Don McGahn

It Wasn’t Just Democrats: Trump Also Spied on Don McGahn, His Own White House Counsel

Posted by on June 13, 2021 at 12:31 pm. 5 Comments :

Last week it was disclosed that Donald Trump’s Department of Justice secretly seized phone data from Democratic opponents in what amounts to an authoritarian style inquisition. The targets of the probe included Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and impeachment manager Eric Swalwell. It was an unprecedented abuse of power triggered by Trump’s acute paranoia and dictatorial aspirations.

Donald Trump Red Face

The reports revealing the DOJ’s pursuit of data from members of Congress followed similar reports of secret data seizures from the press, including the New York Times, the Washington Post and CNN. The accumulation of such discoveries prompted people to wonder what else was going on during the Trump years that was still unknown. And now we know at least a little more. According to CNN…

“Former Trump White House counsel Don McGahn and his wife received disclosures from Apple last month that their account records were sought by the Justice Department in February 2018, while McGahn was still the top lawyer representing the presidency, according to a person familiar.”

That’s right! Trump was actually spying on his own White House counsel and his family. It’s notable that the DOJ’s probe took place shortly after media reports that Trump had asked McGahn to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller. McGahn refused to do so, and even threatened to resign. This affair became even more bizarre when Trump went on TV and accused McGahn of perjury. McGahn was still his counsel at the time. Subsequently, Trump tried to pressure McGahn to cover up the request.

It’s one sort of gross malfeasance for Trump to go after his political foes. It’s another thing entirely to go after his allies and current staffers. This revelation should make everyone who ever worked for Trump wonder if they were – or will be – victims of his snooping. In fact, they should assume so.

Trump has no sense of boundaries whether it comes to loyalty, morality, or the law. His malignant narcissism compels him to regard only his own welfare as relevant. And his behavior as observed over decades – and especially in the White House – affirms that he will throw anyone and everyone under his fleet of vengeance seeking buses.

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Trump’s Bizarre Reasons for Accusing His White House Counsel McGahn of Lying Under Oath

Posted by on June 14, 2019 at 12:13 pm. 3 Comments :

One of the unique characteristics of Donald Trump’s criminal behavior is that, unlike most other criminals, he actually ends up admitting his wrongdoing in public and insisting that there’s nothing wrong with it. That was surprisingly well demonstrated on Thursday when he told George Stephanopoulos that he would happily accept and disseminate dirt on his political opponents, which is against the law.

Donald Trump

And one of the reasons that Trump is so comfortable making such public confessions is that he knows he has Fox News (aka State TV) to clean up after him. That’s what took place on Friday morning when the President did another call-in interview with the devoted Trump-fluffers on Fox and Friends. It was easily predictable that Trump would book this segment following a gaffe that was essentially an admission of treason.

However, even that brownnosing do-over was stepped on by Trump himself with the release of another clip from the Stephanopoulos interview. In this discussion Trump launched into a familiar and tedious denial that he ever sought to have special counsel Robert Mueller fired. That’s a claim that has been refuted by several of his close aides, including his White House Counsel, Don McGahn. Stephanopoulos noted that McGahn had testified to Mueller that Trump did ask him to talk to the Justice Department and make it clear to them that Mueller “had to go.” Which led to this incriminating exchange (video below):

Trump: I don’t care what he said. It doesn’t matter. That was to show everyone what a good counsel he was.
Stephanopoulos: But why would he lie under oath to Robert Mueller?
Trump: Because he wanted to make himself look like a good lawyer. Or he believed it because I would constantly tell anybody that would listen, including you, including the media, that Robert Mueller was conflicted.

First of all, when Stephanopoulos asked why McGahn would lie under oath, Trump didn’t reject that premise. In fact, he attempted to justify it. So Trump is accusing his White House counsel of committing criminal perjury. It will interesting to see if Attorney General William Barr will now open an investigation into that and issue an indictment for McGahn. (Don’t hold your breath). Because either McGahn is guilty of perjury, or Trump is lying about it.

Secondly, Trump’s first explanation for McGahn’s alleged perjury is that McGahn was seeking to “make himself look like a good lawyer.” How? By lying under oath? How does it burnish his credibility to implicate Trump in a scheme to fire Mueller? Trump is apparently conceding that testimony linking Trump to obstruction of justice is the honorable thing to do. Of course it is. Telling the truth would surely cast a positive glow on McGahn or any other witness. But accusing McGahn of doing the right thing is an odd defense from Trump’s perspective.

Finally, Trump’s other explanation for McGahn’s testimony is that McGahn, and “anybody that would listen,” were deluged with complaints by Trump that Mueller was conflicted. That assertion has always been a deliberate lie on Trump’s part. But his admission here that he has been inundating everyone around him with that allegation could itself be construed as obstruction of justice. He’s trying to materially harm the investigation by falsely impugning the integrity of the special counsel.

