Allies of former NSA John Bolton were shocked and dismayed when they learned that acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney is trying to join a lawsuit filed by a former Bolton deputy Charles Kupperman to gauge if he has to comply with a House subpoena.
Behold, the sweet smell of internecine warfare!
I believe that you also donât get to pick your own prison cell mates.
Waves hand: The popcorn must flowâŚ
âPreviously, he is (sic) indicated that he would or would not testify at the pleasure of the President. He is now trying to join a group of former administration officials who say that they will defy the White House and testify if a judge gives them the go-ahead.â
Mickhead has no pure motives here.
His ostensible willingness to testify means there is rodent copulation afoot.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon called for a conference call with the lawyers for Kupperman, Mulvaney and Bolton Monday afternoon to decide how to proceed.
THREE RAT ENTER! ONE RAT LEAVE!
John Bolton, Mick Mulvaney and KAC are on a plane. The plane loses control and is going to crash. There are only two parachutes.
⌠stop me if youâve heard this one:)
Another possible factor â
Mulvaney and Cippolone are reportedly at odds over impeachment strategy â and the Kupperman case looks like a Cippolone play. (i.e. despite Kuppermanâs claim of having âno dog in this fightâ he appears to have been coordinating with Cippolone).
But now if Mulvaney is allowed to be an intervenor, Cippolone loses control of the case â especially since Kuppermanâs subpoena was withdrawn.
ETA: or this could be all Kayfabe, and everyone is really on the same page. Kupperman will have input into the decision to allow Mulvaney to intervene, so weâll need to wait and see what Kuppermanâs lawyer actually does during this afternoonâs telephone conference.
There wouldnât be a lawsuit for Mulvaney to piggyback on if these morally flaccid neocons would respond to the lawful subpoenas theyâve been issued and tell the peopleâs representatives what they know.
Mulvaney wants onto that train because the judge already announced the first stop wasnât until December 10. If he filed his own suit, he might well get a judge whose understanding of the time sensitivity and urgency of the matter was just pretexual.
He also doesnât want to take a chance of drawing a judge who doesnât lean right.
Basically, he just wants to be saved from the consequences of ignoring a subpoena.
HehâŚread Joshâs piece. Boltonâs lawyer offered up Bolton as a bright shiny object.
Schrodingerâs Bus 
Gottta love that.
Not good to get mixed up with drug dealers.
Sue them all, Bolton!
The best part of this is that the Democrats decided to ignore the courts and pursue impeachment proceedings without their testimoniesâŚthat has to stick in the craw of arrogant political types that think the world revolves around them. And it should scare the crap out of them, it means they already know enough about their actions to go forward without needing them to give inputâŚMulvaney should be really scared, his actions seem to be illegal (OMB holding funds like that doesnât comport with the law as I understand it). They get to be part of the obstruction charge, get to be portrayed the way the Democrats think they should be, and get to have the press dig into their actions, all without being able to control the narrative and looking guilty because they wouldnât testify while under oath.
Sure is going to be fun watching all of them squirm this week.
If John Bolton really wants to testify in the impeachment proceeding, heâd just do it. The Trump regime canât stop him.
And the Crux of Mulvaneyâs problem, he could very well be way under the bus with many tread marks by then.
So forgive me if Iâm focusing on the wrong thing here but, doesnât Mick have cover since not only is he the head of OBM but he is also the âactingâ Chief of Staff? How can a prosecutor determine which hat Mick was wearing when he made his decision, or does it matter?
Well, between the King retirement, the Don Jr. heckled by his own supporters story and this item, the TPM front page is positively brimming with clusterfuckery!
So many rats bailing, so little time left⌠glug, glug, glugâŚ