5809

Holy hell

5810

Holy hell is an understatement, if that gets released.

5811

Here we go with the typical Trump stages of denial:

  1. It never happened
  2. There was a call with MBS but Kushner never said those things
  3. Maybe Kushner said some things, but he never gave the green light
  4. Kushner did say that MBS could arrest Khashoggi but didn’t know they’d kill him.
  5. It’s not illegal to have a phone call.
  6. WITCH HUNT.
5812

It’s gonna take more than a Twitter post and a speculative Spectator article for me to believe any of that. Twitter is full of conspiracy theories.

Wouldn’t put it past this administration, but extraordinary claims and all that.

5813

I agree. Let’s see a bit more about this.

5814

Yeah, not a lot of evidence there. I guess it’s a new low if it were confirmed, but honestly, not even sure it’s much lower than we already are.

5815

Is Cockburn anything close to a reliable source, or is he a Louise Mensch type?

5816

From what I’ve been reading, very much a gossip merchant. In fact, it sounds like there is no Cockburn - it’s an amalgamation of several real people who pass along gossip heard around the DC scene.

5817

In “great moments in completely wasted time” - the DOJ is threatening an unknown someone over NDAs that may or may not exist, may or may not apply to what’s in the book, and may or may not be enforceable to begin with:

5818

Trump wants so much to be a petty little dictator it’s sickening. People that still support him are people who want the country turned into a tyranny.

5819

Ignorance is Strength
Freedom is Slavery

5820

Government can’t bind employees with an NDA. If something isn’t classified, then an employee is free to discuss it in public. The most they can lose is their job.

5821

You sure they can’t or is it another has never been done before thing?

5822

Those NDAs are totally unenforceable.

5823

Yeah, government employees cannot be bound by NDAs.

There are certain types of disclosure limitations which can be applied to government workers. Aside from classification, there are other types of distribution limitations which government employees are bound to.

But they aren’t allowed to enter into separate NDA’s with anyone.

5824

Most of these cases involve people who signed NDAs with the Trump campaign (which are enforceable) and later entered government. So they have to sort out the point at which their speech can no longer be restricted.

5825

And wouldn’t this require a… court battle? So as long as someone asks them to sign an NDA or not work for this administration, they do that and then battle in court later to see how that shakes out. It seems like not a good system to have…

5826

It’s pretty clear that Trump’s flying monkeys in the DOJ are sending their sternly-worded letter to try to squeeze the name of the author out of the publisher.

Though it’s hard to see how they can possibly do that until the book is published. Right now it’s, “In this currently non-existent book by an unspecified person there might possibly be information that violates certain unspecified NDAs,” which is not exactly the basis for a legal case.

As a side note, if the DOJ were to prosecute someone over breaking Trump (as opposed to government) NDAs, it’s probably illegal. It would be spending government money for Donnie’s personal benefit.

5827

Just sending the letter to the publisher is probably illegal, again using Justice Department resources for Trump’s personal benefit.

I can’t believe the extent to which Barr has corrupted the department in the short time he’s been there. It must be an excruciating place to work for the career folks.

5828

Y’all want to see a crazy white lady?