The Creeping (And Creepy) Coup

For John, BLUF:  This kind of childish behavior will stick around for a long time.  I hope we don't go the way of Latin America.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Slow Motion Coup d'Etat Picks Up Steam

Posted by William A. Jacobson, at his blog, Le•gal In•sur•rec•tion, Thursday, 3 August 2017.

Here is the sub-headline:

Leak of full transcripts of presidential conversations with foreign leaders a milestone in effort to paralyze the Trump administration.

Here is the lede plus:

Since the election there has been an unprecedented attempt to unwind the election result. Events have accelerated on several fronts lately with attempts from outside and within to paralyze the Trump administration.

What started as a collective media freakout on Election Night 2016 quickly progressed to an unprecedented attempt to intimidate Electors into changing their votes. Some Democrats announced, even before Trump took office, plans to impeach him, and Democrat politicians fed media-driven Russia collusion conspiracy theories for which they knew there was no evidence.

Chuck Schumer, for example, used the alleged fact of Donald Trump being under FBI investigation as an argument against confirming Neal Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, even though Schumer (but not the public) knew from intelligence briefings that Trump was not personally under investigation.

All the while, the permanent bureaucracy, particularly in the intelligence community, started an unending and almost daily series of leaks meant to paralyze the administration.

Here is the new steps taken Thursday:

The effort to paralyze the administration was advanced significantly today with the release by The Washington Post of leaked full transcripts of Trump’s conversations with the leaders of Mexico and Australia soon after he took office. There had been leaks about those conversations previously, but never the full transcripts.

The leak is being celebrated and the transcripts quoted (often out of context) for the purpose of scoring political points against Trump. But more than that, this represents yet another dangerous example of how leaks have been weaponized to try to paralyze the Trump administration.

The Professor then goes on to cite The Atlantic's David From, who I blogged about here.

And former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates gets discussed.  In supporting the Deep State she has displayed neither morals nor ethics.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff