Whitaker might really have been tRump’s choice for AG, laughable as that may sound. No doubt any and all of tRump’s coterie with any legal sense whatsoever just plain knew what a golem he is. He “looks the part,” but has a brain of sticks and mud. Clearly, nobody on his legal team put his name forward as the cream of the crop. He came to tRump’s attention the way all his disposable lackeys do: kissing his ass on the teevee.
But he has served a purpose in his very unsuitability.
Before Whitaker, tRump had a huge firewall problem with Mueller’s investigation. Mueller is burning up tRump’s very existence. His past misdeeds both financial and puerile are being exhumed. His presidental flight wings have been clipped: it must be general knowledge that tRump’s revolving door is going to spit you out in handcuffs sooner rather than later, so his talent pool he can draw from leans towards those who live in denial or are slow on the uptake. And his highly self-esteemed self, including those portions of his ego delegated in perpetuity to his Tall Towers and heinous offspring, are in serious legal jeopardy.
What to do, what to do? Well, first and foremost, Donald tRump has to cheat. He desperately needs to know Mueller’s plan. His ducks are getting shot down faster than he can tie Twitter messages to them and fling them at the sky, and it is chafing his delicate heiney. Plus it’s scaring the help and demoralizing Pennsylvania. Oh, and Pelosi! But Sessions was recused so far into the hat-check booth it would be a felony for him to even ask Mueller how his day went. But tRump Neeeeeeds to know. So:
Firing Sessions was the highest priority. The goal being to replace him with someone who could gently steer the Mueller investigation through the narrow gap in the ice barrier surrounding the globe’s vast oceans, where it would sail off the edge of the earth, never to be seen again. There are few problems with this plan. First being that tampering directly with the Mueller investigation is a fool’s errand. Anyone who walked in, asked for a document dump, and then gave sensitive information to tRump, or to anyone personally legally invested in preserving “Individual 1’s” legal hide, Would be be recused straight to jail. Besides, any legal mind capable of unwinding Mueller’s work would clearly see that land mine, and would walk away, knowing that what’s behind the door is too obscure to tackle.
So tRump did what he always does, criminal school 101: add another layer. Throw Whitaker in to get the intel you need for the next guy who can then go to work unencumbered by ethics concerns.
There has been zero word on Whitaker’s standing, despite the questions that arose at every level immediately on his “appointment.” Is he recused from the Mueller investigation due to obvious bias? Is he in charge, at all? Is he even legally operating as the AG? None of these questions have been answered. But I’m guessing he was presented by the White House with sufficient authority to gain access to some portion of Mueller’s work they previously could not legally access. Possibly involving legal challenges that The Administration has a right to know what it’s own DoJ is doing regardless of the status of the AG.
Having SOME of that information in hand would allow them to draw together enough of a plan to draw a legitimate conservative warrior like Barr on board at AG. The biggest land mine: recusal, will be off the table. tRump’s chosen head, a Reagan hotshot, will have direct oversight of Mueller. Barr will walk in to an office that has the information he needs at his fingertips to start laying a real defense for the tattered remnants of Teem tRump. Whitaker will fade away, back to the sticks and brambles he was woven out of.
I can’t help but see both the Manafort and Cohen sentencing documents as a clear and intentional warning shot for tRump’s menagerie to stay well clear of the investigation. They both come down hard on back-door information sharing with Individual 1, and go so far as to clarify, that yes, Individual 1 IS tRump himself.
Trump’s tweet that he has been cleared is more than wishful thinking, it is an intentional display of a false legal argument in real time: that he does not participate in such criminal acts. That no matter what is done in his name, he knows nothing. He is not the blocked number, he never knew that Manafort and Cohen ever even shared information on what Mueller’s team wanted to know and what lies they told Mueller so they could all keep their stories straight... Maybe his lawyers knew… Who knows?
One salient point to remember in all this:
Reagan faced one of the biggest scandals of the modern Presidency during his time in office: the Iran Contra deal. Almost quant in comparison to tRump’s debauchery, but huge at the time, and he went scot-free as “Saint Ronnie” with his “I can’t recall” variant on pleading the fifth, which apparently looks less guilty on teevee.
Barr worked for Reagan.