Are Trumpers Trying to Make Manafort Their Latest Fall Guy?

FILE - In this July 18, 2016, file photo, Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort walks around the convention floor before the opening session of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Hillary Clinton’s campaign is questioning Donald Trump’s top political aide’s ties to a pro-Kremlin political party in Ukraine, claiming it is evidence of the Republican nominee’s cozy relationship with Russia. The New York Times reported that handwritten ledgers found in Ukraine show $12.7 million in undisclosed payments to Paul Manafort from the pro-Russia party founded by the country’s former president Viktor Yanukovych. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
FILE - In this July 18, 2016, file photo, Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort walks around the convention floor before the opening session of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Manafort resigned in wa... FILE - In this July 18, 2016, file photo, Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort walks around the convention floor before the opening session of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Manafort resigned in wake of campaign shakeup and revelations about Ukraine work. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File) MORE LESS
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One of the recurrent features of the Russia investigation drama has been the Trump inner circle’s hunt for a fall guy. It’s a very weird progression because not only has the designated fall guy changed but the people in the inner circle have changed. Indeed, at some points, it’s been a member of the putative inner who was the designated fall guy. It’s complicated.

Let’s go back to the Spring.

When Marc Kasowitz first signed on as Trump’s lead Russia lawyer, the idea was that he would facilitate easing Jared Kushner out of the White House and in so doing concentrate the Trump/Russia scandal on him. Was Trump himself in on this plan? I’ve never been totally clear on that. It seems hard to figure since his favorite child is married to Kushner. But who knows? What I do know is that that was Kasowitz’s idea and key Trump advisors were on board too.

Some evidence of this has surfaced of late in the memos which mooted the idea of Kushner resigning his White House position over the summer.

Given the apparent depth of Kushner’s legal troubles and his family’s financial struggles, it makes perfect sense to get him out of the West Wing. Anyone trying to protect the President would keep him as far away as possible. But again, Kasowitz and company did not seem to be focusing only on preventing future damage to the President. They seemed to think that getting Kushner out could take attention off Trump altogether, could get him off the hook for whatever might have happened during the campaign.

In any case, that didn’t happen. Kasowitz is now gone. Steve Bannon apparently thought this was a good idea too. He’s also gone. Kushner remains. The whole idea that Kushner could be made to take the fall for Russia never made much sense. If Kushner did bad things, it’s very hard to believe that Trump wasn’t involved as well.  What’s more, as a political matter, “Trump didn’t sell the country out to Russia. His son-in-law did” would likely be a distinction that would be lost on most voters. Most importantly, the idea of ushering Kushner out of the White House and letting him take the fall for Russia seemed to be based on the idea that Congress and the DOJ/Mueller probe would somehow get so focused on Kushner that they’d forget about Trump. That seems to assume that everyone has as short an attention span as Trump does. That’s not true. It certainly doesn’t apply to Robert Mueller.

Now they seem to be on to Paul Manafort. We’re seeing Trump insiders raise the possibility that Manafort really did work with Russia and others threatening to go to war with Manafort if he turns against Trump. One thing to pay attention to is the leaks. Certainly people around Manafort believe that at least some significant portion of the recent Manafort news comes from Trump’s lawyers or people trying to protect Trump. Is that true? I don’t know. But people around Manafort definitely think that Trump’s supporters are trying to focus attention on him.

What really got me thinking about this was this morning’s news that Sen. Chuck Grassley wants to ask the FBI whether they did or why they didn’t warn President Trump that some of his top advisors had ties to Russia. It’s possible this is just Grassley coming up with some nonsense on his own or following a June story from Circa. But I kind of doubt it. Put it together with the other fragments of evidence and it may be the start of an effort not only to protect Trump from the Russia scandal but to rebrand him as the prime victim of the plot rather than a participant.

 

 

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