Just finished Andrew Weissmann's book on the Mueller investigation
I can say this - I enjoyed reading it! Well-written, paced well, and even persuasive at times
But more often, Weissmann's arrogance and lack of self-awareness is just jarring
amazon.com/dp/B08D8JJS3G
Fun tidbit #1:
Weissmann absolutely HATES HATES HATES @SidneyPowell1
The invective just jumps off the page
More often, you have passages like this, where Weissmann just brazenly states things that are false
We know at this point that the Russia investigation absolutely relied on the Steele dossier
Another example of a common Weissmann trope: "Trump's affection for Russia was confounding."
- Fails to take into account the many strong actions Trump took against Russia, that McMaster even talked about recently
- Ignores the idea that people might not want war with Russia!
Another issue: ridiculous hyperbole. Here's Weissmann comparing Russian interference with PEARL HARBOR.
There's also this damning admission, that Weissmann and the rest of the team knew an investigation was coming
So, given all this, where was Weissmann persuasive?
Simple - when he was talking about Paul Manafort's crimes (along with Rick Gates) , which he was in charge of prosecuting
Manafort was unbelievably dirty and Weissmann does an effective job of showing it
Weissmann also explains something interesting about Manafort
After losing his first trial, Manafort decided to "come clean" and cooperate
But he still lied about a $125,000 kickback he received
Why? BECAUSE HE WAS STEALING FROM THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN
Another interesting thing from reading the book is that I now think conservatives generally inflated Weissman's importance/control of the investigation
Weissmann was a key prosecutor - but he was in charge of "Team M", the Manafort prosecutions, not the whole thing
At the end of the day - Weissmann was a trial lawyer, but he was not some sort of appellate genius
Mueller didn't put him in charge of overall legal strategy
That job was given to Michael Dreeben, a super-experienced Supreme Court litigator and criminal law expert
Dreeben would have been the primary defender of the obstruction theory that was the subject of my article Checkmate
humanevents.com/2019/05/01/che…
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