Daily Check-In 01/25/2018

TRUMP TRIED TO FIRE MUELLER BACK IN JUNE 2017.  NEW YORK TIMES SAT ON STORY FOR 7 MONTHS

Back in June, President Donald Trump tried to fire Special Counselor Robert Mueller.  The only thing that stopped him was White House Counsel and long time Trump lawyer Don McGahn threatening to quit.

This happened back on June 12, 2017.  The story wasn’t released until January 25, 2017.  The New York Times, mainly Maggie Haberman, sat on this story for 7 months.

I’m not surprised by this story in the slightest.  Back last summer, there was a concerted effort from the RWM to discredit Mueller for three goofy reasons.  Those were about Mueller hiring lawyers that donated to the Democratic Party, Mueller canceling his membership at a Trump golf course over an argument about fees, and that Mueller had just interviewed for the FBI Director job the day before he was appointed the Special Counselor.  These exact same reasons were repeated ad nauseum on Fox News back in June.  The Rumor Mill sounded the warning bell that Mark Kasowitz, Trump’s lawyer at the time, was doing some digging into Mueller, and that Trump was seriously considering firing Mueller.

I’m also not surprised that they actually tried to fire him back in June.  Trump knows he’s screwed if anyone looks into his past.

I’m also not surprised that Maggie sat on this story for 7 months.  She is an Access Journalist, and thrives off of her ability to get close to Donald Trump.  She can get him to say some stupid stuff on the record, but she also knows that if she goes too far, too fast, she’ll lose that access.

I’m also not surprised by the timing of this.  This is a big story, but it wasn’t the biggest of the day.  This was not the biggest story of the day.  This is a distraction.

What I do find surprising is the hero of this story is none other than Don McGahn.  The same Don McGahn that lobbied Jeff Sessions to not recuse himself, and wrote the rough draft of the Comey firing letter.  Suddenly, in June, he decides that firing Mueller is a step too far for him.

This story, combined with his cameo in the WaPo story from inside the Mueller interrogation room and that him and Bannon share the same lawyer, leads me to think that the rumors of McGahn flipping might be true.  Supposedly, this happened on McGahn’s second interview.  After he saw how screwed he was from the first interview, he decided to flip.

 

DUCTH INTELLIGENCE INFILTRATED RUSSIAN HACKER CELL COZY BEAR, SAW ATTACKS ON UNITED STATES IN REAL TIME.

This is massive. Like, NATO Article 5 massive.

Dutch Intelligence executed an Intel operation against Russia following the crash of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine.  It’s been long suspected in the IC that Russia via Russian Separatists shot down the flight as an attempt to discredit the new Ukrainian government after they voted out Yanokonovitch.  Remember, this flight took off from Amsterdam, and was filled with Dutch citizens.

The Dutch worked their way into Cozy Bear, one of Russia’s main hacking cells.

They were in their network.  They know where they’re at.

They were in their servers.  They know what they did.

They were in their security cameras.  They know what they look like.

While there, the Dutch saw, in real time, Russian hackers and spies attacking the United States in Cyberwarfare, directed primarily at affecting the 2016 Presidential Election.

The Dutch informed the U.S. via the FBI that the Russians were attacking us.  This was well before the Steele Dossier ever came to light.  And they weren’t the only foreign Intel agency that warned the United States.

However, the article also states that the Dutch have been very reluctant to share intel since Trump came to office.  Probably because they saw something, but also because the Trump Administration likely tipped off the Russians about the Dutch.

The Dutch were in this system from 2014 to late 2016, early 2017.  But something changed.  One day, they lost access, likely through a firewall change or a security scan.  This might not sound like a big deal, but this was a change in their behavior patterns.  Think about it like this…

People have a tendency to get complacent.  This is true in IT and hacking as well.  They’ll set up an ultra-secure, air-tight, white-listed infrastructure, and then… leave it alone for a long time, until an outside event forces a change.  That could be getting a new computer, the router explodes, moving to a new building, or responding to a new threat.

What likely happened is that someone in Team Trump, like Devin Nunes or Trey Gowdy, leaked this highly-classified information to someone who got it to the Russians.  The Russians were tipped off that their network was compromised, so they updated their firewall and put in new security measures.

I made this observation on Twitter, and Louise herself confirmed it.  That confirmation was then confirmed as being either Devin, or someone else like him.

 

DONNIE JR. JUDICIARY TRANSCRIPTS TO BE RELEASED SOON

Soon, we’ll get to read the transcripts of Donnie Jr.’s hearing.  We’ll get to count how many times he lied to the Senate.

Of course, Mueller’s team gets a copy of this first.  They’re interested in his lies as well.

 

THE COORDINATED GOP EFFORT TO DISCREDIT THE TRUMP-RUSSIA INVESTIGATION

The GOP has been screaming crazy stuff louder than normal recently.  It’s almost like they’re getting ready for some disastrous news that could take down the Trump Administration and anyone associated with them.

 

MUELLER FINISHING UP OBSTRUCTION INVESTIGATION

Maybe the GOP is worried about this?

If Mueller is making moves to set up an interview with Trump, then we’re at the point where near the end-game of this phase.  Interviewing the likely suspect is the last step before the hammer drops.

 

SAM BROWNBACK RESIGNS

Sam Brownback resigns as Governor of Kansas.

After destroying the Kansas economy in a Libertarian Wet Dream Experiment, he’s leaving his job to become an Ambassador at large for Religious Freedom.

Remember, Paul Ryan was his former staffer.  So this is the asshole we have to thank for that spineless shit.

 

RUMOR MILL – BRIGHT LIGHTS OF HOLLYWOOD

Something that I saw on Twitter Friday morning (yes, I’m writing this on Friday) was a nice long thread about how Hollywood is working on MANY Trump related products.  And none of them show him in a good light.  Nor his allies or his enablers.  And it’s not just one or two people or networks, but pretty much everyone.

This will be disastrous for the GOP.  Remember “All The President’s Men”?  I’ve never read the book or read the Bernstein/Woodward articles from Watergate, but I’ve seen that movie at least 40 times.  Every character in that movie has become immortalized, every trope cemented in lore and “Follow the Money” has become THE go-to instruction for uncovering corruption.

These projects are already in motion, and will be made until all of the stories are told.  And that could be a lifetime or two or ten.

In the last few months, two new movies dealing with Nixonian corruption were released to theaters, “Felt” and “The Post.”  “Felt” stars Liam Neeson as FBI Deputy Director Mark Felt, who was Bob Woodward’s source in Watergate that was nicknamed “Deep Throat.”  “The Post” is a movie about the Washington Post uncovering the Vietnam Papers.  It’s directed by Speilberg, starring Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, and Bob Odenkirk.

There will be a metric fuckton of movies, plays, TV shows, and web series about Trump and his crimes.  They’ll cover everything and everyone.  Some will be serious, some won’t.  Some will be flattering, most won’t.

I’m looking forward to a Jordan Peele directed love story between Donald and Ivanka starring Kevin Hart as Donald Trump and Leslie Jones as Ivanka.

 

That’s it for today.  I really don’t want to go any weirder than that.  I could, easily.  But I’ll save that for another article.

This weekend might be a little sparse.  Not that news won’t happen today, but real life will be pretty busy.  I’ll write when I can.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur