In my earlier posts on the Habba-Grenell mutual self-immolation spectacle, I’d told you that while Ric Grenell is as nasty as they come, I was skeptical that he was quite dumb or reckless enough to be involved in what Alina Habba and her new husband were alleging.
But I may heve been wrong!
There’s a new report out in Axios that adds a bunch more detail to the story. But before getting to that report, there’s some important context and caveats. I wouldn’t see this new Axios report as quite a “report” in the sense of new reporting that advances the story. It’s better to see this as three players (the White House, Grenell and Habba/Mildon) each of whom are trading a very hot potato back and forth between the three of them and hoping not to be the one left holding it when the music stops. But instead of a literal potato, that lashing out is taking place through new batches of leaks. We need to be clear that each batch of new leaks is from an interested party, with its own goals and agenda. And it may include some false details or more likely ones that are misleading. But on balance each batch of leaks is probably mostly true, helps fill out the emerging picture and sinks both adversary parties (Grenell and Habba/Mildon) deeper into the quicksand.
This new batch of leaks seems to be from the White House, but contains information that came from Habba/Mildon. The gist is that Habba/Mildon turned over text messages from Grenell which seem to set out a pay-for-play deal in which Mildon will give Grenell $17 million for high level access to the president and top administration officials. A lot of that access will be arranged through events at the Kennedy Center, which Grenell then ran. $5.6 million of the $17 million was supposed to go to the Kennedy Center. (Adding some credibility to these claims, Mildon did seem to receive that kind of access.) The rest was for “software” Congo was buying or a “software” deal that somehow involved the Texas-based defense contractor which was the direct recipient of the $17 million and which Grenell consulted for at least in 2024. The utter vagueness of detail about what some or all of this money was actually or purportedly for is a huge red flag.
Grenell’s defense seems to be that all these texts are fake. He apparently notes that in one of the texts he or what is alleged to be him spells the “center” in Kennedy Center with the British spelling “centre.” It’s true that I certainly wouldn’t expect an American to use that spelling. But that seems like a pretty thin argument for Grenell to rest his whole case on. More generally, it’s certainly possible that the texts are fake — they seem to have been presented to the White House as print-outs. But that also sounds like what you say when you’re caught dead to rights and that’s all you can say. (Sort of like, I didn’t melt down on Twitter. Someone hacked my account.)
As I noted yesterday, the White House has full access to all the forensic capabilities of the U.S. government — DOJ, FBI, intel community. Normally, it wouldn’t be appropriate to call on those capabilities to settle a fight among high-profile fixers. But I doubt Donald Trump will have many scruples about that. Point being, I’m pretty sure the White House can and will figure out whether or not those texts are real and get to the bottom of just what money went where.
The other part of the equation is that while Grenell may be in trouble, Habba isn’t in good shape either. The Axios piece quotes what seem to be White House sources saying Habba “went off half-cocked” bringing these accusations directly to Trump. And her story evolved rapidly after her first volatile meeting with Trump. The Kennedy Center donation was first $17 million, then $6 million and now apparently $5.6 million. She and her husband also first tried to hide that the money was from the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo, suggesting that it was a check from Mildon. In other words, it’s all consistent with Habba dumping a lot of sewage on Trump’s lap because she was trying to do in Ric Grenell without realizing that she was likely sinking herself in the process.
Let’s also note that Axios — in line with what I said above — seems to be speaking in the voice of its source, clearly the White House here, and presenting this as stern Mr. Trump — who definitely is totally super against corruption and pay-for-play — trying to get to the bottom of what happened and ready to come down hard on the malefactors.
Needless to say, this is utter BS. Trump loves corruption and he’s been totally happy with the free-for-all he’s overseen for the last 20 months. But it’s true that he’s become a lot less tolerant of anyone in his administration that gets found out as of about two weeks ago.
Outstanding questions: What exactly is this “software” deal or purchase that purportedly involves the DRC and this Texas defense contractor? Is anything about “software” even real? What is the role of the notoriously corrupt government of the DRC? And what is the story with this defense contractor? We seem to know only its rather nondescript name, TXAT.
As I noted last night, in terms of news and politics, I’m not sure the specific details even matter that much. A better global view is that Grenell and Habba/Mildon are in a Trump world fight for their lives and each new fusillade of leaks pulls them deeper, or further entrenches them in a story about whatever corrupt dealings they were involved with. Each of the three players (the White House, Grenell and Habba/Mildon) wants the mud to be on the other guy. But the ongoing battle is just spreading the mud around more and more.