This isn't Don McGahn's first trip to the Russian Rodeo

[kpete]

by digby



Emptywheel is very likely to be right about White House counsel Don McGahn being questioned about the conspiracy investigation not just obstruction of justice. He was the Trump campaign's general counsel fergawdsakes and the GOP's top campaign finance lawyer for years.

I agree with Wheeler that this is a big fat CYA operation using the NY Times to reassure Trump, not upset him, and it's likely to do with the fact that many of the laws Trump and his henchmen are suspected of breaking have to do with foreign money in his campaign, transition and elsewhere.

more from emptywheel:
https://www.emptywheel.net/2018/08/18/why-would-don-mcgahn-and-his-lawyer-cooperate-in-a-piece-claiming-he-cooperated-with-mueller-on-obstruction/


I wonder if people remember that Don McGahn made his bones defending Tom DeLay in a major Russian money scandal in the late 90s? He did:
https://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/11/13176/don-mcgahn-trump-transition-lawyer-has-long-courted-controversy

One of the scandals surrounding DeLay involved a 1997 trip he made to Moscow, where he was joined by Abramoff, paid for by conservative nonprofit, the National Center for Public Policy Research. The group also financed two trips to Moscow by DeLay's chief of staff, Edwin Buckham, who went on to become a corporate lobbyist.

The trips were organized by prominent Russian businessmen who, joined by the Russian government, were mounting a major lobbying effort for increased foreign aid. In 1998, "DeLay voted for a bill that included the replenishment of billions of dollars in IMF funds used to bail out the Russian economy."

According to associates of Buckham, Russian oil and gas executives subsequently gave $1 million to the U.S. Family Network, a conservative advocacy group founded by Buckham in 1996. The Network was part of DeLay's "political money carousel," and later received $500,000 from the National Republican Campaign Committee, where McGahn was also in-house counsel. The group was named in a RICO lawsuit against DeLay filed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 1998.

McGahn defended the huge contribution and denied that it had any ties to Russia when Public Campaign ran political ads in 2006 attacking DeLay for the scandal.

This scandal was obscured at the time by the much more important investigation into Bill Clinton's pants.


MORE:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28319-2005Apr5.html
https://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2018/08/this-isnt-don-mcgahns-first-trip-to.html

[Claritie Pixie]

1. Only the very best people!

Delicious article, thanks for posting.

[rusty fender]

2. But maybe this time

McGahn’s lawyering works for us

[empedocles]

3. Oooooo!

If the Dems could just keep relatively quiet, and let rw scandals dominate the news - that would be great.

traitortrump had a good point about Brennan. 'Many people have no idea who Brennan is.' We need to keep that in mind about many voters; they are not well informed.

No matter how poorly informed many voters are though, its very likely that have heard the relentless 'witchunt', 'no collusion', 'no obstruction'. Those mantras are very tired and old.

They can be overwhelmed by all the other, endless rw scandals. Low information voters may not remember much in the way of particular scandals, but they get the drumbeat message, - lot of smoke, must be fire. Something wrong with trump.

[davsand]

4. Everybody is entitled to representation.

That's a fundamental of our legal system. I can't criticize that he represented somebody that I dislike (and lord knows Delay is in that category.)

Having said that, it does seem to further support a long term pattern of increasing Russian influence in Congressional GOP campaign finance. I (and many other people!) said from the beginning that impeachment was unlikely unless there was an uncovering of the heavy flow of Russian money into campaign coffers of GOP opinion leaders. Ryan talked about it in that openly secret meeting where he said "We're all family here," and it expands from there to GOP trips to Russia over the 4th of July, and Rand Paul trying to get sanctions lifted to allow Russians to come visit.

The GOP is as corrupted by Russia as it could possibly be, and I don't think it's a secret at all. I actually wondered if McGahn was talking to Mueller, in part, to help establish a case on certain lawmakers for being Russian tools. e might have a lt of background to offer on that in addition to what he knows about the orange anus.


Laura

[Achilleaze]

6. republicans demonstrate that they have only one core value

[uponit7771]

5. Hmmmm, going back to the 90's. Seems like that's what Russia has on the KGOP and a good way

... to black male them.

I'm praying the DNC's hands are clean, the Chuck Todd's will be doing their bothsideism's if these suspicions are found out to be true.