Donald Trump protests too much and gives something away about Trump-Russia probe
For all his erratic behavior, Donald Trump is entirely too predictable in certain ways. For instance, if major bad news for him is about to surface, he’ll consistently try to create a distraction just beforehand, by tweeting something outlandish or starting a feud with a public figure. And when Trump’s own team does something that it’s trying to pin on others, he protests way too much, giving away the game. The latter has just happened again.
Last night someone leaked Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s interview questions for Donald Trump to the New York Times. Based on the manner in which the sourcing was being characterized by the Times, it wasn’t too difficult to figure out that it was probably leaked by Rudy Giuliani. Then this morning Trump exploded about the whole thing, in a manner which was cartoonish even by his standards: “So disgraceful that the questions concerning the Russian Witch Hunt were “leaked” to the media. No questions on Collusion. Oh, I see…you have a made up, phony crime, Collusion, that never existed, and an investigation begun with illegally leaked classified information. Nice!”
In other words, Trump’s own team leaked these questions, and now they’re trying to pin it on the other side. Now Robert Mueller’s former assistant is pointing out that the grammar and phrasing of the questions make clear that they’re not in the original format or wording that came from Mueller’s team. In other words, Mueller’s team spoke these questions aloud during their meeting with Trump’s team, and someone on Trump’s team took notes and reconstructed the questions in their own words, and then leaked them.
When Donald Trump protested too much this morning, it was a sign that something didn’t add up, which put increased scrutiny on where the questions really came from, and it is probably at least part of the reason we now definitively know that the questions were leaked by Trump’s team. We suspect Rudy Giuliani is doing this because he’s trying to take Trump down before the Trump-Russia investigation can land on Rudy’s head.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report