Hurricane Watch
If your eyes feel dry, it’s because you haven’t blinked for a year… There’s The Donald. Bobby Three Sticks. Flynn. Manafort. Coffee Boy Papadopoulos. Comey. McCabe. Rick Gates. Nunes. Schiff. Stormy. Rudy. Trump’s lawyers. Trump’s lawyers’ lawyers. Junior. Javanka. Sessions. Rosenstein. Vlad. Cohen. Avenatti. The participants are all household names. Even those who cover them are famous. You know all the characters. You’ve followed all the twists and turns. You’ve been locked into this soap opera like no other story in history. And we’ve just reached the one year mark (although it feels like at least a decade in news years). Robert Mueller was appointed on May 17, 2017. After endless intrigue, several raids, five guilty pleas, seventeen indictments, and a hell of a lot of Tweets featuring the all-capped phrase WITCH HUNT!, here’s a look back at a few of the pivotal moments in Mueller’s Trump investigation. (Although, given the nonstop and overwhelming coverage of the investigation, it often felt like they were all pivotal.)
+ “Bigger Than Watergate!” The president marked the one year anniversary in the most appropriate way possible. With a series of Tweets based on information he gleaned from Fox and Friends.
+ “Their report helped provide the foundation for a case that, a year ago … became the special counsel investigation. But at the time, a small group of FBI officials knew it by its code name: Crossfire Hurricane.” The NYT with a look back at the roots of the investigation: Code Name Crossfire Hurricane: The Secret Origins of the Trump Investigation.
+ Meanwhile, neither the investigation, nor the related reporting, are showing any signs of slowing down. From Buzzfeed: The Definitive Story Of How Trump’s Team Worked The Trump Moscow Deal During The Campaign. “On the day of the third Republican presidential debate, Trump personally signed the letter of intent.”
+ Ronan Farrow on the leak of Michael Cohen’s financial records: “The official, worried that the information was being withheld from law enforcement, released the remaining documents.”
+ And what can we expect from Season 2 of this hurricane? Let’s kick it off with this headline from the NYT: Show Starring Avenatti and Scaramucci Is Being Pitched to Television Executives. (I probably should have said this a year ago, but please, don’t blame the messenger…)