So Trump is providing a perverse set of arguments in his defense. On one hand, Trump thinks that his White House counsel is a perjurer for having told the truth about him. On the other, Trump is obstructing justice by lying about Mueller. And if you’re having trouble figuring that out, or why Trump would be asserting such a preposterous defense, it just means that you’re a normal, logical person. Unlike the sociopathic narcissist currently residing in the White House.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

A Paranoid Portrait of an ‘Innocent’ Man, Tweetstorm in 10 Panicked Parts By Donald Trump

Posted by on May 22, 2019 at 10:26 am. 4 Comments :

Sometimes it is only possible to convey the insanity of a man by presenting his own words verbatim. That’s the case with Donald Trump’s latest tirade on Twitter where he lashed out at what he repeatedly, and falsely, calls a “Witch Hunt.” The tone of this extended harangue is one that only makes Trump appear more guilty, and demented, than ever.

Donald Trump Zombie

Innocent people don’t behave this way. They don’t exhibit such a deranged mentality that is gushing with the consciousness of guilt. Trump is quite obviously scared, paranoid, and desperate to persuade his Deplorables that he hasn’t committed all the crimes that evidence shows he committed. And that psychotic condition led to this frighteningly deranged outburst (footnotes below):

Everything the Democrats are asking me for is based on an illegally started investigation that failed for them, especially when the Mueller Report came back with a NO COLLUSION finding (1). Now they say Impeach President Trump, even though he did nothin wrong, while they “fish!”

After two years of an expensive and comprehensive Witch Hunt, the Democrats don’t like the result and they want a DO OVER (2). In other words, the Witch Hunt continues!

The Democrats are getting ZERO work done in Congress (3). All they are focused on is trying to prove the Mueller Report wrong, the Witch Hunt!

PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT! (4)

Without the ILLEGAL Witch Hunt, my poll numbers, especially because of our historically “great” economy, would be at 65%. (5) Too bad! The greatest Hoax in American History.

Everybody, including me, thought that when the 40 Million Dollar Mueller Report was released with No Collusion and No Obstruction (of a crime caused by others), that was the end. (6) But no, the Democrats want to keep it going in an effort to help them in 2020. Bad for the Country!

“The Democrats are in danger of becoming irrelevant (7) because of their decision to keep taking the country on wild goose chases. They ought to start governing. You know, for a change.” Michael Goodwin @newyorkpost

“He (Jerry Nadler) wants a show. He wants to use Mr. McGahn as a prop to spend three hours claiming that Mr. Trump tried to obstruct the Mueller investigation. YET MR. MUELLER WASN’T OBSTRUCTED IN ANY WAY, HIS COPIOUS REPORT WAS RELEASED FOR ALL TO SEE (8), & THERE WAS NO COLLUSION..

..BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN. Mr. McGahn can be forgiven for declining the honor (9) of appearing in Mr. Nadler’s pseudo-impeachment drama.” Wall Street Journal Editorial Board, Today – May 21, 2019

As I have long been saying, and has now been proven out, this is a Witch Hunt against the Republican Party and myself, and it was the other side that caused the problem, not us! (10)

Following this bizarre spectacle, Trump took the wholly unprecedented step of blackmailing Congress to force them to stop doing their constitutionally mandated job of oversight. He told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer that he would not consider the pending infrastructure bill, or any legislation, until they ended their investigations of him.

That’s not going to happen. So Trump is putting himself and his personal issues above the welfare of the nation. AGAIN! This abdication of his responsibilities is just another reason that he must not be permitted to continue to occupy the White House. It adds to his recent refusals to obey the laws regarding the provision of public documents and his attempts to prohibit public servants from giving testimony. And it is why more and more members of Congress – and American citizens – believe it it imperative that we impeach Trump.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

FOOTNOTES (with links to tweet):
1) The Mueller report did NOT find no collusion. But it did find ten instances of obstruction od justice.
2) Democrats do NOT want a do-over. They want all of the facts to be disclosed.
3) Democrats in the House have passed dozens of bills that are being held up by Republicans in the Senate.
4) PRESIDENTIAL WHINING!
5) Trump’s approval rating has NEVER exceeded the forties.
6) Mueller left the conclusions up to Congress. His report was a beginning, not an end.
7) If Trump really believed that Democrats are becoming irrelevant, he wouldn’t be throwing these tantrums.
8) Trump is unlawfully prohibiting McGahn from testifying. And the Mueller report has NOT been released for all to see.
9) A subpoena is NOT an optional invitation to appear. It is lawful and mandatory, and declining is a crime.
10) There has never been any evidence of crimes by “the other side.”

