![]() John McCain passed it to then-FBI Director James Comey in December, and it was finally published by BuzzFeed in January before the inauguration. Shared with the government and top journalists, the dossier was first teased into public view by Mother Jones’ David Corn in late October after multiple outlets, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, Yahoo News and the New Yorker, viewed it but did not go with it because they could not confirm all of its claims. The dossier, reportedly commissioned in September 2015 by a Republican and then bought like a used car by a Democrat in the summer of 2016 after Trump destroyed the other Republican contestants for president, lies at the origin of what we call the no-name scandal. According to Simpson’s attorney, he did not divulge the identities of the dossier funders, which remains one of the many mysteries of the saga. The man who assigned it, Glenn Simpson of the oppo-research and corporate intelligence outfit Fusion GPS, got the once-over in a marathon closed-door session with the investigators from the Senate Judiciary Committee. Unfortunately, the only check on abuse of the presidential power to pardon is impeachment.īut in the absence of new light shows by the investigative reporters at the Washington Post and the New York Times, speculation about the infamous Trump dossier shone the brightest this week. Sit tight, the pardon said to the subjects of the Mueller probe, and I’ll pardon you, too. If Mueller’s plan was to collect damning information on associates like Manafort and get them to flip and become witnesses against Trump, he got some rude news on Friday when the president pardoned Joe Arpaio. The Hillary Clinton emails pushed their way back into the news as the Wall Street Journal reported that Mueller investigators “have been conducting interviews and collecting information” to determine how deeply enmeshed former national security adviser Michael Flynn became in a scheme during the campaign to obtain the Clinton emails from Russian hackers. It is, NBC News declared, a “further indication” that Manafort “could be in serious legal jeopardy.” Meanwhile, McClatchy reported that Mueller’s people are exploring whether Manafort evaded taxes or assisted money-laundering schemes. Manafort and associates did not register as foreign agents while lobbying, a potential violation of the law. ![]() We learned this week, for example, that special counsel Robert Mueller has subpoenaed the PR executives who worked for Manafort on a Ukraine initiative in 20 when pro-Russian politicians ran Ukraine. Our bottom-of-the-bag prize may turn out to be crimes committed by former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort-crimes unrelated to Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Watergate revealed not just one criminal break-in but an ongoing criminal enterprise of black-bag jobs and payoffs. Shafer’s Iron Law of Scandals holds that every big-bore investigation contains at least a few surprise prizes at the bottom of the bag. Like the scandals before it, the no-name scandal isn’t about just one thing or one person-it’s about a multitude of things, a punk symphony of press investigations, congressional subpoenas, closed-door testimony, tax audits, criminal investigations, intelligence findings, charges of collusion and suspected kompromat all trussed to Russia or Donald Trump. Especially in the early stages, scandals encompass too much to take in at a single sitting. upheaval-from Watergate to Iran-Contra to BCCI to Whitewater to the Clinton sex scandal to the Valerie Plame breach-has flummoxed the public. Has the scandal-with-no-name left you feeling a little scrambled? Like you’re marinating in the pungent sauces of conspiracy? When you rise each morning, does the world appear as if viewed through a wilderness of mirrors? Don’t worry, these are standard symptoms of Washington Scandal Syndrome. Jack Shafer is Politico ’s senior media writer.
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