8. Comey Senate Testimony (June 8, 2017), supra (questioning by Senator Tom Cotton (R., Ark.)); Becket Adams, “‘Not True’: James Comey denounces NYT report on Trump campaign collusion with Russia during testimony” (Washington Examiner, June 8, 2017); Scott Johnson, “Almost Entirely Wrong” (Powerline, June 8, 2017).
9. Dan McLaughlin, “Comey Wasn’t Investigating Trump—But Look Who Said He Was” (National Review, June 8, 2017) (Collecting headlines and public statements by members of Congress, e.g.: “It’s Official: The FBI Is Investigating Trump’s Links to Russia” (The Atlantic); “The President Is Under FBI Investigation. Is This Normal?” (Slate); “Donald Trump is under investigation for ties to Russia. What happens now?” (The Guardian); “Schumer: Delay Gorsuch while Trump Is Under FBI Investigation” (Huffington Post)).
10. Comey Senate Testimony (June 8, 2017), supra.
11. Chris Kahn, “Despite report findings, almost half of Americans think Trump colluded with Russia: Reuters/Ipsos poll” (Reuters, March 26, 2019).
12. Mueller Report, Vol. II, pp. 62-77 (citing Comey Senate Judiciary Committee Testimony, May 3, 2017).
13. Ibid.
14. Rod J. Rosenstein, Memorandum for the Attorney General, “Restoring Public Confidence in the FBI” (May 9, 2019).
15. President Donald J. Trump letter to FBI Director James Comey (May 9, 2017).
16. Andrew C. McCarthy, “Trump’s Berating of Comey for the Consumption of Our Enemies” (National Review, May 20, 2017).
17. Matthew Nussbaum, Josh Dawsey, and Tara Palmieri, “In interview, Trump contradicts Pence on Comey” (Politico, May 11, 2017).
18. Donald J. Trump Tweet, May 12, 2017.
19. Donald J. Trump Tweet, June 22, 2017 (“With all of the recently reported electronic surveillance, intercepts, unmasking and illegal leaking of information, I have no idea … whether there are ‘tapes’ or recordings of my conversations with James Comey, but I did not make, and do not have, any such recordings.”); Stephen Collinson, “Trump ends his self-made crisis where it started: Twitter” (CNN, June 23, 2017).
20. Andrew C. McCarthy, “The Special Counsel: The Swamp’s Watchdog for Trump” (American Greatness, June 14, 2017).
21. Comey Senate Testimony (June 8, 2017), supra.
22. See, e.g., Executive Order 13256, “Classified National Security Information” (Dec. 29, 2009); Andrew C. McCarthy, “Comey Confirms: In Clinton Emails Caper, the Fix Was In” (National Review, April 28, 2018); McCarthy, “Report: Comey Memos Are Government Documents … and Some Are Classified” (National Review, July 10, 2017).
23. FBI Director James Comey’s Testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee (May 3, 2019) (questioning by Senator Patrick Leahy (D., Ver.)).
24. Ibid. (questioning by Senator Mazie Hirono (D., Haw.).
25. Adam Goldman and Michael S. Schmidt, “Rod Rosenstein Suggested Secretly Recording Trump and Discussed 25th Amendment” (New York Times, Sept. 21, 2019).
26. Kelly Cohen and Diana Stancy Correll, “Rosenstein rejects report saying he talked about getting rid of Trump with 25th Amendment” (Washington Examiner, Sept. 21, 2018).
27. The president has claimed that one of these candidates was Robert Mueller, who is said to have interviewed for the job a day or so before Rosenstein named him special counsel. In the obstruction volume of his final report, Mueller appears to refute this claim. According to then-presidential adviser Steve Bannon, Mueller was invited to the White House to give the president advice about the FBI as an institution. By law, Mueller is not eligible to serve as FBI director, and Bannon said he did not come looking for the job. Mueller Report, Vol. II, pp. 80-84; Sonam Sheth, “One paragraph in the Mueller report refutes Trump’s claim that Mueller asked him to be FBI director” (Business Insider, May 30, 2019).
28. McCabe recorded Rosenstein’s suggestions in memoranda on which the Times reported. McCabe repeated the allegations in a later 60 Minutes interview. The FBI’s then-general counsel James Baker was consulted at the time and confirmed the incidents in congressional testimony. “Andrew McCabe: The Full 60 Minutes Interview” (CBS News, Feb. 17, 2018); Nicholas Fandos and Adam Goldman, “Former Top F.B.I. Lawyer Says Rosenstein Was Serious About Taping Trump” (New York Times, Oct. 10, 2018).
