Did the White House Hide a Bombshell Memo From Mueller? By DAHLIA LITHWICK

[swag]

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/09/white-house-hide-memo-trump-meeting-russia-sergei-lavrov-robert-mueller.html

. . .That’s it. The May 10 meeting is supported by an email. Now the question becomes, if there was a memorandum of that meeting, how is it possible that it was not produced to Mueller? It’s awfully hard to believe that Mueller didn’t ask for any readout or memorandum from that meeting; a meeting at which the president explained that he fired Comey in part because he was being pressured by the Russia investigation. That admission to his Russian visitors is part of one of the obstructive acts Mueller found.

So, assuming the Post is correct that a memorandum of that meeting exists, what happened to it? Assuming Mueller is capable of drafting a document request, why was that memorandum not produced? Was it logged and redacted? Was it deemed classified under the newly discovered separate server used only for hiding catastrophic missteps or worse? Or was it produced to Mueller, and its contents did not make it into the report because for unknown reason Mueller chose not to include it?

The notion that Mueller missed this altogether borders on the incredible. We know that Mueller sought to question Trump on “Alleged Obstruction of Justice” and that one of the items he expressly wanted to ask about was “13. Information regarding communications with Ambassador Kislyak, Minister Lavrov, and Lester Holt.” (Trump’s lawyers declined the interview altogether). So, given that Mueller wanted to ask Trump about the May 10 meeting in an interview, it’s unlikely he forgot to ask that any documents around the meeting be produced. Either that May 10 email was the memorandum and Mueller just ignored Trump’s comments on welcoming foreign election tampering, or he never saw the memo.

There’s another possibility. Tobias Barrington Wolff, who teaches the American civil justice system and constitutional law at University of Pennsylvania Law School, tells me in an email that the May 10 memorandum may be different. Because in that meeting, he notes, Trump disclosed a key confidential Israeli asset, “there maybe was actually some national security classification issue there. So the story from 2017 is vital, but also more complex. Precisely because he disclosed classified information, the treatment of that particular transcript may be ambiguous.” But, he adds, even if the May 10 memorandum was properly classified, “This emphasizes the point that Mueller’s conclusions were based on imperfect information precisely because of White House and Trump misconduct.”

Did someone in the White House simply decline to turn over the May 10 memorandum as described to the Washington Post, in which case someone obstructed justice? Or did someone send the May 10 memorandum to the same place the reports of the Trump-Zelensky phone call of July 2019 went? Locked down on a separate electronics system that Mueller didn’t know about? That would mean, at the very least, that someone was obstructing Mueller’s obstruction investigation, and we should know who that was.

[malaise]

1. I've been asking that since this broke

Great post

Get thee to the greatest page

[triron]

2. Good questions?

Something is fishy.

[asiliveandbreathe]

3. Good questions..I searched for "time line trump russia"

Wikipedia has a chronological summary for each year 2017, 2018, 2019...so much info...

this from May 10-2017..

May 10:

Trump holds a meeting in the White House with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Kislyak. U.S. reporters are excluded.[182]

Trump reportedly tells Lavrov and Kislyak he fired Comey to relieve pressure caused by the investigation.[183] Trump shares classified intelligence about ISIS with Lavrov and Kislyak without first seeking permission from the allied sources who collected the information.[184]

It is later confirmed that the intelligence came to Trump from Israel via Mike Pompeo.[185][186]

Pence characterizes the dismissal of Comey as a reactive decision Trump made in response to a recommendation by Sessions and Rosenstein.[187]

Who knows where any memo may be..if it should bubble up..along with so many more oh man..

[MFGsunny]

4. Mueller was quite clear that much of the reason for the "status" of his inability to bring

conclusions to some parts of his investigation was precisely the outright lying or lack of cooperation of some witnesses, coupled with withholding or claims of non-existing documents for production.

Just thinking about Ukraine-gate, can you say Manafort and all his collusion with other White House apparatchik personnel??????

[UTUSN]

5. K&R

[DeminPennswoods]

6. I'm sure Mueller would have known about the NSC's top classified

computer system. What he didn't know was that Trump/WH admin was hiding politically, not national security, damaging, transcripts/memos on it. It would've been easy enough to redact the part about exposing the asset inside AQ.

[Garrett78]

10. If he didn't know that, I'm surprised.

Over the course of his investigation, I'd be surprised to learn that he never found out that embarrassing material was being hidden in a classified server. But I suppose that's possible.

[Ligyron]

12. Precisely.

They can now redact any other legitimate security sensitive material and provide all the rest of that secret server material now without excuse or claims of BS "executive privilege".

If they don't, the American people will know what's really up . . . obstruction, cover up and yet another crime.

[greatauntoftriplets]

7. Add on another count of obstructing justice.

[SCVDem]

8. tRump declassified the Israeli intel

when he told the russians.

[ancianita]

9. It's reasonable to assume they did, indeed. They had no reason not to be good lawyers

and obey the law, but they chose loyalty to 45's interests and keeping their jobs.

When it's shown that they did that, they should be disbarred.

[barbtries]

11. I'm reading the Mueller Report

it's taking me forever but I will get through it. Still on Part 1, and collusion is all over it. My impression is that Mueller is very careful never to say that collusion did not happen, but that the investigation did not produce enough evidence to sustain a conviction.

I think trumpsters obstructed him at every turn.

[ProudProgressiveNow]

13. KR NT