“I have a hard time believing Sekulow released them because there is no motive there.” Also Sekulow is a member of Trump’s legal team and the Times said the leaker was not a member. Seems like Dowd is the most likely culprit, with Giuliani being the second most likely (though doesn’t he count as a part of the legal team too?).
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Yes, assuming the NYT claim that its from someone outside the legal team is correct. And in this case, I think it probably is.
Dowd is out, largely because of disagreements about this very issue (should the President agree to a sit down or not), is in personal legal jeopardy, probably facing disbarment and is said to be in talks with Mueller. He would be the one I would put my money on.
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And tRump’s lawyers were shocked by this?
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There is one other issue that I am not clear about. Perhaps you can clarify. On Maddow last night it was suggested that one of the questions indicated that Dowd might have legal exposure (I believe anyhow). However, I missed the point of exactly what that legal exposure would be. I’m wondering about that and how the leaking of the questions would affect Dowd’s position.
Not really. What is being reported is posturing by his lawyers as part of the negotiations.
The reality is painful for them. They don’t want Trump sitting down for what would amount to several all day interviews with Mueller’s team, because he will lie and get caught. And that’s a crime.
They also don’t want him being subpoenaed and asked questions before a GJ. because pleading the Fifth doesn’t work for a President. Stating one time “I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that it may incriminate me” moves the needle on impeachment in Congress dramatically. Doing so repeatedly? Its game over. Because while legally pleading the 5th isn’t an admittance of guilt, politically, it is. And impeachment isn’t a legal decision, its a political one.
So their best option is to play for time every step of the way, and hope beyond hope, that they can run out the clock.
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So their best option is to play for time every step of the way, and hope beyond hope, that they can run out the clock.
But can they do this for the rest of this presidency ? Seems unlikely, they could do it for the money, though…
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Mueller to tRump, "Interview or subpoena, because
One way or another, I’m gonna find ya’
I’m gonna get ya’, get ya’, get ya’, get ya’
One way or another, I’m gonna nail ya’
I’m gonna nail ya’, nail ya’ ,nail ya’, nail ya’
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Nobel PP.
Hee-hee.
He might as well shoot for the EGOT.
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What makes you think, he doesn’t ?
He almost got the Emmy.
Missed it by that much.
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This is how Trump sees himself. No snark–I really think he sees himself this way.
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The concern I see raised is that Dowd’s exposure is more about disbarment than legal, regarding the leaking of these questions, on the grounds that he is violating attorney-client privilege.
But Dowd is already facing that issue for at least two other incidents…1) the tweet he claimed he wrote from Trump’s account where Trump admitted that he knew Flynn lied to the FBI and 2)demanding that Mueller resign and saying it was Trump’s words…before quickly reversing course the next day.
In both situations, he is exposing his client to OOJ charges. In both cases he is violating attorney-client privilege. In the first, is his claim is true, its so egregious (and possibly even illegal, since the WH has claimed that Trump’s tweets are official WH proclamations), that it would be a pretty short disbarment hearing.
But here is the thing from a legal jeopardy perspective. Let’s take the tweet since its a pretty clear example. Trump told Dowd that he knew that Flynn was lying to the FBI. Dowd then tweets it on the President’s account, in a PR effort to dismiss the case against Flynn and his client.
That right there blows up attorney client privilege. Because Dowd is then acting in the furtherance of a criminal enterprise on his clients behalf. Even if its a lie, and Trump himself did do the tweet (which is almost certainly the case), Dowd is still engaging in a criminal enterprise by taking the blame himself
The point of all of this is, Dowd can almost certainly be cooperating with Mueller, because for much of this stuff, there is no attorney client privilege, its been pierced by the crime-fraud exception. And since he has his own exposure (and particularly his law license) on the line, he would be extremely motivated to do so.
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It does seem unlikely, because each step they take to slow things down…makes remaining in the WH even more untenable. It eventually leads to such a deep bunker mentality, that it would make Nixon’s final days look like a frolic in the park. Factor in a blue wave…then each of these steps, while playing out the legal clock, are just throwing gasoline onto the impeachment fire.
Which is the crossroads I kind of expect his attorneys to be hitting pretty soon. They won’t be able to win the legal AND the impeachment battles. Fighting one, hurts the other. And once that is realized, then they have to do with the fact that even after impeachment and removal, their client is still going to be facing criminal charges.
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Jeremy Bash said that Dowd had emailed him to say he wasn’t the leaker. Bash said that yesterday on Nicole Wallace’s show.
Sooo, if it’s not a legal team member, then my money’s on Kushner or someone in that circle, even Trump himself. It’s clear they don’t appreciate the amount of legal trouble they’re in, they don’t think logically, and perhaps they thought they could tie this leak into the “witch hunt” verbiage. No reasonable person would want this out there, but we aren’t dealing with reasonable, informed, nor law abiding folks here.
The “work of the president” thing sounds totally like Guliani, Kushner, Stone etc. Mueller isn’t going to be intimidated by that, not ever, but especially with what he knows now.
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I don’t think its Kushner…this doesn’t help him at all either, and his lawyers have done a pretty good job of making him lay low.
But there is one person that you left off your list that does make sense…
Steve Bannon. 
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That’s very interesting. Thank you!
This makes me wonder if Dowd leaked this as part of an attempt to hasten Trump’s legal/political implosion so that Dowd’s own potential legal problems might be lost in the shuffle. And as you say he may very well be cooperating with Mueller (though would he leak this if he were?). In any case, the point is that it is very difficult to know at this point which side he’s on.
Good point. I forgot that m’fr is still around. What do you see as his motivation? Power play or sinking the ship?
Also, this morning on Morning Joe they were winking and nodding about the leaker. I didn’t catch all of it and don’t have time to watch it now, but doing so would be interesting.
That question turns on whether or not Mueller has an interest in getting this out there. Some people claim that he does, largely because it preemptively addresses any concerns about him being on a fishing expedition, and its a way of getting directly the press and the American people where his team is at. Good thing to do in preparation for dropping a report or subpoenas.
The contra opinion to that is, that isn’t how Mueller typically works. His team has been amazingly tight lipped through out these investigations.
I am not sure where I stand on that question yet. I will say though, that at some point, Mueller will start putting stuff out there for the public/Congress/media to take in, not just the GJ and Courts. And when that time comes, the WH better start hunkering down. Because that means he IS preparing to go to Congress.
I should’ve been more clear. I was just pointing to the fact that since it was an internal document specific to his defense, the list had to have come from inside his own team.
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Sinking the ship is a power play by Bannon. And its one he has been hinting at for some time now. I personally don’t entirely understand it, but I believe its more or less along the lines of…Trump was an experiment, which went awry, but we learned lots of stuff, so lets destroy the experiment and move on to Test #2.
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