Trump Lawyer Attends Briefing On Trump Informants, But It's Fine Because Nothing Matters

Once again, Team Trump violates norms. Once again, all the impotent Left does is complain.

Freshman year of college my four roommates and I developed a rotation for washing the dishes. It was fair, egalitarian even, a real achievement for five privileged boys living without parents or slaves for the first time.

One of our roommates — I’ll call him “Dave” because his name was Dave — was not on-board with the plan. I forget some of the salient details about his complaints, but I remember that the council defeated his objections, 4-1.

Dave’s turn in the rotation came and, predictably with the benefit of hindsight, the dishes started piling up. As the dishes stacked towards critical mass, the rest of us decided to stage a passive-aggressive intervention during a night of Tekken 2 on the Playstation 1 (I’m old). “Man, there are a lot of dirty dishes in here.” “Okay, whoever loses this next match has to wash the dishes [I smoked Dave at Tekken]” “It’s almost like the person who does not contribute to washing the dishes should be thrown out of the window.”

Dave was mostly silent on the dish issue, until the threats of physical violence became more explicit. Finally, Dave put down his controller, looked me right in the eyes, and said something which I still remember clearly, over 20 years later: “Guys, what you are doing, it doesn’t matter. I do not care. I will never wash those dishes. I have… no feelings.”

Although I didn’t realize it at the time, Dave had given me my first lesson on the difference between a “norm” and a “law.”

Social contract philosophy aside: laws do not require the consent of the governed. If you violate a law, some kind of “law enforcer” is empowered to show up and either compel performance or snatch your freedom.

Norms, on the other hand, really do require the consent of the governed. A norm breaker is only bound by his or her own tolerance for social ostracism. For instance, I have a very high tolerance to be socially ostracized by white people, which is why I do not coddle the racist Trump supporter. You cannot restrain me in my attacks on bigotry. Dave, turned out, had an even higher tolerance for social ostracism than me or my friends. At the point where he decided to not wash the dishes, we were left with two options: 1. Wash the dishes ourselves. 2. Break the dirty dishes on top of his face. Since option 2 would in fact violate an actual law, plus deprive us of dishes, we opted for option 1. That we hated Dave for it mattered little to Dave.

Sponsored

With the benefit of hindsight again, I regret my response. It’s funny, my whole entire upbringing was about “using your words,” and pretty much everybody I respect tells me to never resort to physical violence. But if I could go back to being 18 with three of my best friends all in the same room, I really do think option 2 would have been the better choice. A savage roommate beating probably wouldn’t have gotten me expelled in the mid-nineties. And when I close my eyes, I can’t see the dishes, I can scarcely remember why I even cared, but I can always see Dave’s cold, impassive face. I can always recall the feeling of impotence in the face of a bad actor. We should have taken his legs. Seeing Dave limp to class for a week would have been a better memory.

I don’t know where Dave is now (see, e.g., everything I just wrote), but his dickish spirit is the context for everything President Trump or one of his henchmen does. They… do not care about our norms. They have no feelings. They will never wash the dishes.

Yesterday, Emmet Flood, Trump’s lawyer, and John Kelly, Trump’s Chief of Staff, attended a Department of Justice briefing to Congress about the informants used to gather information on the Trump campaign.

The meeting should have never taken place, because the Trump defense team, of which Republicans in Congress are certainly a part of, are not entitled to reports on how information is being gathered on their client.

But while the GOP has a claim that they’re not just representing Trump (a claim that only passes muster if you are stupid), Emmet Flood can make no such argument. He shouldn’t have been allowed within 100 yards of that meeting.

Sponsored

Flood is normally a good attorney, he should literally know better. But, again, Trump corrupts everything he touches. Professor Lawrence Tribe gets to that aspect, aptly.

The White House has tried to clean this up with some propaganda about how Flood was just there to make a statement. I don’t know why they think that going to the meeting he shouldn’t have been at to say something nobody needed to hear makes it better, but it doesn’t matter. Nothing matters. There was a norm, Trump’s people broke it, and all the Democrats can think to do is bitch. Adam Schiff, for instance, issued a very strongly worded tweet about the affair. Yeah, I’m sure that will learn them.

The should have gone for Flood’s legs. I’m serious. When confronted with a norm breaker, if you are not willing to defend the norm physically and without “permission”, you’re not really willing to defend the norm at all. Democrats should have made themselves into a human shield to prevent Flood from entering. Force Flood, or Trump’s getaway driver John Kelly, to FIGHT their way into the room. If Flood does an end-around into another entrance, tackle him.

If Flood and General Kelly can beat you on the battlefield, so be it. But make that be the price of violating norms. MAKE IT COST.

Otherwise, they’re just going to keep beating you. Dave never in fact washed a dish other than his very own personal property. If you want Trump people to play the rules, you have to make them. They’ll never respect you otherwise.

Trump’s White House Lawyer Spotted At DOJ Informant Briefings For Lawmakers [Talking Points Memo]


Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.