Trump Hires Conspiracy-Theory Lawyer
Joseph E. diGenova has touted the theory that rogue FBI elements have tried to frame Trump in the Russia probe.
Via the NYT: Trump Hires Lawyer Who Has Pushed Theory That Justice Dept. Framed the President.
President Trump hired the longtime Washington lawyer Joseph E. diGenova on Monday, adding an aggressive voice to his legal team who has pushed the theory on television that the F.B.I. and Justice Department framed Mr. Trump.
Mr. diGenova, a former United States attorney, is not expected to take a lead role. But he will serve as an outspoken player for the president as Mr. Trump has increased his attacks on the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. Mr. Trump broke over the weekend from the longstanding advice of some of his lawyers that he refrain from directly criticizing Mr. Mueller, a sign of his growing unease with the investigation.
“Former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia Joe DiGenova will be joining our legal team later this week,” said Jay Sekulow, one of the president’s personal lawyers. “I have worked with Joe for many years and have full confidence that he will be a great asset in our representation of the President.”
Mr. diGenova has endorsed the notion that a secretive group of F.B.I. agents concocted the Russia investigation as a way to keep Mr. Trump from becoming president. “There was a brazen plot to illegally exonerate Hillary Clinton and, if she didn’t win the election, to then frame Donald Trump with a falsely created crime,” he said on Fox News in January. He added, “Make no mistake about it: A group of F.B.I. and D.O.J. people were trying to frame Donald Trump of a falsely created crime.”
While I believe that Mr. Trump has every right to a rigorous defense, hiring someone with these types of views is further proof that Trump does not take his office seriously and does not care about American democracy. All promoting conspiracy theories will do is further undermine trust in basic law enforcement.
Further, I would note, that someone who had the appearance of innocence would not want to promote the notion that they were framed. The only utility of claiming “I was framed” is if one knows they look guilty.
And yes: I understand that if someone was framed that they would be entitled to defend themselves on that basis. However, at this point promoting such a theory looks desperate (and guilty). As the story notes
Little evidence has emerged to support that theory.
And that strikes me as an overly generous evaluation of the evidence.
This hire also fits the pattern that suggest Trump’s understanding of the world is shaped by cable TV.
Of course Trump hired diGenova. DiGenova will tell Trump exactly what Trump wants to hear. And, more importantly, he’ll go on all “the shows” that will have him as a guest and babble endlessly about this conspiracy, which will send Trump into ecstasies.
@CSK:..which will send Trump into ecstasies.
That’s not an image I care to ponder.
It’s a little awkward to bring this up because this appears to have declared a taboo subject around here, but do you realize there’s probably more evidence for an FBI/DOJ conspiracy against Trump than there is for Trump colluding with Russia? That’s because very little is a lot more than none. I’m pretty sure diGenova at least could spin a conspiracy theory that included specific people doing specific things in a specific timeline, which is more than anyone can do with “Collusion!” even after over a year of trying.
Mike
@MBunge: Please remove your tinfoil hat.
@MBunge:
First – Muellers charge to investigate is not just co-called collusion.
Second – Mueller has already produced something like 5 guilty pleas and 14 or 15 indictments. And he hasn’t even really gotten to the inner circle yet.
I know you are a sad little Donny Dennison sycophant, but that’s not nothing.
@MBunge:
How about this. You lay out all of the evidence you can think of that shows there is an FBI/DOJ conspiracy. We will then lay out all the evidence we have for Trump colluding with Russia. Let’s just see who has more evidence.
I know, I know–that would mean you would have to back up one of your claims, instead of scurrying away as soon as you are challenged, as is your modus operandi. But this is a serious offer. Put up or shut up. Show us yours, and we’ll show you ours.
Moderator…why did my comment disappear?
Now it’s back…this is just weird…
@MBunge:
You can’t have it both ways. If trump is the victim of a vast conspiracy by the FBI and DOJ, then you’re also admitting that he at least looks guilty to you. If he at least looks guilty, then there can’t be “more evidence for an FBI/DOJ conspiracy against Trump”, at least not at this point.
If you don’t think he’s guilty, then there’s no need to argue that he was framed because you can’t be framed of NOT committing a crime.
Yep. The innocent can be framed of course but they will loudly keep protesting their innocence overall since it is in fact the truth. “I’m innocent!” only works if people will believe it; once the switch to “framed” happens, you can see the implicit admittance that maybe they aren’t squeaky clean. Furthermore, one must be likely to have committed said crime for a frame-up to work – you can easily frame a mob boss for murder but it’s lot harder to buy it about the local nun. diGenova’s admitting Trump’s the kind of guy who would do this or nobody’d ever believe the frame.
That Trump and Co are trying to make the FBI the bad guys is them tapping into the deep well of anti-Fed paranoia that runs in alt-right circles. Them black helicopters are coming to get ya, the G-Men are always out to screw the little guy, etc. People like Bunge eat it up because they’re pre-disposed to distrust the FBI as an agent of evil in their worldview rather then a force for good. It’s really easy for them to accept poor widdle Donald being attacked by those faceless Deep State feebs because “he’s like them!!!!” then to recognize he’s playing off their bias.
@Neil Hudelson:
It isn’t just Trumps, lots of GOP players are taking Russian money …
.. .
.. https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2017/12/15/putins-proxies-helped-funnel-millions-gop-campaigns ..
.