Big Baby Trump ‘Welcomes’ Joe Biden to a Race that Will Be Dominated By Trump’s Fear

Posted by on April 25, 2019 at 11:57 am. NO Comments :

As might be expected, Donald Trump demonstrated today that he has still not progressed emotionally from the stage of a chollicky infant. In response to Joe Biden’s announcement that he is entering the primaries for the Democratic nomination for president, Trump lashed out with a sarcastic welcome that featured a recycled nickname that he previously gave to NBC’s Chuck Todd: “Sleepy” Joe Biden.

Donald Trump

Trump’s tweet was typically boorish and devoid of either wit or substance. It was just another one of his ad hominem harangues that he thinks are so clever, that his cult followers lap up, but that prove nothing except for how shallow and hateful he is:

For Trump to demean the intelligence of Biden, or anyone else, is truly peak irony. This is a man who thinks winter is an argument against climate change; who thinks that stealth bombers are really invisible; who doesn’t know that tariffs are paid by consumers, not countries; who says he’ll take any attempt to impeach him to the Supreme Court. And the irony continued with Trump’s assertions that it’s the Democrats who are “nasty, sick, and demented.”

However, the race that Trump is welcoming Biden into is one that will be dominated by Trump’s own fears and desperation. Immediately after the release of the redacted report by special counsel Robert Mueller, Trump declared that he had been “totally exonerated.” But ever since he has been castigating Mueller and the report as a hoax that was corrupt and illegal. And despite his lame attempts to cover it up, he clearly knows that he has been exposed as having committed crimes and for obstructing justice. Which is why he also tweeted these anxiety-riddled thoughts today:

So now Trump is calling his former White House counsel, Don McGahn, a liar. Is that another example of his hiring “the best people’? Also, Trump never fires anyone himself. He always gets some other patsy to do it for him. And as for the claim that he “respectfully allowed [Mueller] to finish his work,” that was only after he called him a “conflicted, corrupt, illegal, disreputable Trump Hater,” who was on a “Witch Hunt”? That’s Trump’s idea of respectful.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

And we can expect more of the same as the 2020 presidential election gets into gear. Trump will continue to act like a big baby, continue to lie, and continue to malign his opponents and critics with baseless and childish insults. If America is lucky, Trump will be impeached or resign before we all have to go through more of that.

Morning Psycho? Trump’s Latest Twitter Rampage Reveals Just How Scared He is of Impeachment

Posted by on April 23, 2019 at 1:35 pm. NO Comments :

The signs are becoming more difficult to ignore with each passing day. Donald Trump is losing all control of his mental faculties. This isn’t a new revelation. Those who have been paying close attention to Trump’s deranged behavior, his memory lapses, his reversion to infantilism, and his incoherent tirades, recognized the indicators of psychological infirmity long ago.

Donald Trump

This week Trump has gone farther over the edge than ever before. On Monday he posted a record twenty-four tweets – mostly retweeting Fox News and other sycophantic Trump-fluffers – all with the purpose of exalting himself and salving his fragile ego. And then on Tuesday he unleashed another thirteen tweets (so far) that were even more symptomatic of an unsound mind. The kind of mind that twisted “Morning Joe” Scarborough’s name into “Morning Psycho.” Which, after reading his latest tweetstorm, it’s clear that it applies better to Trump himself.

These tweets also included a swipe at Paul Krugman of the News New York Times for something that Trump never defined. Although he did accuse Krugman of being “obsessed with hatred” just a before saying he was “stupid.” Then he wondered if the Times would apologize to him again, which is weird because they have never apologized to him before. This is a fantasy he’s engaged in several times in the past.

Trump also tweeted his plans to hold a rally rather than attend the annual charity event for the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA). He’s skipping this event for the third time due to his abject fear of jokes about him. And then there was this:

So Trump thinks that the Republican agenda is “working” when more than half the country is going insane? That’s a standard that proves that he truly hates this country and most of the people in it. And it’s not the first time he’s said so, either. He also pined for the “old days” when he says president’s were “immune from criticism.” Yeah, right. But then those presidents didn’t conspire with Russia, use the presidency to enrich themselves, lie over 9,000 times, malign others with infantile insults, and attack the free press. Then he whined about Twitter discriminating against him by deleting his followers (who were mainly Russian bots). And naturally, he threw in some promos for State TV (aka Fox News).

The question is: What might be responsible for this eruption of inanity? It has all occurred less than a week after the release of the redacted report by special counsel Robert Mueller. Despite the redactions, there was a surprising amount of evidence of Trump violating the law and obstructing justice. The proof that this evidence exists is in Trump’s own response to the report. At first he insisted that it “totally exonerated” him. But ever since he has lambasted it as a “hoax” perpetrated by “Angry Democrats.” Clearly he is disturbed by the report and feels a need to discredit it. That isn’t something an innocent person does to a document he believes vindicates him.

