Government

The Best Part Of The Mueller Report Is Definitely Don McGahn's 'Notegate'

Trump's not a fan of notes.

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Don McGahn (via YouTube)

There’s a lot to talk about in the behemoth of a report dropped on America yesterday, but for sheer pettiness Don McGahn passive-aggressively crapping on Michael Cohen and Trump’s ensuing tantrum is the best lawyerly nugget from this whole debacle.

And best of all, it’s a fight that Trump is still fighting in public, just this morning. Notegate is so much fun.

From the Mueller Report:

The President then asked, “What about these notes? Why do you take notes? Lawyers don’t take notes. I never had a lawyer who took notes.” McGahn responded that he keeps notes because he is a “real lawyer” and explained that notes create a record and are not a bad thing, that it’s his legal responsibility to keep an accurate record of events. The President said, “I’ve had a lot of great lawyers, like Roy Cohn. He did not take notes.”

A “real lawyer” is a total dick thing to say and it was absolutely justified. There aren’t many occasions in life for a Widener Law grad to professionally dunk on anyone, but that’s why God created Thomas M. Cooley Law School. But it’s not just the Cohen snark that makes this passage so beautiful, it’s that Trump still holds his attorneys to the standard of a guy who was disbarred. Just a priceless snapshot of the amateur hour that’s been Trump’s entire business career.

Literally the first rule given to my summer associate class in orientation was “always bring a notepad when you meet with anyone.” Notes are the lifeblood of an attorney. It’s why the legal system has such robust protections for privilege and work product — because we expect everything to be taken down. Trump seems to want improvisational attorneys at best… and mob lawyers at worst.

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Best of all, with the damning revelations from the report, it’s this nugget that Trump’s still fighting this morning:

Beware the note-takers! It’s becoming clear that the White House is going to try and smear McGahn over their current firestorm. It’s an ironic way for McGahn to go out since he was arguably the most effective guy in the administration. It was McGahn who packed the federal judiciary with the parade of dubiously qualified ideologues who will be rewriting the Constitution for decades to come. It was McGahn who shepherded Justice Keggy McAssaultface onto the Supreme Court. And, it appears, it was McGahn who saved Trump’s presidency by not actually carrying out some of the president’s boldest obstruction plans.

Sadly all this scorn is going to turn into the foundation of the Don McGahn rehabilitation tour where we’re all asked to forget the substantive work he did in the service of this contemptible operation and take pity on him for landing on the receiving end of the purely superficial Trump tantrum circus. Donald Trump is a sideshow — Don McGahn was the real deal implementing the agenda. And America is going to fall for the sideshow.

Make a note of it.

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HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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