The Illustrated Spygate Scandal - Part XXXVII
The first political coup in American history
See Part I to start at the beginning.
October 8-9, 2018: Rosenstein’s Plot Was Serious
John Solomon reported in The Hill that Andrew McCabe had been deadly serious about the 25th Amendment plot, and that multiple witnesses confirmed Rosenstein’s suggestions weren’t jokes or sarcastic comments.
Then James Baker, the former FBI General Counsel, testified to Congress that both McCabe and Lisa Page had told him Rosenstein was serious about recording Trump and using the tapes to convince Cabinet members to remove him.
Fox News reported Baker’s testimony: “Former FBI General Counsel James Baker’s testimony is at odds with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s denial” of the secret recording plot.
According to Baker, McCabe had told him about Rosenstein’s suggestions immediately after the meetings where they occurred. McCabe and Page had both expressed concern about what Rosenstein was proposing.
Baker’s testimony was critical because he had no apparent motive to lie. He wasn’t a Trump ally. He had been part of the team investigating Trump. But even he recognized that what Rosenstein was suggesting crossed a constitutional line.
The testimony created an impossible situation for Rosenstein.
Either he had actually discussed recording the President and invoking the 25th Amendment — which would be grounds for his immediate removal — or multiple senior FBI officials, including McCabe and Baker, were lying under oath.
Given that McCabe had already been fired for lying and referred for criminal prosecution, and given that McCabe had documented the conversations in contemporaneous memos, the evidence heavily favored the conclusion that Rosenstein had indeed discussed the plot.
Republicans called for Rosenstein’s resignation or firing.
Democrats claimed it was all a distraction from the Russia investigation.
But the truth was stark: the man overseeing the investigation of Trump for allegedly conspiring against the United States had himself conspired to secretly record and remove the President.
The irony was almost too much to process.
October 11-19, 2018: The Testimony Dance Continues
Throughout October, the testimonies that had been promised kept getting delayed, rescheduled, or limited in scope.
On October 19th, Nellie Ohr, the Fusion GPS contractor and wife of DOJ official Bruce Ohr, finally appeared before the House Judiciary Committee for her long-awaited testimony.
