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Welcome, readers, to the Good Men Project Daily Brief!
In basketball, an unforced error is a play that fails because a complex move was attempted when a simple one would have done. A behind the back pass when a straight one would have worked just fine. This week several stories have broken that illustrate the political version of an unforced error in several of the various complaints and investigations against the White House, topped off with the grand coup de grâce by former New York City Mayor, Mob Buster Rudy Giuliani’s appearance on Fox News’ Sean Hannity and Fox and Friends.
Today we’re looking at stories that turned over the ball unnecessarily. The unforced errors. None of these stories which explore serious consequences for the President needed to happen, if only his team had stuck to the game plan.
My name is Mckay Williams and this is your Daily Brief:
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Rudy Can’t Fail?
I hate to use news cliche but late last night President Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, gave a bombshell interview on Fox News’ Sean Hannity that landed itself right in the middle of at least two of the cases building against President Trump. In it Giuliani claimed that President Trump not only knew about the payment to adult performer Stormy Daniels, in direct opposition to statements by the President to reporters, but that he had also repaid Michael Cohen who claimed to have paid the money from his own account without President Trump’s knowledge. If true, that could possibly be a campaign finance violation and could be a smoking gun for Ms. Daniels’ lawsuit.
Giuliani also claimed that President Trump fired former FBI Director James Comey, not for his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation as previously claimed, but “because Comey would not, among other things, say that he [the President] wasn’t a target”. If true, this would directly suggest an intent to obstruct justice when he terminated Comey last year.
The Justice Department uses terms like “subject” and “target” specifically and uniquely to describe persons of interest in investigations. Special Counsel Robert Mueller confirms last month that the President is a “subject” of investigation.
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Rudy CAN fail.
After last night’s interview, Mr. Giuliani appeared again this morning on Fox News, this time on Fox and Friends where he said the following:
“She was alleging — although there’s the contrary letter she signed that it never happened — that there was a one-time affair,” the president’s lawyer explained. “And I think when Cohen heard $130,000, he said, ‘My God, this is cheap. They come cheap. Let me get the thing signed up and signed off.’ […] Imagine if that came out on Oct. 15, 2016 in the middle of the last debate with Hillary Clinton, Cohen didn’t even ask. Cohen made it go away. He did his job.”
I am not a lawyer, but it does seem to this writer that this suggests both election finance fraud and an attempt to cover up that crime. I imagine this quote will be very interesting to the Southern District of New York investigators compiling a case against Mr. Cohen.
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Citizen Donald Trump’s Doctor’s Office Raided by President Trump’s Bodyguard?
Citizen Trump’s personal physician, Dr. Harold Bornstein, claims to NBC news that Keith Schiller, a White House aide who previously held the role of Donald Trump’s Head of Security and personal bodyguard, had “raided” Bornstein’s office for any medical records relating to the President. While Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee-Sanders claims that this is standard operating procedure for new Presidents, experts point to a handful of potential HIPAA violations and dispute the claim that forceful seizure of medical records is standard.
In a bizarre and frankly unsurprising twist, Dr. Bornstein claims that the 2016 letter he signed stating that Donald Trump’s health was “astonishingly excellent” and that “unequivocally, [Trump] will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” was dictated to him by the President and was meant to be a joke.
This writer will not comment on any possible resemblance of Dr. Bornstein to Independence Day: Resurgence’s Dr. Brakish Okun.
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Click for more from Mckay Williams
Click for more from Mckay Williams
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