29. Michael S. Schmidt, “Comey Memo Says Trump Asked Him to End Flynn Investigation” (New York Times, May 16, 2017).
30. The Mueller investigation alleged eleven potential episodes of obstruction, though it did not determine if any of them was worthy of prosecution. I do not believe they are, but addressing them is beyond the scope of this discussion—a question for another day. For now, we are considering the two episodes that were under consideration at the time Rosenstein appointed Mueller: the firing of Comey, and weighing in on the investigation of Flynn. See, e.g., Bill Barr, Memorandum to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Assistant Attorney General Steve Engel, “Mueller’s ‘Obstruction’ Theory” (June 8, 2018); Andrew C. McCarthy, “It Would Still Be Foolish for Trump to Talk to Mueller” (National Review, April 7, 2018); David B. Rivkin and Lee A. Casey, “Can a President Obstruct Justice? Yes but not by doing any of the things we know Trump to have done.” (Wall Street Journal, Dec. 10, 2017); Anna Giaritelli, “Alan Dershowitz: You cannot charge a president with obstruction of justice for exercising his constitutional power” (Washington Examiner, Dec. 4, 2017).
31. Though adamantly opposed to the appointment of a special counsel, I too attested to Mueller’s credentials. Andrew C. McCarthy, “Robert Mueller: A Solid Choice for Trump–Russia Investigation ‘Special Counsel’” (National Review, May 18, 2017).
32. Mueller Report, Vol. II, pp. 78-80.
33. Byron York, “From former Trump lawyer, candid talk about Mueller, Manafort, Sessions, Rosenstein, collusion, tweets, privilege, and the press” (Washington Examiner, April 3, 2019) (linking to Byron York podcast interview with the president’s former personal lawyer, John Dowd). In September 2018, Jody Hunt became the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.
34. Sari Horwitz, Ashley Parker, and Ed O’Keefe, “Trump angrily calls Russia investigation a ‘witch hunt,’ and denies collusion charges” (Washington Post, May 18, 2017).
Index
The index that appeared in the print version of this title was intentionally removed from the eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.
ABC
Abdel Rahman, Omar (Blind Sheikh)
Abedin, Huma
Afghanistan
Agalarov, Aras
Agalarov, Emin
Akhmetov, Rinat
Akhmetshin, Rinat
Alfa Bank
al-Libi, Abu Yahya
al-Qaeda
al-Zawahiri, Ayman
Alinsky, Saul
Alperovitch, Dmitri
Anderson, Trisha
Andropov, Yuri
Ansar al-Shaharia
Assange, Julian
Associated Press, the
Ataturk, Kemal
Attkisson, Sheryl
Bachus, Spencer
Baker, James
Barbour, Haley
Barrack, Thomas
Barrasso, John
Barzun, Matthew
Bates, Judge John D.
Baumgartner, Edward
BBC
Benghazi
Bensinger, Ken
Bernstein, Carl
Biddle, Sam
Biden, Hunter
Biden, Joe
Black, Charles
BleachBit
Blumenthal, Sidney
Borger, Julian
Bortnikov, Alexander
Brennan, John
Brose, Christopher
Browder, Bill
Brown, Michael
Brzezinski, Zbigniew
Bulatov, Alexander
Buryakov, Evgeny
<
br /> Bush, George H. W.
Bush, George W.
BuzzFeed
Cambridge Intelligence Seminars
Cameron, David
Campbell, William Douglas
Cantor, Christian
Carlin, John
Carlson, Jeff
Carson, Ben
Carter, Ashton
Carter, Jimmy
Carville, James
CBS
Chabinsky, Steven
Chalupa, Alexandra
China
Choukri, Aziz
Christie, Chris
CIA
Citizens United
Clapper, James
Clarke, Jonathan
Cline, Ray
Clinton, Bill
Clinton, Hillary Rodham
Campaign
Emails
Clinton Foundation
Clovis, Sam
CNN
Cohen, Michael
Cole, James
Comey, James
Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)
Constitution, the; First Amendment; Second Amendment; Fourth Amendment; Twenty-Fifth Amendment
Corn, David
Council on Foreign Relations
Cox, Ed
Craig, Greg
Crimea
Crocus Group
Crossfire Hurricane
CrowdStrike
Cruz, Ted
Cullison, Alan
Daily Beast, The
Daily Caller, The
Davis, Rick
Dearlove, Sir Richard Billing
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC)
Democratic National Committee (DNC)
Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Deripaska, Oleg
Dermer, Ron
Deutsch, John
Dibble, Elizabeth
Divyekin, Igor
Dobinski, Karla
Dodson, John
Doherty, Glen
Dole, Bob
Downer, Alexander
D’Souza, Dinesh
Dvorkovich, Arkady
Electoral College
Elias, Marc
Ellar, Dr. George
Engelhardt, Judge Kurt D.
Epoch Times, The
Espionage Act
Estonia
Euromaidan protests
European Union (EU)
Evans, Stuart
Executive Order 12333
Face the Nation
Farkas, Evelyn
“Fast and Furious” (the ATF gunwalking scandal)
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (DIOG); Eurasian Organized Crime Unit
Federal Election Commission
Feinstein, Dianne
Felten, Eric
Filkins, Dexter
Financial Times
Firtash, Dmytro
FISA warrant
Flynn, Michael
Foer, Franklin
Ford, Gerald
Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA)
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA); Section 702
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC)
Fox News
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
Fritsch, Peter
Fusion GPS
Gaeta, Michael
Gang of Eight, the
Gates, Rick
Gazprom
Georgia
Gingrich, Newt
Giuliani, Rudy
Giustra, Frank
Goldstone, Rob
Gordon, Greg
Gorelick, Jamie
Gowdy, Trey
Graham, Lindsey
Grassley, Charles
Guantanamo Bay
Guardian, The
Guccifer .0
Hakluyt & Co.
