Trump's DAG, Richard Donohue, is a legend

[bigtree]

...decades and decades of scholars and students will be scanning these scribbled notes for echoes of our sad history.

“Just say it’s corrupt and leave it to me and the GOP Congressmen.”
-Donald Trump to his DAG, Richard Donohue

Jul 30, 2021 -Read Richard Donoghue's handwritten notes on Trump-Rosen calls
https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/read-richard-donoghue-s-handwritten-notes-on-trump-rosen-calls/cdc5a621-dfd1-440d-8dea-33a06ad753c8/

Jim Sciutto @jimsciutto 1h
History:

Kinzinger-“The President said ‘just say the election was corrupt, and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.’ So Mr. Donahue, that's a direct quote from President Trump, correct?

Fmr Acting Dep AG Donahue-“That's an exact quote from the president. Yes.”

[Leghorn21]

1. HE'S KILLIN IT, BT

HOLY SHIT

[gratuitous]

2. Consider the sentiment behind the statement

"Reality doesn't matter, you nudge the ball into motion, and we can get our media mouthpieces, Republican office-holders, and the rest of the echo chamber to carry that ball over the goal line. The media that aren't in our corner will go along if they perceive that it's more trouble than it's worth to oppose us. Just say the election was corrupt."

[bigtree]

4. 'just lie for me'

...we'll do the rest - Trump to the Deputy AG, right there in a stream of notes taken on a phone call with the president.

That's essentially what Guiliani is shopping around to election officials around the country, at the same time.

[erronis]

11. Yup. Just like pressuring Ukraine. Just like threatening business competitors.

His MO is to try to intimidate. He would never actually do anything that required real physical effort - just legal threats.

Roy Cohn and others taught him well - to be a very evil person.

[Evolve Dammit]

22. His whole miserable life he has operated this way. Trained by mob lawyer

[ZonkerHarris]

15. like a scene out of GOODFELLAS.

[Upthevibe]

21. ZonkerHarris....That's an insult

to Goodfellas.....

[ZonkerHarris]

23. Yeah, goodfellas had better actors

[Baked Potato]

3. Flustered Mustard certainly knows how to spread bullshit. Nt

[Nevilledog]

6. Hahaha

[Baked Potato]

9. Every now and then, you know what I'm saying...

[cloudboy07]

5. " THAT STATEMENT PUT TRUMP IN JAIL ! "

[kentuck]

7. Donaghue is a badass!

He and Rosen held the DOJ together and are true heroes.

If they had folded, as many others did, and Jeffrey Clark had become the acting AG, Joe Biden would not be President today.

[ancianita]

10. For one more reason...

that they couldn't have folded or the whole DOJ itself would have folded. The DOJ's lawyers said that.
It hasn't because even Trump KNEW that he couldn't appoint Clarke, because then he'd have no legal basis for Jan 6.

There's no "if's" about this, really.

[ashredux]

8. His testimony was excellent. He actually painted "pictures" as he talked.👍

[Pepsidog]

12. His entire presidency was just "make shit up" and republicans went along with it all.

[erronis]

13. But wasn't one of the purposes of trump's actions to totally hobble the DoJ?

If he could cause all of the leadership (except the sniveling Clark) to resign, then the FBI and all federal legal actions would grind to a halt.

If this were to happen, wouldn't it cripple the rest of the legal system in the US and thus almost any accountability? (I'm excepting the SCOTUS which has already been taken over by the anti-democracy crowd.)

Isn't this the purpose of foreign and domestic adversaries - to destroy a functional and well-run government?

So why didn't trump just say: "Fine. You all quit. I'll figure it out (along with my R friends.)"?

[frogmarch]

14. I was spellbound

by his testimony!

[Cozmo]

16. Remember what tfg said to Zelensky on that famous call?

"Just say you've got an investigation into Biden" He wasn't concerned about the investigation, he just wanted the press conference that inferred it. So true to tfg's form, yeesh!

[Buns_of_Fire]

18. I was just about to mention that I heard echoes of

his "perfect call" to Zelenskyy. "I want you to do us a favor..."

Give him a seed and he'll craft an entire bullshit mountain around it. It's the only thing he's good at.

[Bucky]

17. I appreciate them not supporting a coup, but let's remember these "heroes"

serving in DoJ under Trump...

went along with firing James Comey

cleared the appointments of two outright liars on the question of upholding Roe v Wade to the Supreme Court

reversed consumer protection policies to protect corporations

gutted programs designed to resolve tensions between communities and the police

supported guidelines to judges nation wide that led to excessive fines and fees on poor defendants

supported Trump when he advocated police brutality in the summer 2020 protests

gutted funding for the bipartisan First Step Act, which promoted prisoner rehabilitation programs to reduce recidivism

shut up while Trump politicized the pardons office to reward people who did business with Trump's organizations

cut federal funding from "sanctuary cities"

kept up the dry-well investigations in everything Hillary Clinton did
and...

reduced the number of prosecutions of child-sex traffickers compared to the Obama Justice Dept


I'm glad they held their ethics when Trump tried to pull an outright coup d'etat, but these are not good people. They just happen to insulated and honest.

[BlueIdaho]

19. 11th hour conversions don't impress me.

These “heroes” were in total CYA mode by the time they had their little White House meeting with the former President.

[Bucky]

20. to be entirely fair

These are mostly what I call "13th hour conversions."

They're talking about Trump's crimes after the election is history for all but the most insane of the sycophants. In January 2021 they weren't just covering their own asses. They were covering Trump's by not reporting on actual crimes in progress.

[Pluvious]

24. Twitter link for those wishing to RT or Like

Link to tweet