The BuzzFeed Scoop Is Seismic, But There's Reason to Be Skeptical
Are you surprised that there now is a report alleging that President Donald Trump told his fixer-lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about Trump’s efforts to build a “Trump Tower” in Moscow? If so, why? Based on what you know of this president, and Cohen, and the rest of the president’s men, what about this story shocks you? BuzzFeed News’ Thursday night scoop is a bombshell, sure, but it's also the opening note of the next phase of the steady unwinding of the Trump presidency.
The news is significant in that it comes, at last, during a time when federal lawmakers can exercise meaningful oversight over Mueller’s work and Trump’s response to it. There isn’t much legal analysis necessary here. We are moving closer, instead, to whatever political conclusion will occur. If Trump actually did what the BuzzFeed story alleges, he has committed a federal crime and an impeachable offense and the only pertinent question going forward is whether there is the political will in Congress and in the Justice Department to say so.
But I’d like to offer a note of caution here. It’s worth waiting a bit to see how this story plays out before we label this the beginning of the end, or even something materially different from what we already knew. The sourcing of the BuzzFeed News story is “two law enforcement officials,” and I’m not sure how to absorb that. I would be shocked if the sources come from Mueller’s office, because the special counsel’s shop has a well-earned reputation for being leak-proof. Why would Team Mueller leak now, and over this?
Does the story mean instead that BuzzFeed’s sources are in the Justice Department or in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York? Perhaps. But that raises the questions, as all leaks do, of motivation. Who gains and who loses by this leak at this time? This is an especially relevant question since, as journalist Marcy Wheeler has pointed out, the story seems at odds with what special counsel Mueller has said in court filings. Let’s not forget that we already know that the president is technically an un-indicted co-conspirator, at least according to federal prosecutors in New York, at least according to what Cohen says.
It’s also important to remember, as Wheeler also says, that this isn’t the first time someone has alleged or reported that the president suborned perjury. There is evidence, for example, that Trump also encouraged (or ordered) his erstwhile National Security Advisor Michael Flynn to lie. That’s why William Barr, the attorney-general nominee, was asked about perjury and obstruction during his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing this week. (Not for nothing, but Barr’s response to the question-he said, in essence, “of course it’s a crime to direct another to lie under oath”-tells you how straightforward the question is as a matter of law.)
A few things are clear today. The news makes Cohen’s upcoming appearance on Capitol Hill in February either less likely to occur (because of his continuing obligations to the special counsel) or wildly more explosive if it still occurs (because he’ll be asked to confirm or deny the perjury allegations under oath). The news also makes it easier for analysts to explain and compare what’s happening now with what happened during Watergate because now the allegations of presidential misconduct by Trump more closely match those of Nixon. And that means it will be more difficult for Trump’s congressional apologists to defend him.
So get ready for what figures to be a raucous long weekend. Get ready for scoundrel Rudy Giuliani to saturate your television over the next few days and babble his way through another existential crisis for his client. Get ready for more non-denial denials from the White House, and for stony silence from Mueller’s investigators. Get ready for more batshit crazy tweets from Trump. Get ready for more pressure on attorney-general nominee Barr to explain his “Mueller” memo. Get ready for a wave of new stories about the legal jeopardy in which Donald Trump, Jr. finds himself.
But none of this changes the essence of what’s happening here. The BuzzFeed News story, whether it ends up being wholly accurate or not, serves as a warning that the principals here are nearing the point at which they’ll no longer be able to control the timing of the narrative as it unfolds. That after nearly two years of parallel tracks, we are edging closer to the moment where what Mueller (and Trump) know privately intersects, at least in larger part, with what is publicly known about the crimes and the cover-up. That surely is bad news for the president, who finds himself this holiday weekend trapped literally in the White House during a government shutdown, and trapped figuratively in a web of lies slowly being unwound.
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