Andrew McCabe Isn’t off the Hook Just Yet

Think about it… – Michael Avenatti is that coke-head guy in “Die Hard” who sits down in front of the head terrorist and says, “Hans, bubby…I can give ‘im to ya.”

Get used to hearing the name “Jensen.” – I really really really hate to quote Andrew Weissmann, but, the former lead prosecutor for American Gestapo Chief, er, ‘special counsel’ Robert Mueller basically confirmed what I told you here after hearing the news that Andrew McCabe would not be prosecuted for lying to investigators: That doesn’t mean that McCabe just gets off scot-free.

As reported by the Washington Examiner, Weissmann told F. Chuck Todd late Friday this:

Andrew Weissmann, a former Justice Department official who was known as Mueller’s “pit bull” during the Russia investigation, said the Justice Department swapped out the “loser case” of Andrew McCabe, who escaped criminal charges on Friday for allegedly lying to investigators about authorizing media disclosures, for a fresh one targeting top former FBI officials, including McCabe, led by Jeffrey Jensen, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri.

“All they did was swapped out a loser case for starting an investigation that is going to be of Comey, McCabe, Pete Strzok,” Weissmann told MSNBC host Chuck Todd.

The Washington Post also reported – based entirely on anonymous sources, of course – that DOJ lawyers mad their decision not to pursue McCabe after a federal judge who would have heard the case told them that he believed the case had been damaged by all of the President’s commentary on it. Obviously, an Obama appointee.

McCabe, meanwhile, feeling emboldened by Friday’s events, has been all over CNN, where he is a paid contributor. In an interview last night with Anderson Cooper, he and the host had this exchange:

Anchor Anderson Cooper said, “Aside from being understandably anger about all of what you’ve been through, has it been in a way surreal? In the past couple of minutes, while you’ve been on with me, on Fox, there’s a banner font calling you a liar. Did you ever expect in any way to be dealing with anything like this?”

McCabe said, “I spent 21 years in the FBI as the part of an institution that prides itself on fidelity, braver, andy and integrity. And to be removed from that organization and unfairly branded a liar because that was the desired outcome by the president has just been one of the most sickening and demeaning experiences of my life. It’s horrendous. And it is unfortunate that having listened to propaganda like Fox News, there’s, you know, there are many people in this country that will believe that forever.”

Let’s remember that McCabe ADMITTED to lying repeatedly to DOJ investigators about his serial leaking classified information to members of the press. Inspector General Michael Horowitz painstakingly detailed four instances of his lying to those investigators in a report issued in April of last year. We know he also lied repeatedly in his 2017 testimony to congress. These are simply facts on the public record today.

But the best part of that exchange is calling Fox News a “propaganda” outlet while doing an interview on freaking CNN.

Trump's fault some Federal judge won't hear the case.

How about everyone is in CYA mode and keeping their lips shut while Barr sheepishly says he is innocent, shrugs his shoulders, does NOT push back and PUBLICALLY scolds Trump for stating the obvious.

One look into the Epstein fiasco dictates that Barr is a composite of pieces of feces unwilling to build a case on purpose (Barr sure did a bang up job overseeing a high value witness to all kinds of stuff in Epstein) unless you smoke dope crossing State lines or think the government is corrupt.

Trump is probably frustrated because he was told months ago that Barr would "do" something by Barr himself by now. Trump got word by his own "little birdies" on the inside that Barr is a liar, hits Twitter which ticks off Barr for being called out. McCabe did everything in public, yet you believe Trump Tweeting overrides McCabe PUBLICALLY breaking the law. Convoluted and devoid of logic and centuries of jurisprudence. Hell, more people knew who Zimmerman was in a day than McCabe in what, 2 years.

One look into the Epstein fiasco dictates that Barr is a composite of pieces of feces unwilling to build a case on purpose (Barr sure did a bang up job overseeing a high value witness to all kinds of stuff in Epstein) unless you smoke dope crossing State lines or think the government is corrupt.

