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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe real reason for the entire Comey Memo / Rosenstein play
I think we are missing the true genius of Trump and Nunes here.
Figure... The hypothesis goes that Rosenstein wouldn't release the memos, so he could be held in contempt by Congress, thus providing cover for firing Rosenstein. Rosenstein "outsmarts" them by releasing the memos, which are then immediately leaked and which, in fact, provide further damning insights into Trump's apparent knowledge of guilt.
Well, gee, anyone would have known that was a bad idea. Aside from which, how do they sell Trump on something as complicated as a Rube Goldberg scheme to get to fire Rosenstein? The dynamics are well beyond his comprehension level. It takes more than five words to explain to him.
So, I think I understand what may have been Trump's true reasoning -
To hurt Comey's book sales.
I know, this is crazy, but hang with me here for a moment. It's no more crazier than a lot of stuff that's actually true.
The only thing Trump understands is ratings - television, best seller list, top grossing movie, playmate of the year, whatever - So, to get Trump to buy in, what you'd have to tell him is:
"Comey is coming out with a book. We've already read it, since a former FBI official's book has to get agency review before publication. It's all based on his notes that we already have, see. So, how about we have Nunes demand the notes, so he can leak them, so everyone can get them for free, and then... boom... it cuts into Comey's book sales!"
THAT is, IMHO, a plan that Trump could understand and go for.
Generic Brad
(14,275 posts)His pettiness knows no bounds. I think your analysis nailed what happened.
manor321
(3,344 posts)It was to have an excuse to fire Rosenstein if he refused. Secondarily, if they get the memos, it allows Trump and others to try to coordinate their stories before being interviewed under oath.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,823 posts)Because Devin Nunes is as dumb as a stump he didn't understand that the memos don't help Trump at all and that they'd have been better off not demanding their disclosure, whose purpose was only to jam up Rosenstein for refusing to turn them over. But you should always be careful about demanding what you want because you might get it.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)That's what gets me.
Have you ever done criminal defense or had any involvement in a criminal procedure? Police notes on voluntary conversations with suspects are their own literary genre.
"I asked the suspect if I could search the car, and the suspect said "Yes!". Upon inspecting the car, the suspect said, "You'll find the narcotics under the back seat!"
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,823 posts)One of the very few criminal defense cases I handled involved a sweet young woman who was charged with embezzling money from her employer, where she had worked as a bookkeeper. She insisted she was innocent and would never have done such a thing. But then I saw her bank records, which showed deposits into her checking account that corresponded exactly as to date and amount with the employer's missing money. She continued to insist that was just a coincidence. I negotiated a guilty plea. She wasn't a very good embezzler, I guess.
Kirk Lover
(3,608 posts)And he repeats repeats and repeats it. He is also claiming that it was classified so he thinks it helps bolster his Comey is a leaker and liar bullshit.
Just like the house investigation....We all know that "investigation" was a sham...but they put it out so RUMP can use it as cover. RUMP is in the fight of his life. I do agree that he is petty and this would be right in his wheelhouse....but the mission is to discredit anybody and everybody and potentially fire key players.
Eliot Rosewater
(31,113 posts)jberryhill
(62,444 posts)The fact that Trump kept coming back to the hookers, to the point of denying he was there, is quite remarkable.
Schiller's testimony itself was damning as hell, and gave him full cover. He testified that he accompanied Trump to the room, that there was some mention of hookers, that he remained outside of the door for a while, and then left. Hence, Schiller can thread the needle of what we now know to be some incident at the front desk involving the ordinary hotel requirement that all guests be signed in but, since he left his post and does not know what may have happened subsequently, he stuck to the minimum set of facts required to be truthful.
hlthe2b
(102,341 posts)were never going to pay $$ to buy the book in the first place, IMO
We keep trying to find logic in the move, but I think the truth is more simple. They arrogantly thought Comey was as much a liar as they are and thus that the memos could not possibly reinforce what he was saying more than a year later.
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)There, I haz helped republican Comrade Casino* steer people from this dangerous book which makes it in-your-face plain that Dirty Donny is a lying, cheating, treasonous republican conman who is absolutely unworthy of trust. Further, this reality is a CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER to the United States of America. It is to America, rather than to the ignoble republican Comrade Casino, that we all must hold a Higher Loyalty.
* aka republican Draft-Dodger-in-Chief
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)that would entice someone to read his book. Apparently, there is no "bombshell" (an overused word in the trump mess) in the book or dirt beyond what we already suspect.
But, you are right that trump is a petty Ahole.
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)Some people care about that sort of thing. The KGOP abandoned Comey, and every other principled person, when they chose lying, cheating, sexually abusing, colluding, insulting, demeaning, grifting and weakening -- rather than honesty, integrity, respect, dignity, and loyalty to the USA rather than some puffed-up draft-dodging poodle of a person of the peckerhead personality persuasion.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,823 posts)that doesn't have anything to do with Trump (except that it's pretty apparent that Comey can't stand him). He describes in detail the showdown with Gonzales and Card at Ashcroft's bedside and, more interestingly, the circumstances that surrounded the debate about the Bush administration's "enhanced interrogation" policies. He shows the real awfulness of Cheney and his henchman Addington and the cowardice and weakness of Alberto Gonzales (which he compares to the similar cowardice of Jeff Sessions).