Thread by @sethjlevy

1/ "We Now Know" Today's article by @sethjlevy.

Trump was free to shut down the Mueller investigation free of corrupt intent, if he was falsely accused. This is the key phrase on which everything needs to be understood. "We now know..."

politicalspeculation.com/post/we-now-kn…

2/ Was it in a moment where Rosenstein was explaining to McCabe that without evidence implicating Trump in the underlying crime then an obstruction investigation for firing Comey lacked foundation that he sarcastically told McCabe "What do you want me to do Andy, wear a wire?!?"

3/ Wait Seth, how do you know that at the time McCabe was opening the obstruction investigation he knew there was no there there?!? Well I know because Strzok said so. Ten days after Comey was fired. “There’s no big there there,” Strzok texted on 5/19/17.

4/ We also now know that Rosenstein was fully aware that one of the main motivators for Trump to fire Comey at that time was Comey's recent visit to the Senate where he continued to refuse to acknowledge publicly what he had told Trump, namely that he wasn't under investigation.

5/ Special Counsels are designed to deal with conflicts and bias internal to DOJ/FBI. The idea that Mueller was appointed because Trump fired Comey, although popular and trumpeted by people like Chris Wallace, wasn't accurate but it was allowed to persist because it was useful.

6/ It baited Democrats into believing Mueller was a protected investigator. We now know from this Barr comment that this was a false belief. It also gave the impression to the coup plotters that their work would be defended. That they were safe. They weren't.

7/ Let's assume that on the day he was elected Trump was completely unaware of Crossfire Hurricane. At a minimum, he seems to be comfortable from 11/8/16 until 11/17/16 to run his transition out of Trump Tower. Then Rogers visits him and he moves the transition to Bedminster.

8/ "In the situation of the President, who has Constitutional authority to supervise proceedings, if in fact a proceeding is not well founded. If it was...based on false allegations. The President does not have to sit there Constitutionally and allow it to run its course."

9/ Let's focus on the part about supervising proceedings. A President who has been tipped off that bureaucrats in the DOJ/CIA/FBI are targeting him with false allegations and intend to end his Presidency if possible. Is a President required to wait for his AG to be confirmed?

10/ The move to Bedminster wasn't simply to avoid surveillance. It was to begin to strategize how the administration would fight back. How they would defuse the coup. But also how to hold the people plotting these actions ultimately accountable.

11/ The first event that follows is the Comey visit to give the IC briefing and reveal the existence of the dossier. I've always thought it was curious he took the meeting in Trump Tower. Comey left this meeting and immediately wrote his first memo. 🤔

12/ Both the public explanation and the private understanding that Rosenstein was aware of were completely justifiable uses of the President's Constitutional authority. Yet Comey writing memos and saying he thought we needed a Special Counsel became the assumed narrative.

13/ "What did he know and when did he know it?" is crucial in understanding Trump's actions and potentially Comey's. Was Trump aware of the "Insurance Policy" tweets on 11/6/17? Was Trump successful in flipping Comey that day? Were the memos an op in coordination with Trump?

14/ Either way, the memos ultimately helped team Trump IMO. They gave a public explanation for "why Mueller?" that masked the true benefit. The S.C. allowed the investigations to be extracted from FBI so DOJ to target McCabe without interfering with the Russia investigation.

15/ Trump wanted the successful completion of that investigation. Why? Because he had to do what was right for the American people. He had to make sure they could know with certainty that he had not colluded with Russia.

16/ Assuming Trump was alerted he was being targeted, he must have seen this in multiple ways. First he needed to survive it but he must have also realized the opportunity to make good on two of his biggest campaign promises, to look into Hillary and drain the swamp.

17/ On 11/17/16, the same day Rogers meets Trump in Trump Tower and the transition is moved to Bedminster, Trump also names Flynn NSA over the reported warning of Barrack Obama. Coincidence? If nothing else Flynn was a perfect lure.

18/ In context of Trump being alerted combined with the likelihood any calls to the Russian Ambassador would be monitored, you're forced to conclude that either Pence was attempting to set up Flynn or that Trump was engineering a desired response from those plotting against them.

19/ Trump designed a scenario where they could control the flow of events and use the coup plotters reactions against them. The FISA intercepts were leaked, an unusual investigation was executed where the WH NSA was entrapped and DOJ/FBI evidence was given to the White House.

20/ There were many corrupt and criminal acts perpetrated in 2016 but it was always going to be difficult to prosecute them. It's one thing to run investigations to protect the government but it's a very different thing to use the powers of your office to bring down a President.

21/ The key moment was always going to follow Comey getting fired. It was long assumed this would happen. We can see from Strzok texts that the moment it did happen certain contingencies were launched. Was Trump aware of evidence that these contingencies were long planned?

22/ This would present the perfect opportunity to run one of the most historically significant corruption stings that would tie together all the players in the 2016 rigging. Remember, "The President does not have to sit there Constitutionally and allow it to run its course."

23/ "Sources elaborated to CNN how top law enforcement officials were frantic after Comey was fired. They were reportedly concerned about Trump’s behavior and considered him a leader who might need to be reined in, sources told CNN. thehill.com/homenews/admin…

24/ Here is the heart of the sting. If there is any evidence before the May 9, 2017 that McCabe intended to use his authorities to "reign in" the President , then his recitation of the details that followed that date as his excuse for doing it are all contrived.

25/ He set them up and then monitored their activity during the "Nine Days in May" as Jeff Carlson describes them. It is these actions that are the most egregious of the entire Spygate scandal because they were aimed at deposing, under false pretense, the duly elected President.