Barr is a Trump appointee. As was Jeff Sessions. At some point, DJT's defenders are going to have to accept the fact that The Donald is responsible for what happens and what doesn't happen in his own administration. Or have we all forgotten Steve Bannon and the Mooch? Or the graceless way that Trump dismisses his own people -- supposed white knights the day before yesterday -- as he pisses on them on the way out the door?

This goes back to Day 1. Trump's initial personnel operation was a shambles. It stayed a shambles for a long time. Whether it is straightened out now, I don't know. Yes, the Democrats were doing everything possible to sabotage the process (and as far as I'm concerned, the Republicans should ensure that the next Democrat president's nominees are confirmed at the same glacial pace). But Trump compounded the problem. For at least the first two years, the pace of nominations was very slow. Trump, Inc. even spent a lot of time boasting about how they weren't even going to fill a lot of the political appointee jobs, apparently on the theory that a hyperactive twitter feed can substitute for several thousand political appointees -- from the subcabinet through all the Schedule C's -- getting down into the trenches and actually managing the agencies on a day to day basis.

Personnel are policy. Anyone who doesn't understand that needs to go to the blackboard and write it a thousand times. Trump is reaping the consequences of his failure to adequately staff his administration. (This was much discussed in early 2017 by yours truly and many others.) And far too many of his picks have been disasters; I've not tried to keep a count, but I would not be surprised if Trump, at this point, has fired more of his own appointees than he has Obama holdovers.

Trump needed a committed team that seeded his own people, and good ones, in all the key points of leverage in the key agencies. The career civil servants can't be fired without good cause, but they can be moved and work can be redistributed to groups that actually support the administration's agenda. And a lot of the career people are relatively apolitical; they will do good work if a political sets the direction, runs the meetings and keeps the machine grinding along. But this doesn't happen if the president doesn't bother to appoint the director level and Schedule C staff. Trump basically defaulted on this. Twitter wars are no substitute for day to day management in the trenches. Trump raged endlessly on Twitter -- red meat for the true believers, yes -- while Obama holdovers continued as "acting" in key posts that Trump was too busy tweeting to fill.

I voted for Trump (in the general, not the primary). I presume that I will vote for him again, as the Democrats are insane/evil/stupid/criminal, or all of the above. Trump has been a better president than he was a candidate. He has had a steep learning curve to climb, and he's gotten somewhat better over time. But at this point, I can only hope that Barr and Durham will come through. It's very late in the day, but better late than never. The next Republican president, I trust, will learn from the Trump example and will take the time to actually staff up his administration.

Personnel are policy. Anyone who doesn’t understand that needs to go to the blackboard and write it a thousand times. Trump is reaping the consequences of his failure to adequately staff his administration. (This was much discussed in early 2017 by yours truly and many others.) And far too many of his picks have been disasters; I’ve not tried to keep a count, but I would not be surprised if Trump, at this point, has fired more of his own appointees than he has Obama holdovers.

What happened when Trump tried to fire Sessions? What happened when he tried to fire Mueller and his 16 Dirty Democrats? What happened to DNI Ratcliffe? What happened Trump’s fed picks? What happened of course is that his own party did not support him and in fact enabled the coupist assaults against POTUS and his supporters.

Do you want to blame POTUS for Mueller’s jackbooted raid on Stone? Or maybe you approve?

At some point we have to stop henpecking POTUS and support him in these historic times against this ongoing Deep State coup that is aided and abetted by his own party. Or maybe as in your case continue to heckpeck and then cast a vote for Bloomberg. He’s certainly targeting folks who think like you.

People acting like Trump is a tyrant and two other Branches don't exist, give me a break.

Would you want to work for a boss that habitually pisses on his own staff on twitter? Leaders tend to receive the kind of loyalty that they show to subordinates. That means you handle disagreements privately and, when necessary, remove people decently.

A competent manager would not have allowed the Jeff Sessions situation to fester nearly as long as it did. Trump couldn't find a way to move Sessions out and replace him with an attorney general who wasn't recused and could do the job? Give me a break. No other president of my lifetime would have allowed this to continue.

Trump couldn't fire Sessions on twitter, and he didn't know how to move him out gracefully, without a pissing match that would have undercut him in the context of the Mueller investigation. That's on Trump, the drama queen.

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