Seth Abramson Profile picture
Nov 9, 2018 26 tweets 5 min read Read on X
(THREAD) The Whitaker scandal is deepening, as it becomes clear that Sessions' Russia recusal was a coordinated sham and his firing an act of obstruction—and that his replacement is a White House plant inside the Mueller probe. I hope you'll retweet and read on for more details.
1/ From 2014-17 Whitaker worked for World Patent Marketing—which during his tenure defrauded consumers out of $26 million and was successfully prosecuted by the feds. His involvement in the scam confirmed he had loose morals and that the feds would never want to employ him again.
2/ Despite the seeming impossibility of a man with Whitaker's background getting a job at Justice ever again—he'd been found to have used his former title as a US attorney to fraudulently threaten consumers with valid complaints with criminal penalties—Whitaker found an opening.
3/ Within 60 days of parachuting out of World Patent Marketing as it was being fined $26 million by the feds, Whitaker was working for CNN and telling a fellow attorney panelist that his purpose in working for CNN was to get noticed by one man—Donald Trump—and thereby get a job.
4/ Whitaker spent his time at CNN making ludicrous statements about the Mueller probe: there was no obstruction or collusion, he said; Mueller had no authority to look into any aspect of Trump's finances or to subpoena him, he said. All the while, he hoped Trump was watching him.
5/ Trump was indeed watching. And Whitaker helped him solve a problem: AG Jeff Sessions' Russia recusal. With Sessions recused, Trump wasn't able to get any intel about what was happening inside the probe, and he desperately wanted that intel. Rosenstein wouldn't give it to him.
6/ So Matt Whitaker—who had no business *ever* being hired by the feds again; who'd proven himself willing to *violate the law*; who'd taken firm positions on the Mueller probe *expressly* to please Trump as he watched Whitaker on TV—was quickly made Sessions' new Chief of Staff.
7/ What happened next was just what you'd expect: Whitaker began reporting privately to the White House—going there at least 12 times to meet Trump, per media reports—and during those trips discussing Mueller's probe. It's unthinkable that Sessions didn't know this was happening.
8/ Remember, Sessions has criminal liability in the Russia case—he met secretly with the Russians to negotiate sanctions and discuss the presidential campaign and perjured himself multiple times to Congress. Though recused, he has a vested interest in Trump getting off scot-free.
9/ While meetings between AG Sessions—who was receiving briefings from the head of the Mueller probe, Rod Rosenstein—and Trump would have drawn a lot of attention, Whitaker could meet with the president without nearly as much attention being brought to their clandestine liaisons.
10/ I use the phrase "clandestine liaisons" advisedly—not for the sake of empty drama. Trump's Chief of Staff, John Kelly, privately called Whitaker Trump's "eyes and ears" at Justice, and media reports confirm he was *specifically* prone to discuss the Mueller probe with Trump.
11/ Any secret Whitaker-Trump discussion of Mueller probe was inappropriate—Trump knew it, Sessions knew it, Kelly knew it, and Whitaker knew it. But Whitaker had been selected *because* his history showed he was willing to break rules—and he was perpetually thankful for his job.
12/ Whitaker had therefore been far more helpful to Trump than the recused Sessions, and far more helpful than Rod Rosenstein—who'd refused to pass the intel to Trump about the Mueller probe that Trump wanted. So as ballots were still being counted from the midterm elections...
13/ ...Trump fired AG Sessions, refused to elevate Deputy AG Rosenstein to Sessions' position—as the statutory DOJ order of succession required—and installed his spy Whitaker as AG. He then *lied to America* about whether he'd ever met with Whitaker, saying he "didn't know him."
14/ Meanwhile, over at DOJ, Whitaker was telling friends that he'd *never* recuse himself from overseeing the Mueller probe. This despite his public statements on the probe, which included a detailed plan for a (then-hypothetical) AG decimating the probe by starving it of funds.
15/ Moreover, because Sessions' firing—obscured by Trump forcing Sessions to write a "letter of resignation," then confirmed by Kelly ordering Sessions out of DOJ 3 days before Sessions wanted—was obstruction, and will likely be looked into by Mueller, Whitaker's now a *witness*.
16/ The upshot: legal scholars say Trump's installment of Whitaker as AG violated both the Constitution and statute; Trump has lied repeatedly about his relationship with Whitaker; Republicans refuse to put Whitaker under oath about his intentions; Whitaker is a Mueller witness.
17/ Whitaker's statements on Mueller and his probe, coupled with him being a Mueller witness in a future obstruction case over Sessions' firing—added to the fact that Whitaker was campaign manager for Trump's 2016 National Co-Chair Sam Clovis—render him *historically* conflicted.
18/ On these facts, any investigator's theory of the case would be that Sessions, himself implicated in the Russia probe, allowed his Chief of Staff to be used by Trump as a recusal end-around—a spy—at Justice, and that Whitaker was then rewarded with an illegal elevation to AG.
19/ The Whitaker-Trump plot to destroy Mueller's probe is clear: have AG Whitaker block indictments—he can—foreclose new avenues of investigation, and starve Mueller of funds. And why did Trump move so fast to install him? Because reports say *Trump Jr. is about to be indicted*.
20/ The Whitaker Scandal is as big as Watergate, even as it arises within a Trump-Russia plot 10 times larger/more criminal than Nixon's. And America must wait *2 months* to see Congress do anything about it. The damage Trump and Whitaker can do in that time is incalculable. /end
PS/ Urgent action *is* being taken: Coons (Senate)/Nadler (House) are moving to pass a bill protecting Mueller ASAP; the new House plans to call Whitaker to testify; 1000 protests happened nationwide yesterday; 18 state AGs published a protest letter. But 2 months is a long time.
NOTE/ None of the actions now being taken directly addresses the danger of Whitaker using his power to destroy Mueller's probe without firing him. What's needed is a federal injunction—sought by Mueller or the new House—against Whitaker's installation as AG or his upcoming moves.
UPDATE/ We now know 2 things: 1) Trump discussed events at DOJ with Whitaker—including Russia—12 times; 2) in October Trump discussed with Whitaker (h/t to DM for link) whether he wanted to be the new AG. How much do you want to bet these events coincided? washingtonpost.com/world/national…
UPDATE2/ If you're Mueller—and you're investigating Sessions' firing as Obstruction—*the first witness you want to speak to* is Matt Whitaker, to find out what he discussed with (or promised to) Trump about the Russia probe before replacing the AG. Whitaker *must* recuse himself.
UPDATE3/ See my feed for recent updates on this thread—including whether Sessions even knew Whitaker when Whitaker became his Chief of Staff (he did not), whether Whitaker and Trump had private calls (yes, many), and how often Whitaker went to the White House ("dozens" of times).

