Thread by @HoarseWisperer

OK, I can’t sleep, so I’m gonna break down the rather bombshelly report in @ForeignPolicy I shared earlier.

This is as meaty as last wknd’s thread on Mueller having the Transition Team emails.

Refresh your beverage and settle in.

1/

As I posted earlier, Foreign Policy published a hefty piece on who knew what about Mike Flynn before he was fired.

This hasn’t been reported elsewhere so bear that in mind.

I’m going to presume it’s accurate.

2/
foreignpolicy.com/2017/12/20/whi…

There are a whole lotta nuggets in there - and they’re all bad for Trump.

First, let’s intro the key player: Don McGhan.

McGahn is the senior White House atty.

He was appointed by Trump but he is not Trump’s atty. He is the WH’s atty.

That’s important.

3/

As we know, Trump, Pence and every other WH staffer (other than McGahn) have given an endless array of shifting stories on why Flynn was fired and what Trump leading up to his firing.

They can’t land on a narrative.

4/

According to this report, contrary to every WH version, Don McGahn promptly and diligently looked into whether Flynn had committed a crime with his Russian calls during the transition...

Well, that’s interesting.

5/

Did you catch that little bit about “...whoever authorized (those calls)” though?

As we know from the reporting after Flynn’s indictment, Flynn is prepared to testify that Trump himself told him to make those calls...

6/

McGahn didn’t do that in a vacuum. He also talked to former Acting AG Sally Yates who echoed the same concern...

7/

Now, when McGahn talked to Yates, Flynn had just met with the FBI.

McGahn, suspecting those Russian calls might have been a crime - and suspecting Flynn might have/did know that, asked Yates “how Flynn did in his interview”.

8/

Yates refused to answer... which is the nudge-nudge version of “He lies through his teeth.”

McGahn took the hint and researched what ADDITIONAL liability Flynn might now have.

9/

As we now know, in the immediate aftermath of all of that, Yates was fired but Flynn was not - for several weeks - until stories broke.

The WH blamed Don McGahn for not sounding the alarm.

That didn’t sit well with him.

10/

Now here is where it gets FUN!

As it turns out, Don McGahn is no dummy.

In fact, he might be the lone smart guy in the place.

McGahn put this all in writing... and then he turned it over to Mueller.

11/

So, basically, Mueller has documentation effectively proving Trump, et al, were made aware Flynn had likely committed crimes AND lied about them to the FBI - which is DEFINITELY a crime.

That knowledge on Trump’s part is the golden key to an obstruction case.

11/

Trump is in a world of sh** here.

He’s got a guy on his staff who CYAed himself up the wazoo and just discredited every WH version of events.

...but wait, there’s a bonus Easter Egg in here for us...

13/

Back when the WH was trying to throw McGahn under the bus to provide air cover for Trump’s obstruction of justice, there was that pesky little a**hat by the name of Reince Priebus running around.

Reince was quite mean to McGahn.

14/

Now, Priebus has already met with Mueller... and in that meeting, Priebus was assuredly asked about these events.

So, did Reince lie or sing like a canary?

15/

If he lied, he’d be contradicting the documentation he knew existed - and he’d be basically calling McGahn a liar.

FUN FACT!

Priebus and McGahn have the same attorney.

16/

Which means that same attorney advises each on their legal strategy and testimony.

If Priebus and McGahn were testifying to opposing sets of facts, the attorney could not represent them both.

That would be a conflict of interest.

17/

Cogito ergo sum. Ipso facto. Or some Latin sh**... therefore, we can conclude that Priebus and McGahn must have been singing off the same song sheet... and that song sheet was Don McGahn’s.

Translation: Reince is dropping dimes on Donnie Dunce Cap.

18/

Trump has big problems here.

Reince Priebus corroborating McGahn’s account - which Mueller has in writing - provides the single hardest piece of the obstruction puzzle:

Proving awareness that a crime had been committed.

If all of the above bears out, Mueller has Trump in a stranglehold he can’t get out of...

...and he has every other aide in a vice where they can either pile firewood on Donnie’s pyre or go down for perjury and obstruction too.

So delicious.

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p.s. sry for typos, numbering, posting speed. On my damn phone and notifications keep crashing it.