ABC conducted an extremely interesting interview with former Trump Attorney John Dowd that the media outlet will likely keep far away from their mainstream broadcast and print reporting.
The interview is exceptionally interesting because Dowd outlines how incredibly false all prior reporting has been surrounding the Mueller investigation and the background of the contacts and discussions between Trump’s legal team, Robert Mueller and Rod Rosenstein.
Additionally, within the interview itself, when you stand back and absorb the details of what he discusses, you can clearly see why there came a point when the Trump legal team needed to shift strategies and accept that Mueller and Rosenstein had allowed the politics of the ‘investigation’ to shape their direction. It’s quite a remarkable conversation.
The entire transcript is HERE. I would strongly suggest listening to the podcast. I’m pulling some excerpts.
Dowd immediately says he doesn’t think the Mueller report will highlight anything regarding the President. The basis for this belief is what CTH has already outlined here regarding William Barr {Go Deep}.
“There’s nothin’ here.” The idea that you would take that information and make it public, you know, violates the whole concept of the grand jury. What’s the grand jury for? To protect the innocent.
Dowd is then asked about his opinion of Robert Mueller, and the approach to the investigation, who Dowd knows very well and has worked with in the past:
PHILLIPS: Do you respect what Mueller is doing? I know you know Mueller well.
DOWD: Well, I respected it in the beginning. And I started out. And I– it’s my s– my style is I always trust the other side, until I didn’t. In my opinion, on March 5th [2018], we were done. He had everything. He said he had everything. He told me that no one had lied. He told me they had every document we asked for. He told me that it was nothing more. He told me that the president was not a target. That is, he did not have any exposure, that he was a witness subject, which is perfectly normal for someone’s conduct you’re looking at, but they don’t have exposure.
What people don’t understand about the president, and I think the same would be w– with you, is y– you have too much information in your life. When you go back and talk about f– Flynn or Comey, those events, while magnified in the media, are nothin’, not compared to the threat of the Soviet Union, the threat of the– China, dealing with Japan, dealing with Korea. I mean, the amount of information that he intakes every day, gets prepared for, is staggering. And in my questioning him or talking to him, he questioned w– you know, first question, easy. Second question, easy. Third question, he wasn’t sure. And he doesn’t like being unsure. So he’ll guess. There’s your trap, right there. It’s not whether he lies or not. Everybody wants to get into this, you know– this integrity business. It’s not a matter of integrity. It’s overload.
Dowd clearly states that by March 5th, 2018 (ten months after Mueller started in May 2017) Robert Mueller had all the central facts about President Trump that surrounded the accusations and claims. And Mueller did not have anything to indicate President Trump had engaged in anything as claimed by the media; and told the Trump legal team exactly that.
VLASTO: But what do you think Mueller’s been doing’, then? That was March that you left, right, March of last year, 2018. What do you– why– what do you think has taken Mueller so long?
DOWD: I don’t know. All I can tell you is what I do know. And I know a lot. Because as people have found out, we communicate on this side of the fence. Matter of fact, we’ve got, probably, better intelligence than they do. You know– without questioning anybody’s good faith, ’cause there are some very good people over there– it– it’s been– it’s been a waste of time. And it’s been petty. And it’s been bureaucratic. And you don’t need to do that. When you’re dealing at this level, when you’re dealing at this level, you’re playing’ the World Series, okay? And you don’t– you don’t– you don’t get down with the petty stuff here.
In essence Dowd is saying that Mueller and Rosenstein decided the entire fiasco was so politically charged, so elevated by media and political drum-beating, they needed to shape the investigative paths based on political values and not simple reviews of lawfulness.
And with that inflection point; within the acceptance that this wasn’t going to be a legal matter based on evidence or lack thereof; the Trump legal approach needed to shift from legal concern/defense to political concern/defense. That’s why there were changes within the Trump legal team.
VLASTO: Well, you must know [William] Barr rather well, I assume–
DOWD: I– you know, I don’t know, I know of him. And I left– I had left the department, when he was attorney general. But he was a great attorney general. He did a terrific job. And I am so pleased that he’s gonna be back. ‘Cause he knows the place from top to bottom. And he’s very bright. And he’s gonna– he’s gonna call it right down the middle and do a good job.
PHILLIPS: That’s quite the opposite from what you’ve said about– the leadership of the Justice Department. I mean, you have just lambasted, (LAUGH) you know, everybody else previously. So you’re seeing a shift here.
DOWD: Well, look. I you know, I tried to deal with Rosenstein. Early on, we wrote a letter to Mueller, saying, “Look. Comey’s the accuser in this phony investigation. We think there are other issues in– regarding his conduct, as to the origin of this whole business.” Turns out, not only was I right, but Comey admitted there were no facts to investigate the president at all. There was no collusion. So—I, and then, so– Bob said he wasn’t looking’ at it. So I wrote to Rosenstein. He blew me off. That’s not leadership. That’s not accountability. This is a very serious– I mean, we were very serious. And we did it in writing. We did it politely. We did it confidentially. And he just blew us off. So I lost all respect for Rod Rosenstein. And Sessions, I don’t know what he was doing. I’m not sure Sessions knows what he was doing’.
Again Dowd outlining the problem created by Rosenstein and faced by Mueller; there is nothing to investigate because there is no Russian collusion/conspiracy to begin with. Rosenstein goes silent toward the original Trump legal team because essentially Rosenstein knows he did a big stupid by opening the investigation in the first place.