Hall, Gus
Halper, Stefan; Silence of the Rational Center
Hamas
Hamburger, Tom
Hammer, Armand
Hannigan, Robert
Harding, Luke
Harriman, Averell
Hayes, Stephen F.
Hayward, Steven F.
Heat Street
Helderman, Rosalind
Hemingway, Mollie
Hezbollah
Hiatt, Fred
Hicks, Hope
Hoffman, Daniel
Holder, Eric
Holt, Lester
Hoover Institution (The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace)
Horbulin, Volodymyr
Horowitz, Michael
Hughes, Thomas Patrick Hughes, Dictionary of Islam
Hunt, Jody
Ignatius, David
Ilves, Toomas Hendrik
Innocence of Muslims
Intelligence Committees, House; Senate
Intercept, The
International Emergency Economic Powers Act
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Iran
IRS
Isikoff, Michael; and David Korn, Russian Roulette
ISIS
Israel
ITV
Jackson, Robert
Jacoby, Mary
Johnson, Jeh
Johnson, Larry
Johnson, Loch K.
Jordan, Jim
Joscelyn, Thomas
Judicial Watch
Judiciary Committees (House and Senate)
Katsyv, Denis
Katsyv, Pyotr
Kavaladze, Ike
Kavalec, Kathleen
Kazakhstan
Keith case
Kelly, John
Kennedy, John F.
Kennedy, Ted
Kerry, John
Khamenei, Ayatollah Ali
Kholodnitskiy, Nazar
Khomeini, Ayatollah Ruhollah
Kim Jong-un
KGB
Kilimnik, Konstantin
King, Peter
Kislyak, Sergey
Kissinger, Henry
Koskinen, John
Kramer, David
Kuchma, Leonid
Kulyk, Kostiantyn
Kushner, Jared
Lavrov, Sergey
Lee, Steven
Lerner, Lois
Leshchenko, Serhiy
Letten, Jim
Levinson, Robert
Lewandowski, Corey
Lewis, Bernard
Lichtblau, Eric
Limbaugh, Rush
Link Campus University
Little, Bob
Litvinenko, Alexander
Logan Act
Long, Wendy
Long War Journal
Lynch, Loretta
Lyovochkin, Serhiy
Magnitsky, Sergei
Magnitsky Act
Manafort, Paul
Manning, Bradley (a.k.a. Chelsea)
Martin, Trayvon
Mayer, Jane
McCabe, Andrew
McCain, John;
McCain Institute (The McCain Institute for International Leadership)
McCarthy, Andrew; Faithless Execution
McClatchy
McConnell, Mitch
McCord, Mary
McFaul, Michael
McGahn, Don
McKeon, Howard
Medvedev, Dmitry
Mensch, Louise
Mercury Public Affairs
Merkel, Angela
Merkel, David
Mifsud, Joseph
Mikerin, Vadim
Miller, Stephen
Millian, Sergei (a.k.a. Siarhei Kukuts)
Mogilevich, Semion
Monaghan, Gregory
Mook, Robby
Morell, Michael
Mosk, Matt
Mother Jones
MSNBC
Mueller, Robert
Muslim Brotherhood
Murphy, Christopher
Myers, Steven Lee
Nakoula, Nakoul Basseley
Napolitano, Andrew
<
br /> National Security Agency (NSA)
National Security Council
NATO
Navarro, Peter
Nazarbayev, Nursultan
NBC;
Meet the Press
Netanyahu, Benjamin
New Republic, The
New York Times, The
New Yorker, The
Newman, Charles
Nixon, Richard
NPR
Nuland, Victoria
Nunes, Devin
Obama, Barack, Introduction, Obama administration, Obstruction
Ohr, Bruce
Ohr, Nellie
Orbis Business Intelligence
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
Page, Carter
Page, Lisa
Palmieri, Jennifer
Papadopoulos, George
Party of Regions
Pastor, Thierry
PATRIOT Act
Patten, W. Samuel
Pence, Mike
Perkins Coie
Peskov, Dmitry
Petraeus, David
Pientka, Joe
Pinchuk, Victor
Podesta, John
Podesta, Tony
Podesta Group
Podobnyy, Victor
Politico
Polonskaya, Olga
Pompeo, Mike
Poroshenko, Petro
Power, Samantha
Prevezon Holdings
Priestap, Bill
Putin, Vladimir
Qaddafi, Muammar
Reagan, Ronald
Reid, Harry
Rhodes, Ben
Rhodes, David
Rice, Condoleeza
Rice, Susan
Richman, Dan
RICO
Robinson, Peter
Ball of Collusion Page 54
