“But even if the rules had been changed, the whistleblower had both firsthand and secondhand knowledge.”

After reading around on this, there are hardly any theories about what is going on here. The only one I read that resonated was the following: They are going there to meet Mifsud’s lawyer, where they will claim that Mifsud worked for Western intelligence and was hired to set up Trump. This will be their bombshell…

What-everrr.

Your post reminded me of this Vonnegut excerpt:

I don’t see the problem here. Trump “jokes” around all the time. Just a joke, right, Donnie? Soft-as-a-biscuit motherfucker.

I actually went to bed early, very early, once I sensed what was about to unfold. I sort of had the opposite reaction as you, in that I felt like I needed to get that last full night’s sleep before it all went down. Like a guy in a holding cell on the eve of beginning a long prison sentence.

Ha. Shit. Fair enough.

For some reason, this reminded me of the Sopranos episode where Paulie and Christopher are stuck in a van, freezing, somewhere in the middle of nowhere in the snow. They find old mustard/ketchup packets and end up eating them just to stay alive.

On first look, this obviously sounds like a terrible idea that will likely result in his death (which it may). But are the Nine Trey Gangstas nationwide? I know Bloods in general claim to have sets across the nation, but Nine Treys specifically are primarily East Coast from what I’m reading. Theoretically, could he…

This cracked me up for some reason. I keep reading the dialogue in my head and chuckling. Nicely done.

Right. Gotcha. I was thinking about that as well (the more I read each day, the more try to figure this thing out).

Sorry, man. I meant “expected more” in the sense that the antics you describe are usually far more convincing, intricate, and constructed specifically to elicit a “gotcha!” moment to prove his insane alternate theories on how things went down.

Ha. I meant I expected more from him in the sense that I thought his utter pathological bullshit and spinning would be more effective, convincing. It was a lackluster performance for a guy who has made his bones off of defending Trump at every turn. The fact that his defense was so blase and he couldn’t drum up any…

Well said.

Fuckin’ red tape, man. Run-of-the-mill bureaucracy.

No problem. I’m still reading up on it.

Possibly? Maybe more that he was following what OLC (read: Barr) intervened and instructed him to do.

Holly, we’re usually on the same page. But here’s my take on it (feel free to shit on/dispute it).

Probably very little chance we ever get to hear these in full. I assume they disposed of them already, or altered them as well. Like when 18 minutes were missing from the Nixon tapes.

He is denying that he “withheld” it, per se, saying instead that because he didn’t believe the complaint to be a matter of “urgent concern,” (though the ICIG already deemed it as such) he didn’t have to submit it to Congress within the required 7-day period. He’s basically saying: I was going to get to Congress…