MSNBC just reported — during the Andrea Mitchell show — that Trump called Putin today, by phone, and talked about the conclusion of the Mueller report.
Bear with me for one moment.
Lift yourself out of reality for a second, and simply envision a world where Trump’s version of truth was, well, true. If Trump truly didn’t “conspire” or “work with” or “tacitly acknowledge” or “know of” Russia’s assistance in the election, and if Trump truly isn’t beholden to Putin or in any way conflicted in business deals, imagine that world, where Trump is being honest.
If we assume this absurdity, exactly what is there for Trump to talk to Putin about with respect to Mueller and the report?
It would be — in Trump’s world — a purely domestic dispute, since Russia had nothing to do with it, right?
Did Trump call the Angele Merkel to discuss the end of the Mueller report?
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Back to reality.
This is terribly terribly ominous and screams out exactly why Congressional oversight, indeed plain old “McCabe-styled” counter-intelligence oversight, is critical to our national security right now, today.
Because I have two questions — and I am no expert in anything — that I believe need to be answered before the end of the business day:
1. What did Trump and Putin discuss with respect to the “end of the Mueller report”?
2. Was any other American on the line in the phone call, at least as far as Trump knew? (We KNOW there were multiple Russians listening. Russians take analysis seriously, even though Putin surely said “this phone call is private, Donald.”)
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WTF?
I am stupefied that this is not bigger news than is being reported, though, to be fair, sometimes news orgs need time to gather the necessary quotes, or at least “ask” the follow-up questions that lead to analysis.
But it should be HUGE news in the Congress, because again, I ask, what the fck does Trump have to talk about with Putin with respect to internal political pressures like “the Mueller report?”
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I will tell you what they have to talk about.
IF they are actually talking about the end of the Mueller report, then it is almost surely a discussion about what possible evidence remains out there, possible traps, etc. to fear, and be sure to avoid/suppress.
That’s one thing they surely could talk about.
Trump could be informing Putin about information contained in the redacted portions, giving Putin a heads-up on who might need “suppression” or “influence” — something truly scary to contemplate, because there’s no reason to think Trump isn’t willing to do “anything” to save himself.
They could also easily be talking about how Putin and Russia can support Trump in the upcoming election, given what Mueller found in the last one, avoiding past mistakes.
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Or they might have simply used the “end of the Mueller report” as a ruse (a stupid one) and what they really talked about were various “deals,” personal to the two oligarchs. “You give me this, and I will give you that.”
Is that CT? Well, yeah, in a way. But, need I point out that the entire reason that the criminal code covers “conspiracy” is that, indeed, people have been known to conspire?
The salient point is that we can’t know, and that in and of itself is a huge problem, especially if — as has been the case in the past — no other American can know , at all.
We can only know that there is very little “good” to be promoted between Trump and Putin in a phone conversation about the Mueller report, and there is NO “good” that can come out of it if there was no other American in on the discussion.
Putin could literally threaten anything.
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This is why Congressional oversight is SO needed.
It would be highly unusual for Congress to drag some WH staffer in and demand to know the details of the substantive discussion. Less so, to demand a summary of any agreements.
But it would not be unusual to ask if anyone else heard the phone call. If no one did, the next question would be: “Why?”
And I submit to you that there is no good answer to that question.
Sometimes I wonder if even we underestimate just how much our national security is truly at risk.
Edit to Add:
Dems in the Congress? Yes, you. Now tell the White House that if Trump is discussing the “end of the Mueller Report” with Putin he has waived his right to assert privilege with Congress, AND, also assert that this new behavior, “discussing the end of the report with Russia” means that “it is not ‘over,” despite what the White House states. If it ever was, the White House just opened it back up.
Edit No. 2:
Finally appearing in wire reports, note the qualifier around “discussion”? “Briefly”? They KNOW there is no good reason, hence the “briefly” thing, which I don’t believe for one second:
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin for more than an hour Friday about nuclear weapons agreements, the conflict in Venezuela, North Korea and also briefly about special counsel Robert Mueller’s just completed report on Moscow’s interference in the 2016 election.
“They had a very good discussion. Spoke for a little over an hour,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters at the White House. “They discussed nuclear agreements, both new and extended, with the possibility of having conversations with China on that front as well.”
You know she’s (Sanders) is worried about appearances:
She said Putin and Trump talked “very, very briefly” about the Mueller report, but she dodged a question about whether they had discussed Russian election interference, instead blaming the Obama administration for not doing enough to stop it before the 2016 election.
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My novels linked here, which tie up every conspiracy ever out there since 1940, because, indeed, people do conspire. And it’s great to support your community authors, even a few extra hundred a month can mean the world.