Reince Priebus was a “company man,” an establishment Republican whose only asset in Trump’s eyes was that he served as a conduit to Paul Ryan and could help him liaise with Congress to kill Obamacare. Other than that, two men could hardly have less in common. But because Priebus proved to be a useful idiot, having delivered Trump on a silver platter to the Republican Party as their legitimate candidate, and managing to sit in the chair of the RNC when Trump (with Russia’s help) got elected, Trump made him White House Chief of Staff. Beware orange-coiffed men bearing political gifts.
But by July 28, 2017, Priebus found himself literally left alone on the runway at Andrews AFB as the Trump entourage returned to the White House, where Trump announced that Priebus was out. Rack up a victory for the Javanka Branch.
Recall today’s news revealed by FBI Dir. Wray? The FBI timeline in re Rob Porter clearly records that the security clearance report, as a partial document, was delivered to the WH in March and its final report at the end of July. The much ballyhooed process of security vetting of WH personnel is that such a report is delivered to the office of the Chief of Staff whose job it is to present it to the president for the ruling on whether or not clearance is granted, based on the contents of the FBI investigation of the candidate.
Now a good Chief of Staff should be as close to a president’s alter-ego as possible; a good right arm who screens and filters all incoming information, individuals, and documents clamoring for his boss’ attention. But Priebus was more like Trump’s left foot than his right arm. He was despised by Trump and his immediate family; the president indulged himself by mocking and humiliating Priebus, as did the Javanka Branch.
Here two timelines converge — 1) the presentation of the FBI’s security investigation of Rob Porter, and quite possibly Jared Kushner too; 2) Reince Priebus’ messy dismissal with only rumors being offered for it, primarily that he mishandled the effort to get rid of Obamacare. But there’s a more direct responsibility that Priebus held with his job title than being liaison to House Republican leadership.
Picture the following. It’s a warm afternoon at the end of July and Reince Priebus heaves a sigh, arising from his desk with two folders that he tucks under his arm. Head down, he shuffles into the Oval Office, exchanges formal greetings with the obese figure silhouetted against the window who bids him sit down. Before obeying, Priebus lays the two folders he brought with him on the president’s desk.
Priebus quite possibly delivered the FBI report to Trump with the recommendation that Porter would have to go because he was assessed by the FBI as blackmail bait. And then Priebus might have said something like this, “And Jared, too.”
That did it. If Porter’s fondness for wife-beating was enough to make him a security risk, imagine what Jared Kushner's indebtedness made him.
We know that Kushner’s indebtedness as made public (thus making a third thread in the tangled skein of Trump Administration debacles) in July, 2017 was reportedly in the range of $1-$5M. Ivanka’s, indebtedness was indicated to be the same, making the couple’s combined IOUs total an amount in the $2-$10M range. Further, we learned yesterday that. . .
Recent revisions to the financial disclosure form filed by Kushner’s wife, Ivanka Trump, bumped up each of those debts to a range of $5 million to $25 million. [SNIP]
. . .increases in the amounts outstanding under the lines of credit took place between last March [2017], when Kushner's form was first submitted, and June, when Ivanka Trump’s was first filed. [SNIP]
The changes take Kushner and Trump’s reported debts to a range of approximately $31 million to $155 million from the previously reported range of between about $19 million and $98 million.
Rob Porter’s kompromat liability differs from the source of exposure to blackmail that threatens the Javanka Branch, which is indebtedness, but they are both compromised and that would be so noted in any FBI investigative report. Such a notation is disqualifying for high security clearances necessary for both men and Ivanka to have access to the sensitive traffic that passes through the hands and under the eyes of the Executive each and every day.
Reince Priebus knew that they all had to go. So, while still a country-over-party-Republican, though flawed he may have been, he executed his duty as Chief of Staff and told Trump exactly that. And was in turn swiftly “executed” for having done so at the end of a Washington, D.C. runway.
For the last seven months, at least, and quite possibly for the past year when the FBI produced its partial security clearance reports, Donald Trump has actively and knowingly been engaged in crimes and misdemeanors, literally giving away our country’s secrets to people who legally were barred from access to them by the norms and practices of security enforcement. There is no Wall in the world that can keep us safe from threats of attack from infiltrators when it is the president himself who is making war on his own country's safety and security from within.