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More from @SethAbramson

Mar 30
(🧵) A GROK THREAD on ELON MUSK AND MENTAL HEALTH.

This thread is limited to information provided by Elon Musk’s own commercial products.

Please RETWEET. Image
2/ Image
3/ Image
Read 6 tweets
Mar 29
Musk has been told—repeatedly—that this is a lie. The global population is rising and will continue to rise until 2100, then it’ll decline slightly. Many countries, JUST NOT MAJORITY WHITE ONES, have over-replacement birth rates. Musk focuses on a small number of white nations.
So no, there are NO experts in this field who agree humanity is dying. There are NO experts who have a longterm underpopulation concern. There are NO experts who agree with Musk. The ONLY people concerned are white supremacists who worry white nations may become SLIGHTLY smaller.
But his lie is worse than this. He KNOWS and has been TOLD that rich, developed, often—but certainly not exclusively—majority-white nations see a birth rate decline BECAUSE of their wealth. That’s normal. It does not mean those nations will collapse, just reduce slightly in size.
Read 6 tweets
Mar 29
(🧵1/3) Time to clear some things up.

1. Elon Musk has many biographers; none are “official.”
2. I’m a Musk biographer; I don’t use Musk as a source because he’s a known pathological liar.
3. My second Musk biography (first is below) arrives in 2026.

🔗: sethabramson.substack.com/p/proof-of-des…Image
Image
(🧵2/3)

4. Grok is aware I’m a Musk biographer, as is the world (see my bio excerpt below, from my website). But Grok, by Musk’s design, sometimes struggles to access Substack—which confuses it about my status.
5. I’m a multiple-time NYT-bestselling biographer of public figures. Image
(🧵3/3)

6. Elongelicals have a favorite Musk biographer—Isaacson—as Walt tells them what they want to hear. He just repeats what Elon says and is himself a fanboy. My methodology is different: I’m a curatorial journalist.
7. You want fan-fiction? Go with Walt. For the truth, me.
Read 6 tweets
Mar 27
We have due process for a reason.

ICE used to be a legal operation. Now—without it ever confirming for a judge it has the right person and has a reasonable basis to take irrevocable government action—this is a kidnapping.

If you see something like this, report it to the police.
What the police can do is contact ICE to confirm it conducted an operation that resulted in the seizure of a specific person.

If ICE refuses to confirm the seizure of that person at that time, the police have a Kidnapping on their hands.

They'll be required to act accordingly.
If ICE confirms the seizure of that person at that time, the police can ask when the court hearing for the seized person is so friends and/or family reporting a Kidnapping will be able to attend and speak on the seized person's behalf. If ICE refuses to provide the information...
Read 6 tweets
Mar 22
More than any two men in America, Trump and Musk target for vicious retribution anyone who crosses them.

And more than any two men in America, Trump and Musk complain about media using anonymous sources to report on them.

Just take a moment and sit with those two statements.
The question here is why Trump and Musk have such a penchant for *creating* the phenomena they'll later loudly claim to be victims of.

One answer is that they're both malignant narcissistic sociopaths who can't process empathy and therefore can't put themselves in others' shoes.
But the other answer I have found, as a biographer of both men, is that they desperately need public attention to be on them at all times. They need a piece of all our lives in a way that is actually *clinical*—narcissists literally don't know how to process being widely ignored.
Read 19 tweets
Mar 22
They’re destroying our government—and with it, America.

They’re coming for your Social Security. Your student loans. Your voting systems. Your personal data. Your Medicare. Your freedoms.

They want EVERYTHING. And they are coming for EVERYTHING.

From The Washington Post: Image
Never forget what these people did. They stormed OUR Capitol. They threatened OUR government. They tried to overthrow OUR democracy. They tried to block the presidency WE voted for in 2020.

And when 1,600+ of these lunatic criminals were finally rounded up, they PARDONED them.
Don’t let them rewrite history. THEY attacked our democracy with violence. THEY declared that they’d rather have Vladimir Putin as president than Joe Biden. THEY declared American democracy an outmoded form of government. THEY let billionaires buy our government.

THEY must lose.
Read 9 tweets

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