Junior Takes a Meeting

Trump Jr. Was Told in Email of Russian Effort to Aid Campaign [NYT]
44 Comments

So, like I was saying, collusion is one of those muddy things that might be too vague to prosecute.

@nojo: There comes a point, and we’ve already passed it, where all the lying on the security clearance documents will chaps someone’s hide to the point that people (Oh, Jaaaareddd) get indicted.

@JNOV: I’m going to stop short of predicting how it shakes out, except for the financial stuff. But it’s going to shake out. This is the piece that puts the rest in play.

And the guy who was stupid enough to put RUSSIANS WANT TO COLLUDE WITH US!!! in an email also checked into Trump Tower via Facebook for the meeting.

It’s gonna be Benny Hill all the way down.

The Arrested Development Admin

/Ron Howard voice over/
In fact, Donald Jr thought it would help his dear old dad by releasing his emails.

It didn’t.

IT’S JUST TREASON EVERYONE DOES IT.

What’s fun about Major Developments is watching the fallout as everyone adjusts to the new reality.

Ugh. I had all my money on “No actual collusion, but they nail President Impulse Control on obstruction.”

@JNOVjr: That’s the problem with practicality: Sometimes fantasies really do come true.

@JNOVjr: But! Now that you mention it…

Until now, obstruction was demonstrable, but somewhat empty: Trump just wanted to rid his life of pests. (At least in terms of provable facts.)

If, however, he’s fully aware of culpability — his own or his family’s — the obstruction is cast in a far more harsh light. The motive becomes sinister. And the means is at hand.

Junior really dropped a neutron bomb here. Not sure yet who’s left standing.

@nojo: Rachel’s ex-prosecutor guest raises that Obstruction point, repeatedly says “sinister”. I win!

Man, oh man, they just keep digging themselves in deeper. I’m no lawyer, but I did watch Law & Order: Original Flavor for a decade, and even I know that you shut the fuck up at even the hint of legal trouble and let the best attorney you can afford do all of the talking. No wonder no one halfway competent with any integrity will work with the Tdumbps.

@¡Andrew!: At least their incompetence is consistent.

@nojo:
It is their strength and their weakness…

By the way, despite what appears to be popular consensus to the contrary, Junior is Sonny, not Fredo. Eric is Fredo. There’s no other way this can work. (Jared is Tom Hagen.)

The argument for Junior as Fredo is that he’s fucking stupid. Which is true, and which is why folks inside the campaign used that nickname last year.

But Junior is also a bullying hothead, and the successor to Pops. Eric’s the weak one, whom the family only trusts to run a winery. If anyone’s going to go down in a hail of bullets while blindly rushing to avenge the family, it’s Junior.

I state this because I’m going to maintain this indisputably correct but iconoclastic position to my death.

@nojo: I like the “entire family of Fredoes” theory.

Talk about Exhibit A for 1% white trash supremacist a$$hole privilege who continue to fail upwards despite gross incompetence (and insanity).

@¡Andrew!: I will accept a mashup of Godfather and Being John Malkovich as an alternative.

On a fashion note, they all have hair problems. I sincerely hope we’ve reached peak sleazeball.

And we haven’t even started on Twitler’s Bastille Day voyage. I mean, you’d think someone would’ve told that indolent moron what Bastille Day is about and why he’s walking into a trap.

@¡Andrew!: Part of the genius of his incompetence is that he refuses to surround himself with competent people, for fear of being upstaged. That’s the only thing saving us from certain doom.

Speaking of political incompetence…

This is the moment where Unfortunate Adviser is supposed to be sorrowfully cut loose to defend his honor — and take that mess elsewhere. (Also, spend time with family.)

But no, Jared’s hunkering down with his security clearance, so every drip that involves him drips on Trump (who, to be fair, seems to enjoy being dripped on).

Hey, deny everything and fuck you worked during the campaign. But as every preznident learns, running the joint is a much different thing than taking it.

In other good news, ProPublica reports that abuse from President End Stage Syphilis has driven his now ex-reformed alcoholic mob lawyer Marc Kasowitz back into the sweet embrace of the demon drink. That should make for some interesting statements during the many upcoming trials.

“Attenthon Yur Mahjesthee, thereth no way my client wath dri-ving sethventee in uh thirry-fife mile thone.” (hi-CUP)

“Are yew thah waiter? I’ll haf thah fajitas.”

