Ugly new details about Trump's fury over Russia probe

[DonViejo]

The Plum Line Opinion

By Greg Sargent February 15 at 10:05 AM

THE MORNING PLUM:

Former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus has given a remarkable interview to Vanity Fair that is getting some attention because it confirms once again that the most powerful person in the world is a raging, abusive megalomaniac. We learn that President Trump erupted at his staff over accurate media coverage of his paltry inaugural crowd; that officials competed for the title of most obsequious suck-up to Trump; and that Trump once commanded Priebus to swat a fly. But buried in the piece is something potentially more important: revelations that shed light on Trump’s state of mind at key moments throughout his efforts to hamstring the investigation into Trump campaign collusion with Russian efforts to sabotage our democracy.

The piece tells us that very early on, Trump began to “lash out wildly” at law enforcement officials who were in a position to investigate his administration. Priebus and White House counsel Donald McGhan tried to stall the firing of FBI Director James B. Comey. But Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein’s memo, Vanity Fair reports, gave Trump the “pretext” to go forward.

The word “pretext” is not used by Priebus. But the piece relies on extensive cooperation from Priebus, which suggests that this may be how Priebus viewed it. As you’ll recall, that “pretext” was Rosenstein’s memo excoriating Comey over the FBI’s mishandling of the Hillary Clinton probe — a memo Trump ordered up in a meeting just before firing Comey. If Priebus really viewed this as a “pretext,” or believed Trump did, you’d think that would be of interest to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is probing whether Trump’s efforts to derail the investigation constituted obstruction of justice.

“We already had some evidence that the Rosenstein memo was a pretext in the sense that Trump used it as an excuse to fire Comey for other reasons,” Eric Posner, a University of Chicago law professor who has co-authored a useful paper on presidential obstruction of justice, told me this morning. “The material in the Vanity Fair piece reinforces that impression … it’s another element that Mueller will want to look at.”

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/02/15/priebus-reveals-ugly-new-details-about-trumps-fury-over-russia-probe/?utm_term=.6e35cde34d76

[BSdetect]

1. How much "looking" is enough?

[AwakeAtLast]

4. Until they have every t crossed

And every i dotted.

That is the only way to get him out, there cannot be any weasel room.

[politicaljunkie41910]

2. I heard this morning that Priebus has a book coming out about his time in the Dotard's White House

so it's obvious that he has a 'story' to tell, and a book to sell. Prior to becoming the Dotard's chief-of-staff, Priebus was the head of the GOP. He had nothing of substance to say regarding the Dotard's behavior when he was his chief-of-staff and it might have made a difference, so no one should be interested in what he has to say now that he has no 'real' job and an ax to grind, unless it leads to a conviction and a jail sentence. We all know what the Dotard is, and no one here should be interested in helping Priebus sell books that do nothing to rid our nation of this "loser", preferably to a long confinement in a jail cell, sooner rather than later.

[WhiteTara]

3. Do you think that Rancid is trying to sway

public opinion to his side so that Mueller will go easy on him?