Mueller and Rosenstein are/were stuck in a political conundrum, under the auspices of an investigation that was fraudulently based from the outset. Extraction from their self-created situation is only possible by exploiting a political escape route.
DOWD: […] I know what the case is. There is no case. And my job is to sorta bring that home. And we did the very best we could to bring it home. I think it is coming’ home. And I think it’s coming’ home in the same shape. And you know, and then, you know, there are people in the press, who say, “Well, he must have s– surprise.” He didn’t have– I know exactly what he [Mueller] has. I know exactly what every witness said, what every document said. It’s– I know exactly what he asked. And I know what– I know what– you know, what the –what the conclusion or the result is. So–
PHILLIPS: What does he have? What’s the result? What’s the conclusion?
DOWD: Decline [to prosecute]. There’s no basis. There’s no exposure. It’s been a terrible waste of time.
What’s worse is let’s get on the other side of this, how it all happened. This is one of the greatest frauds this country’s ever seen. And I’m just shocked that Bob Mueller didn’t call it that way and say, “I’m being used.” I would’ve done that. If I were in his shoes in this thing, I’d have gone to the– I’d have gone to Sessions and Rosenstein and said, “Look. This is nonsense. We are being used by a cabal in the F.B.I. to get even.”
This is awful. I mean, the corruption — at the top of the F.B.I. is staggering. And that’s how this all happened. And by the way, look at what the F.B.I. witnesses have said. “I know w– I know about no collusion.” I mean, Comey knew nothing about collusion. So what are we doing then?
VLASTO: How do you think history will look at the Mueller investigation ten years from now, 20 years from now?
DOWD: Not well.
PHILLIPS: Robert Mueller. How will he go down in history?
DOWD: I don’t know. He’s gonna have to decide that.
PHILLIPS: Donald J. Trump.
DOWD: Full plate. A man with, a man with a– with a big heart who means well, but has, you know, had all kinds of challenges. But he– but he– you know, I’m in his corner. You know why I’m in his corner? ‘Cause he’s the boss. He governs this country.
FUBAR Summary: •Rosenstein buckled under political and media pressure to create the Mueller special counsel. •AFTER the FBI originating corruption began to surface (June/July 2017) Mueller saw the ruse and understood where the investigation would be forced to head… and asked Rosenstein for the “scope memo“, in part because the investigative trail was obviously going to circle back to the FBI origination…. and that had to be avoided (politically self damaging for both Rosenstein and former FBI Director Mueller’s institution). •Addtionally, the same corrupt people who created the 2016 spygate fiasco were also comrades of Mueller (FBI) and Rosenstein (DOJ). •As a direct outcome, the Mueller/Rosenstein self-preservation approach, which included the preservation of the institutions, then became the primary focus of the investigation…. which included the need for charges against someone, anyone, including Russians (they never anticipated showing up to defend themselves, ie concord) to cloud the political fiasco they were both caught up in…. which further spurred the self-fulfilling prophecy of Mueller -originally fraudulent- investigation becoming the necessary cover as described below:
♦(1) Create an investigation – Just by creating the investigation it is then used as a shield by any corrupt FBI/DOJ official who would find himself/herself under downstream congressional investigation. Former officials being deposed/questioned by IG Horowitz or Congress could then say they are unable to answer those questions due to the ongoing special counsel investigation. In this way Mueller provides cover for ideologically aligned deep state officials; and preserves institutional appearances.
♦(2) Use the investigation to keep any and all inquiry focused away from the corrupt DOJ and FBI activity that took place in 2015, 2016, 2017. Keep the media narrative looking somewhere, anywhere, other than directly at the epicenter of the issues. In this way, Mueller provides distraction and creates talking points against the Trump administration that benefit his self-preserving intent.
♦(3) Use the investigation to suck-up, absorb, any damaging investigative material that might surface as a result of tangentially related inquiry. Example: control the exposure of evidence against classified leak participants like SSCI Director of Security, James Wolfe; and/or block IG Horowitz from seeing material related to the FISA abuse scandal and “spygate”. In this way Mueller provides cover for the institutions, the administrative state, and the accepted standard system within DC.
It wasn’t by original intent, but rather a specific outcome of bureaucratic bullshit, that Mueller and Rosenstein ended up creating a bubble that made those objectives of the Mueller investigation become the primary consideration. And in all of these insufferable and convoluted objectives the Mueller special counsel has been stunningly effective.
That insufferable pile of crap covered in media noise is exactly why Rosenstein will exit the DOJ side-by-side with Robert Mueller.
FUBAR !!
Again, I strongly urge people to listen to the interview. It starts around 08:00 of the podcast below:
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[…] … This is one of the greatest frauds this country’s ever seen. And I’m just shocked that Bob Mueller didn’t call it that way and say, “I’m being used.” I would’ve done that. If I were in his shoes in this thing, I’d have gone to the– I’d have gone to Sessions and Rosenstein and said, “Look. This is nonsense. We are being used by a cabal in the F.B.I. to get even.”….
But he couldn’t.
You know why?
Because Mueller views the FBI as an institution that is part of his personal legacy.
And the corrupt FBI cabal headed by Comey, McCabe and Baker, knew that.
That’s ultimately also Mueller’s “higher loyalty”.
Centinel2012 