Thread by @tburages

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Significant that Trump sent out *two cabinet secretaries* yesterday to defend his actions re. pressuring Zelenskyy to investigate Biden.

In his book, @comey recalled the time he and other intelligence professionals visited the Trump team after the election. 1/9

Comey, James Clapper, John Brennan and Mike Rogers had gone to Trump Tower to inform the incoming POTUS of the IC assessment on Russian election interference. 2/9

After Clapper presented the report, Trump turned to his team in the room, and they (Priebus, Pence, Spicer, Pompeo, Trump) immediately began to strategize on how they would spin it to political advantage.

They did this with all four IC professionals RIGHT IN THE ROOM. 3/9

Comey was stunned. He writes, "The strangest image filled my mind. I thought of the New York Mafia social clubs."

Then: "I sat there there thinking, Holy crap, they are trying to make each of us an 'amica nostra' - friend of ours." 4/9

"... the president-elect was trying to make us all part of the same family and that Team Trump had made it a 'thing of ours.'" 5/9

This has always been Trump's modus operandi - to draw others in to a conspiracy.

Why? Because it gives Trump leverage later on to ask more and more compromising favors of a person. 6/9

Mnuchin and Pompeo have both been doing increasingly more corrupt "favors" for Trump. Pompeo allowed the DoS to assist Guiliani in setting up meetings in the Ukraine; and Mnuchin has refused to turn over Trump's tax returns, in violation of the law. 7/9

By having them do his corrupt bidding, Trump - like any La Cosa Nostra boss worth his salt - has fully brought these cabinet members into his "thing."

So when he needed these two to assist in the coverup of the Zelenskyy extortion, they probably felt they had little choice. 8/9

Now these two are up to their necks in the Ukraine affair and will have to live with the consequences of their actions. They've been more or less willingly brought into the conspiracy, the "thing."

And as my 12-year-old says, "That's how mafia works." 9/9

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