Trump is also facing new threats arising from congressional oversight. His former White House counsel, Don McGahn, is being subpoenaed to testify. His taxes and other financial records are also being subpoenaed from his banks and accountants. Trump has been frantically trying to keep all of this hidden for years. But those efforts appear to have been exhausted.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Now Trump is in a panic because he knows the awful truth about him is about to become public. And the fear that is oozing out of every pore of his thin-skin is manifesting on his Twitter feed. Twitter is his nanny and he’s clinging to it for dear life as he tries to console himself, distract the nation, purge the demons that are feasting on his dread of facing reality, He thinks that these outbursts will calm the anxiety that, by all appearances, is eating him alive. But in all likelihood it will just get even more intense, until he is utterly consumed by it. And that’s actually the best case scenario.

Truth Isn’t Truth? Trump Unleashes a Tweetstorm of Frantic Desperation and Fearful Guilt

Posted by on August 19, 2018 at 3:03 pm. 1 Comments :

Donald Trump couldn’t look more guilty if he tattooed it on his forehead in neon ink. Everything he does and says these days reinforces his fear and unambiguous knowledge that he and his crime family are in deep legal peril. And it gets worse when he has time off (from golfing) to act out on Twitter. That’s what happened Sunday morning as the President hammered out half a dozen tweets protesting (too much) that’s innocent, dammit!

Donald Trump

The tone and substance of these tweets are almost pathetically begging for absolution from a bevy of sins that he knows he committed. What’s more, most of these ravings are merely repetitions of the same carping he has been unloading for months. He has become a robo-bitcher whose mindless outbursts make little sense and avoid facts at all costs. He began by trotting out his familiar, and untrue, nickname for the New York Times:

Let’s just set aside that no matter how many times he tries, he simply can’t spell “counsel” correctly. More to the point, Trump’s characterization of White House Lawyer Don McGahn as a loyal subject flies in the face of reality. You don’t sit for thirty hours of testimony with a special prosecutor without supplying some critical information. And Trump didn’t even bother to refute the allegation in the Times that McGahn was afraid that Trump was setting him up to be the fall guy.

Even worse is Trump’s slap at John Dean. During the Watergate affair, Dean had the job that McGahn has today. He courageously came forward to tell the truth about the crimes being committed in Richard Nixon’s White House. He is generally regarded as a hero for having told the truth under immense pressure. And for that, Trump thinks he’s a “RAT.” Which makes perfect sense because Trump thinks that anyone who might tell the truth about him would be vermin. Trump is allergic to the truth, which is why he avoids it so studiously. But the fact that he thinks Dean is a rat, while the rest of America is grateful for his patriotic service, putting country before party, shows just how deranged Trump is.

Trump is also congratulating himself on his alleged “transparency” for “allowing” McGahn to talk to special counsel Robert Mueller. That was not exactly his call. If he had tried to claim executive privilege he would have set off a court battle that he likely would have lost. And the loss would have opened the door to more access to his staff and more trouble for him. And then there was this:

Notice that Trump slipped in the required “witch hunt” reference which, by executive order, must appear in at least one out of every five tweets. And he continues ranting about his fake transparency. He says he allowed “all others” to be interviewed by Mueller. But he left someone important to the investigation out: himself. If he really wants this probe to end he needs to sit down with Mueller and try not to lie (admittedly, a difficult task for him). If he really has nothing to hide he should schedule that meeting today. And then there was this:

This is just Trump having a “whataboutism” seizure. One of his favorite defenses is to accuse others of crimes that he is committing. And then there was this:

Here Trump is repeating what said a an hour earlier. But he also took the opportunity to repeat his Stalinist, anti-First Amendment screed about the media being “the enemy of the people.” And then there was this:

Talk about your fake news. If anyone in the media called to “complain and apologize” it could only have been Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, or some other similarly bootlicking Trump-fluffer trying to keep his spirits up. I guarantee that no credible journalist called him for that purpose. This is something he does frequently, but then refuses to provide any names. And finally there was this:

Holy crap. Trump is attempting to draw a parallel between the corrupt and corrosive Sen. Joe McCarthy and reporters doing their jobs exactly as they are supposed to. And advising people to study McCarthy is hysterical because you can bet the bank that he never did. Unless, of course, it was get pointers on how to be a demagogic sleazeball. What he isn’t saying is that McCarthy’s right-hand man, Roy Cohn, was Trump’s close friend and mentor. He even wished he had a lawyer like Cohn.

After unleashing this flood of whining and victimization, Trump looks more guilty than ever. When was the last time an innocent man lashed out with such wild, incoherent blather? And no matter how often he howls “no collusion, no obstruction of justice, witch hunt,” etc., it will not change the facts that are causing him to tremble in fear. While Rudy Giuliani may believe that “truth isn’t truth,” the rest of the civilized world knows what hogwash that is. Just wait until he tries to explain that to a jury.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.