After Donald Trump left the White House, retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, the man who served as the Republican president’s chief of staff for 17 months, has struggled to contain his contempt for his former boss. Over the last couple of years, Kelly has accused Trump of, among other things, “
poisoning” people’s minds, having “
serious character issues,” and not being “
a real man.”
But even more important than Kelly’s assessment of the former president’s character are the concerns he’s raised
about Trump’s abuses while in office. Last fall, the week before Thanksgiving,
Kelly told The New York Times that Trump, during his presidency, told his chief of staff to use the Internal Revenue Service and the Justice Department to target his critics and perceived political foes.
The Times’
report went on to note, “Mr. Kelly said he made clear to Mr. Trump that there were serious legal and ethical issues with what he wanted.” The then-president “regularly” made the demands anyway, leading Kelly to remind his boss what he wanted “was not just potentially illegal and immoral but also could blow back on him.”
The significance of the report did not linger — it was overshadowed by a series of other Trump scandals — but Kelly’s allegations struck me as
incredibly important. In the midst of Republican hysterics about the Biden White House “weaponizing” and “politicizing” federal law enforcement — allegations that appear to have no basis in fact — here was the former president’s longest serving chief of staff explaining on the record that Trump
engaged in the precise abuse that he’s falsely accused his successor of engaging in.
Over the weekend, the allegations returned to the fore, and for good reason. The New York Times
reported on Saturday:
The court filing relates to a civil case we
discussed late last week: Peter Strzok a former senior FBI official who helped lead the initial probe of ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, is currently sing the bureau, arguing that he was wrongfully terminated. As part of the case, Strzok and his lawyers
intend to depose the former president, asking whether the Republican was involved in his firing.
What does this have to do with Kelly’s allegations? According to the retired general, Trump sought to use federal law enforcement against several perceived foes — including Strzok.
It was against this backdrop that Kelly said under oath that Trump discussed using powerful federal agencies to go after the former senior FBI official. What’s more, according to the Times’ report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, Kelly has contemporaneous notes related to the incident.
Not to put too fine a point on this, but it’s not every day when a former White House chief of staff implicates a former president — under penalty of perjury — in an impeachable offense.
For what it’s worth, a Trump spokesperson
responded to the allegations by saying the retired general is a “psycho,” the same label the former president has
applied to special counsel Jack Smith.
Come on, bring on the attacks.
Here is a man who actually served his country, but just watch how the Trump Humpers will attack him and call him a part of the Deeeeeeeep State.
Trump told his chief of staff to use the Internal Revenue Service and the Justice Department to target his critics and perceived political foes. Now we hear Trump Humpers whining all the time about the DOJ and FBI being weaponized, when it looks like that is exactly what Trump wanted them to be as long as it was in his favor.
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