On April 3, 2017, I added the following items to my Timeline for Moyers & Company. For context, see how they fit into the larger Timeline picture.
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- March 4, 2017: Trump was reportedly furious that Jeff Sessions had recused himself from the Trump/Russia investigation. He unleashed a tweet-storm, claiming that President Obama had wiretapped his phones during the presidential campaign. Stunned by Trump’s outburst, White House staffers began searching for evidence to support his false wiretap claim. Among those reportedly involved in the effort were White House Counsel Donald McGahn II and Ezra Cohen-Watnick, a 30-year-old Trump transition team member whom former NSA Mike Flynn had brought to the White House as senior director for intelligence programs. [Added April 3, 2017]
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- Also on March 7, 2017: Michael Ellis, 32-year-old general counsel to Nunes’ intelligence committee, joined White House Counsel McGahn’s office as “special assistant to the president, senior associate counsel to the president, and deputy national security council legal advisor.”
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- Also on March 10, 2017: Mike Flynn’s replacement as NSA, H.R. McMaster, told Ezra Cohen-Watnick that he was reassigning him. Unhappy with the decision, Cohen-Watnick appealed to Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner. They intervened and took the issue to Trump, who ordered that Cohen-Watnick should remain in his position. [Added April 3, 2017]
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- March 14, 2017: House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes and Ranking Member Adam Schiff invited former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates to testify before their committee at an open hearing on March 28, 2017. [Added April 3, 2017]
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- Also on March 15, 2017: On the subject of his wiretapping claims, Trump told Fox News, “I think you’re going to find some very interesting items coming to the forefront over the next two weeks.” [Added April 3, 2017]
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- March 23, 2017: In a letter to acting Assistant Attorney General Samuel R. Ramer, Sally Yates’s lawyer disagreed with the Justice Department’s objections to Yates’ anticipated congressional testimony. Associate Deputy Attorney General Scott Schools responded that Yates’ testimony was “likely covered by the presidential communications privilege and possibly the deliberative process privilege.” But Schools added that Yates needed only the consent of the White House, not the Justice Department, to testify. [Added April 3, 2017]
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- Also on March 24, 2017: Yates’ lawyer wrote to White House Counsel McGahn about Yates’ upcoming testimony before the House Intelligence Committee. He noted that unless McGahn objected before 10:00 a.m. on March 27, Yates would appear and answer the committee’s questions. [Added April 3, 2017]
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- March 27, 2017: Trump tweeted that the House Intelligence Committee should be looking into Bill and Hillary Clinton’s ties to Russia: “Trump Russia story is a hoax.” [Added April 3, 2017]
- March 30, 2017: The Senate Intelligence Committee opened its hearings into the Trump/Russia investigation. Clinton Watts, senior fellow at George Washington University’s Center for Cyber and Homeland Security and former FBI agent, testified that the committee should follow the money funding misinformation websites. Watts then added a more ominous suggestion: “Follow the trail of dead Russians,” he said. “There’s been more dead Russians in the past three months that are tied to this investigation who have assets in banks all over the world. They are dropping dead, even in Western countries.” Eight Russian politicians, activists, ambassadors and a former intelligence official had died since Trump’s election. Some were apparent assassinations. [Added April 3, 2017]
- Also March 30, 2017: The New York Times reported that Nunes’ sources for the information that he’d reviewed nine days earlier on White House grounds – and then reported to Trump directly without informing anyone on his committee – were two members of the Trump administration: Ezra Cohen-Watnick (the NSC staffer whose job Trump had saved personally around March 13) and Michael Ellis (who had served as general counsel of Nunes’ committee before becoming Trump’s “special assistant, senior associate counsel, and deputy national security council legal advisor” on March 7) [Added April 3, 2017]
- Also on March 30, 2017: The Wall Street Journal reported that Mike Flynn was seeking immunity from prosecution in return for testifying before congressional intelligence committees. The next day, his lawyer confirmed, “General Flynn certainly has a story to tell, and he very much wants to tell it, should circumstances permit.” [Added April 3, 2017]
- March 31, 2017: Trump tweeted, “Mike Flynn should ask for immunity in that this is a witch hunt (excuse for big election loss), by media & Dems, of historic proportion!” [Added April 3, 2017]
- Also on March 31, 2017: During an appearance with Bill Maher, Roger Stone denied that Guccifer 2.0 was an arm of Russia. “I’ve had no contacts with Russians,” he insisted. [Added April 3, 2017]