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Andrew Kreig
JIP Editor
The Justice Integrity Project (JIP) researches official misconduct
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Editor's Choice: Scroll below for our monthly blend of mainstream and alternative August 2018 news and views
Note: Excerpts are from the authors' words except for subheads and occasional "Editor's notes" such as this.
Aug. 18
Mueller Probe
New York Times, Top Lawyer in White House Gives Mueller Coveted Details, Michael S. Schmidt and Maggie Haberman, Aug. 18, 2018. The White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, has cooperated extensively in the special counsel investigation, sharing detailed accounts about the episodes at the heart of the inquiry into whether President Trump obstructed justice, including some that investigators would not have learned of otherwise, according to a dozen current and former White House officials and others briefed on the matter.
In at least three voluntary interviews with investigators that totaled 30 hours over the past nine months, Mr. McGahn described the president’s furor toward the Russia investigation and the ways in which he urged Mr. McGahn (shown at a CATO Institute forum) to respond to it. He provided the investigators examining whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice a clear view of the president’s most intimate moments with his lawyer.Among them were Mr. Trump’s comments and actions during the firing of the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, and Mr. Trump’s obsession with putting a loyalist in charge of the inquiry, including his repeated urging of Attorney General Jeff Sessions to claim oversight of it. Mr. McGahn was also centrally involved in Mr. Trump’s attempts to fire the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, which investigators might not have discovered without him.
Mr. McGahn and his lawyer, William A. Burck, could not understand why Mr. Trump was so willing to allow Mr. McGahn to speak freely to the special counsel and feared Mr. Trump was setting up Mr. McGahn to take the blame for any possible illegal acts of obstruction, according to people close to him. So he and Mr. Burck devised their own strategy to do as much as possible to cooperate with Mr. Mueller to demonstrate that Mr. McGahn did nothing wrong.
It is not clear that Mr. Trump appreciates the extent to which Mr. McGahn has cooperated with the special counsel. The president wrongly believed that Mr. McGahn would act as a personal lawyer would for clients and solely defend his interests to investigators, according to a person with knowledge of his thinking.
Washington Post, White House drafts more cancellations of clearances as Trump aims to punish critics, Karen DeYoung and Josh Dawsey, Aug. 18, 2018 (print edition). President Trump wants to sign off on “most if not all” of the documents revoking the security clearances, said one senior White House official, who indicated that communications aides have discussed the optimum times to release them as a distraction during unfavorable news cycles.Trump's comments followed the release of a statement signed by 14 former CIA directors and deputy directors from Republican and Democratic administrations, as well as a former director of national intelligence, who called Trump’s revocation this week of former CIA director John Brennan’s clearance a blatant attempt to “stifle free speech” and send an “inappropriate and deeply regrettable” signal to other public servants.
Later Friday, 60 additional former CIA officials issued a statement objecting to the Brennan action and stating their belief “that former government officials have the right to express their unclassified views on what they see as critical national security issues without fear of being punished for doing so.”
New York Times, Opinion: Trump Is Not a King, Tim Weiner (the author of histories of the F.B.I. and C.I.A.), Aug. 18, 2018 (print edition). A group of former intelligence and military leaders have a message for the nation’s troops and spies: think twice before following the president’s orders in a crisis.More On Trump Probes
Washington Post, GOP fundraiser Broidy under investigation for alleged effort to sell government influence, Carol D. Leonnig, Devlin Barrett, Ellen Nakashima and Josh Dawsey, Aug. 18, 2018 (print edition). The Justice Department is examining whether longtime Republican fundraiser Elliott Broidy, right, offered to influence the Trump administration for foreign officials, according to three people familiar with the inquiry.
As part of the investigation, prosecutors are scrutinizing a plan that Broidy, left, allegedly developed to try to persuade the Trump government to extradite a Chinese dissident back to his home country, a move sought by Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to two of the people.They also are investigating claims that Broidy sought $75 million from a Malaysian business official if the Justice Department ended its investigation of a development fund run by the Malaysian government. The Malaysian probe has examined the role of the former prime minister in the embezzlement of billions of dollars from the fund.
Washington Post, Justice Dept. seeks to halt lawsuit by D.C. and Maryland against Trump’s business, Jonathan O'Connell, Aug. 18, 2018 (print edition). The lawsuit centers on whether President Trump is violating the Constitution by continuing to do business with foreign and state governments while in office. Justice officials said case would distract from Trump’s “performance of his constitutional duties.”Global News
Washington Post, Kofi Annan 1938–2018: Former U.N. secretary general and Nobel Peace Prize winner dies at 80, Stanley Meisler, Aug. 18, 2018. Annan’s popular and influential reign at the United Nations — the body he led from 1997 to 2006 — was marred by White House anger at his opposition to the American invasion of Iraq. He is shown at right in a file photo.Aug. 17
Supreme Court Fight
New York Times, Why Cover Up Brett Kavanaugh’s Past? Editorial Board, Aug. 17, 2018. For the first time in modern history, Republicans are refusing to request a Supreme Court nominee’s relevant ...
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