You may have heard of the Rob Porter scandal, the guy who apparently abused his two wives big-time, and then was hired by the Trump Administration and, despite their knowledge of the accusations and divorces and myriad evidence to back the allegations, marked him for promotion, a fair haired boy.
You may not have yet heard this:
Rachel L. Brand, the No. 3 official at the Justice Department, plans to step down after nine months on the job as the country’s top law enforcement agency has been under attack by President Trump, according to two people briefed on her decision.
Ms. Brand’s profile had risen in part because she is next in the line of succession behind the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, who is overseeing the special counsel’s inquiry into Russian influence in the 2016 election. Mr. Trump, who has called the investigation a witch hunt, has considered firing Mr. Rosenstein. [The New York Times]
Both of these are significant. Ms. Brand, as she’s been appointed by both Democratic and Republican Administrations, may be considered one of those people we really need in government, ideologically-neutral in her job and understanding the importance of being so, along with being a highly competent lawyer, etc etc. Her loss is a signal of the deterioration of the Trump Administration.
But there may be something more to the Porter scandal than we’ll ever know, if you’ll permit me to transition into paranoia mode. Here’s the central question puzzling everyone: Stipulating his ex-wives contentions and that key players in the Administration, possibly but not necessarily including the President, knew of the accusations, then the central question is Why was he selected for such an important position (staff secretary handles darn near everything and acts as a gatekeeper to the President)?
Let’s take a hint from the troubles the Administration was having obtaining a security clearance for him. What was the problem? His wives were telling the FBI that he was violent enough that the very violence he had inflicted on them could be used as blackmail in order to control him.
Roll those words around in your mouth and feel them: control him. Blackmail.
I could very easily see those currently in control of the GOP seeing Porter not as a liability, but as a very useful tool: young, smart, proper training and credentials, ambitious, perhaps charismatic – and a real character flaw that could be used to control him.
What a catch. (What dicks!)
Fortunately, this all came public and his public career is probably – almost certainly – finished. Unless some damn fool Congress lets Trump rewrite the libel laws.
Does this all sound far-fetched to you? It’s not as far-fetched as a failed real estate developer and successful reality-show host becoming President by subverting the most overtly moral group of Americans despite infidelities, lies, and none-too-humble boasting.
OK, you make up a story to answer that central question.
