1) Of course she was... That part was obvious.
2) The position of President Obama and Susan Rice is that the White House was unaware of any FBI investigation of Flynn (or the Trump campaign); nor did they have any involvement in directing it to take place.
3) A day prior to this meeting, DNI James Clapper briefed President Obama on the nature of the call between Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and Michael Flynn.
Clapper received raw “intelligence cuts” about the call from FBI Director Comey & used them to brief President Obama.
Clapper received raw “intelligence cuts” about the call from FBI Director Comey & used them to brief President Obama.
4) When James Clapper walked directly into the White House with “intelligence cuts”, from the FBI to share with President Obama, it’s likely the legal team around Obama -specifically including Kathryn Reummler- went bananas.
5) In this context doofus Clapper -with his FBI cuts in hand- just infected the White House with direct knowledge of an ongoing FBI investigation of the incoming administration. In that briefing Clapper removed their carefully assembled plausible deniability.
6) Worse... if anyone should later question FBI Director Comey about it, Comey would say (honestly) he knew Obama was briefed on it because he provided a paper trail.
WH counsel Ruemmler would have immediately identified the White House exposure.
WH counsel Ruemmler would have immediately identified the White House exposure.
7) That sets up the need for Obama and Rice to organize the pull-aside meeting the following day January 5th.
White House needs to put the issue on Comey. Hence Obama telling Comey "by the book" but don't tell me anything.
White House needs to put the issue on Comey. Hence Obama telling Comey "by the book" but don't tell me anything.
8) The problem at that point (post meeting) was the risk of it being Obama's word -vs- James Comey.
Comey had records, a paper trail, for his escape; the White House did not.
It's a he said/he said risk.
Comey had records, a paper trail, for his escape; the White House did not.
It's a he said/he said risk.
9) So WH Attorney Kathryn Ruemmler tells Susan Rice to create an extemporaneous record of the conversation, in case things go sideways later on.
Rice writes the 'memo to file' with objectives for content provided by Ruemmler.
/END
Rice writes the 'memo to file' with objectives for content provided by Ruemmler.
/END
Addendum: The framework and purpose of the Rice 'memo to file' was obvious in the 2018 Rice/Ruemmler response to the Senate.
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