The only piece we’re missing is the email saying DAD RUSSIA WANTS TO COLLUDE WITH US YAYYY, and we might be near getting something like that, because Pops is too stupid to keep his mouth shut.

@nojo: Let we who have never conspired with a hostile foreign dictatorship to destroy the US government throw the first snarky remark.

@nojo: I’m certain that Dumba$$, Jr. ended up on the Ru$$kies Too Stupid To Recruit list, right after Carter Page.

Prince Jared, on the other hand… we only have their word for what went on in that meeting, and that’s not worth a pinch of shit.

@¡Andrew!: Right now we’re looking at a preponderance of evidence against Jared, especially as more details about the involvement of his digital ops emerge. (There’s also the matter of his begging for moneys and essentially faking his security clearance.)

He’s clearly not smart enough to have insulated himself — none of them are — but that doesn’t mean he was cutting deals in the middle of Fifth Avenue. It’s a reasonable bet that we’ll get a perpwalk from him before this is over, but the Actionable Detail has yet to emerge.

Not as sure about this one, but if Comey is Dumbledore realizing the flaw inherent in Voldemort’s secret, Junior might be the horcrux in the lake. The battle remains to be joined, but we know what we need to know.

Saving Trump for the death spell that bounces back on him.

@nojo: The campaign may have changed things, but as of 2013, Trump didn’t really do email.

@mellbell: Yeah, the actual potential link is Trump’s personal secretary, whose name came up the other day. What did Junior tell her to tell Pops?

Although the circumstantial evidence points to Junior rushing into the office and blabbing about the meeting, leaving no documentary trail. This would be by accident, since they’re clueless about such things, but not all accidents work against them.

But pinning down Trump’s awareness of shit going down around him was always going to be a slog — he’s no Nixon in that regard. That’s where the financial and obstruction stuff come in — the latter apparently thanks to Jared, who was sure that firing Comey would fix everything. An argument can be made that in terms of disastrous consequences, it’s really Jared who’s the Greater Fredo.

@¡Andrew!: I pictured Jr’s lawyer seeing the tweet and thinking, “Well, at least he didn’t include the really incriminating . . . oh, fuck.”

Eight people now known at that meeting. So far. The day is young.

“Is formur Ru$$ian spy at meetink–is no bick deel. We tok about beeyewteefil Ru$$ian behbees, ahgin is nuhsink. Also, newkyewlur launch codes ant toetul destruckshun of United States peepul. Vas liek biznuss meetink, yes.”

“So yeah, we held this huge meeting with Jared and Manafort and a bunch of Russians, and I didn’t bother to tell Pops anything afterward.”

@nojo: “Didn’t bother to tell Pops anything before, either. I wanted to surprise him with the Hillary Dirt they promised. Told Jared and Manafort to keep their mouths shut. Maybe then he would love me.”

I’m waiting for the TASS group photo.

@¡Andrew!: Party at my house in the Spring. Bring yer puppy!

Realtor said, “Sure you can burn trash out here, if you want to. No one is going to care. But we do have garbage pick up.”

IOW, Bring your best Trump effigy to da PARTY! I’ll get a Putin on a Donkey Piñata.

@JNOV: Marx Brothers stateroom scene.

“Wee dine uhn lunch of deeleeshus nuhthinkburgurs after meetink. Is how wee stay so sleem und seXXXsee that Reepubleekuhns cannuht stahp sexsing with uhs.”

“Jeredd Kushnur veree ecksited to turn over uhll Yu Ess votur data, no problem.
Is guud cuz otherwise I snep heez skeenee neck liek penseel, is ezee.”

Meanwhile, back at the soap opera…

The Trump campaign — campaign — hired a lawyer for Junior two weeks before the story broke. This is documented in a FEC filing.

And we already know that Jared’s lawyers discovered the meeting “weeks” before it became public.

The initial leak came from inside the house.

Who leaked and why, unclear. Was it intrafamilial backstabbing? More palsce intrigue? Some bizarre attempt to get ahead of the story by getting the (limited) facts out?

Watergate began unraveling with Nixon’s attempt to pay off rats before they started deserting the ship. Loyalty is thin when your hide’s on the line. The Meeting may not be the most significant event in the timeline — far from it — but it’s the one so far with the most threads to pull.

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