. Kelly was present for that conversation as well, and it was not clear whether he tried to stop the discussion.
“Mr. Priebus has had a long and complicated relationship with the president. He was one of the few who publicly defended Mr. Trump after the Times article about his attempt to fire Mr. Mueller, which cited the president’s view that Mr. Mueller had too many conflicts to be the special counsel.”
“He expresses concerns with the conflicts, but I never heard the idea or the concept that this person needed to be fired,” Mr. Priebus said last month in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I never felt it was relayed to me that way, either. And I would know the difference between a level 10 situation as reported in that story and what was reality. And it just — to me, it wasn’t reality.”
Exactly what ‘Mr. Trump’ would want him to say: evidently Trump’s witness tampering meeting with Priebus went pretty well-as if Trump has to say it explicitly.
UPDATE: The Mueller Report looks at 11 cases of potential obstruction by Trump and the episode with McGahn and Priebus features prominently.’ Indeed with all the-deserved-focus on it the episode with McGhan-Preibus was as clear from this chapter part of the previous public record.
For more on McGahn/Preibus et al. see Chapter A.