Joe DiGenova will play extremely well among alt.fact FoxNews Trump base voters (99.9%). Those folks are already all-in on the Deep State bullsh**
DiGenova’s presence ensures that Trump support will be there even if investigations produce video-audio footage of Trump accepting bribes from Russian officials, and having sex with Julian Assange. Base support will assert that this is a Deep State sting operation.
@OzarkHillbilly: I don’t know – is it tinfoil hat territory when you have lots of company?
Referenced in the Washington Post, a Monmouth poll
“The Monmouth University Poll also finds a large bipartisan majority who feel that national policy is being manipulated or directed by a “Deep State” of unelected government officials.”
This dovetails with the thing Trump does best – stoking fear. And since the GOP just follows him, where will we end up? Destroying ourselves through fear of ourselves?
@restlessness:
I saw this. This, I think, is one of the biggest dangers of Fox News and their progeny – President Dennison. The entire Republican party seems to have rejected facts and evidence and science for paranoid emotion. (you cannot reason with people whose opinions are based solely on emotion, eg Bunge) The Russian/Cambridge Analytic propaganda efforts were directed square at peoples emotions.
How in the world do we survive, as a people or a Republic, if we cannot accept simple facts whenever they go against our tribe? We live in dangerous times…and President Dennison is making it far worse, not better.
@restlessness :
To be fair, the GOP’s business model is stoking fear so they are just following someone they’re perceive to be a master of the craft. The alt-right’s believed in a “Deep State” for a very, very long time – this is just new terminology for the same black helicopter, gun-grabbing, Jade Helm pushing One World Order crap with a Trump-specific focus. They’ve always believed the federal government was the devil since that’s how Saint Ronnie was able to con them with his famous BS about “the Nine Most Terrifying Words”.
All Trump’s really done is step the audacity to 11 and make it all about him. So par for the course, really.
@MBunge: Hahahahahahaha…you’ve descended fully into unintentional self-parody.
@KM: Yes, it’s been going on for decades – and Alex Jones et al make a living off of it – but what gave me pause was the commentary in the Washington Post article
“The numbers are significantly higher than there were a year ago in a Washington Post-ABC News poll. Back then, 48 percent believed there was a “deep state,” while 35 percent dismissed it as a conspiracy theory.”
(link, but I subscribe so it might be behind a paywall)
Two different polls, so somewhat apple and oranges, but the implication is that Trump has normalize conspiracy thinking. As @Daryl’s other brother Darryl: asks, how do we, as a nation, dial this back?
@restlessness:
You don’t dial it back, at least not as long as there’s an Internet infested with paranoid conspiracy websites.
The Trumpkins are thrilled with diGenova. They are, however, extremely unhappy at reports that Trump may also hire Theodore Olson.
Here’s a shocker…Bunge hasn’t responded to the 5 comments responding to his ridiculous claim. Seems he has all the spine of a Paul Ryan, or a Donny Dennison.
@CSK: Do you think Olson would accept Trump as a client? It seems like a lot of work and heartburn for a paycheck.
@CSK:
wait…is Ted Olsen working on the Russian collusion defense, or the Stormy Daniels case?
@CSK: @Mike in Arlington: Gibson Dunn partner Ted Boutrous tweeted:
https://twitter.com/BoutrousTed/status/976142612183662592
@Mikey: I don’t agree with Ted Olsen much, but I have to say this is probably the right decision. I mean, if his current counsel are disclosing materials to try to avoid having Trump testify about it b/c they’re too afraid of him perjuring himself, then that just sounds like a nightmare of a client. It’s not like he needs the cash.
@Mike in Arlington: @Daryl’s other brother Darryl:
Wise move to decline.
@Mikey:
@CSK:
Trump:
Well…except one of the GOP’s legal superstars.
McCain on President Dennison congratulating Putin for stuffing the ballot box…
@Daryl’s other brother Darryl:
You guys are acting like he’s the evil super computer robot from a 1960’s Star Trek knockoff, and all you have to do is present him with his obvious contradictions and then his head starts spinning and smoke comes out of his dome until finally his breaking voice gradually fades away, “That does not compute! That does … not … compute… That … does … not……”. Alas, it’s not so easy.
@MarkedMan:
That’s exactly what happens…then his OS reboots overnight and the idiocy begins anew.
FWIW, Preet Bahara recently commented that he has talked to well known Republican colleagues who have been approached to join Trump’s team, and they have all turned him down, exactly for the reasons outlined above – he doesn’t follow attorney advice, he makes frequent incriminating statements, etc.
So, when will we start hearing from DiGenova, “if the collusion don’t fit, you must acquit”….
Trump is going the OJ/Cochran route of putting on trial the LAP…er FBI as a bunch of corrupt framers (Mueller/Lange, Vanatter, Fung) out to get him since they all love (Nicole/Hillary) and are going to destroy him (LAPD/FBI) by engaging in a conspiracy to pin the crime on innocent Donny Dipsh!t
Donald IS OJ, a narcissistic psychotic lunatic.
@MarkedMan:
If this continues, Trump will end up being represented by a crack team of first year students from a twelfth-tier law school.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/cambridge-analytica-bosses-we-secretly-made-ads-for-trump-and-well-never-be-caught?ref=home
From the Like Father, Like Son Department:
Apparently Donnie Junior had an affair in 2011-2012 with someone called Aubrey O’Day, a singer and contestant on Dad’s reality show. According to the San Jose Mercury-News, Junior was “captivated by her intellect.”
That happened to me a number of times before I got married!
@Daryl’s other brother Darryl:
Yeah…about that…