Time to lawyer up by @BloggersRUs

Time to lawyer up

by Tom Sullivan

Photo by Jane Scanlan via Flickr/CC BY-NC 2.0

The presidential balloon is leaking hot air and losing altitude. If Axios' reporting holds up, Energy Secretary Rick Perry is the first to get pitched over the side to keep it aloft as the impeachment inquiry accelerates.

In a conference call Friday with House Republicans, Donald Trump claimed he did not want to make the now-infamous "perfect" call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He only did so at the urging of Perry, three sources on the call told Axios. Trump said (approximately): "Not a lot of people know this but, I didn't even want to make the call. The only reason I made the call was because Rick asked me to. Something about an LNG [liquified natural gas] plant," one source told Axios. The other two sources supported the first's recollection.

Trump added, "More of this will be coming out in the next few days," meaning about Perry who reportedly has plans to resign by the end of November.

Perry told the Christian Broadcasting Network on Friday his dealings with Ukraine had only to do with cleaning up corruption.

"I’ve talked to Kurt Volker, Gordan Sondland, the EU ambassador, every name that you've seen out in the media, and not once, not once as God is my witness, not once was a Biden name — not the former vice president, not his son — ever mentioned," Perry said.

Trump blaming Perry for the Ukraine call signals other members of this administration it might be time to lawyer up. Trump has one loyalty and it is not to them. Nor to his oath of office. Others will go over the side as their usefulness to the acting president fades.

Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross could find themselves in free fall. Should Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao go, the end will be near. (Chao is the wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.) Attorney General William Barr will go down with the acting president.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is especially vulnerable given his enthusiastic participation in chasing conspiracy theories around the globe at his master's request. On Saturday in Athens, Greece, Pompeo called the Democrats' impeachment inquiry a “silly gotcha game.”

But Pompeo "got" himself already, writes Frank Bruni of Pompeo's moral transformation. First in his class at West Point and an evangelical, Pompeo saw a chance at real power and, like others in Trump's orbit, cast principles over the side — principles and his own warnings about “an authoritarian president who ignored our Constitution.” As Kansas congressman, Pompeo said of Trump at a 2016 rally for Marco Rubio, “It’s time to turn down the lights on the circus.” Instead, Bruni chides, Pompeo "put on a clown suit, put away his ethics and finagled a big role under the Big Top."

Pompeo will want to lawyer up too. Once his usefulness runs out, Trump suddenly will recall what Pompeo said about him in 2016.

Politico's conversations with seven current and former members of the National Security Council reveal the impeachment drama has them worrying about their careers and asking whether they might need to retain lawyers.

John Gans (“White House Warriors”) tells Politico things could get dark quickly:

Depending on how far Democrats want to take their inquiry, it could drag in other pieces of the NSC, not to mention the State Department and other agencies making national security policy. Based on what happened under Iran-Contra, Gans recommended that NSC staffers who have any ties to the Ukraine controversy, at least, get lawyers.

“On Iran-Contra it became every man for themselves,” Gans said, predicting that under Trump: “It will be very dark. And I think anarchic. Your career prospects might be dimmed. This was supposed to be the highlight of your career and now it’s going to be a lowlight.”