Fear: Trump in the White House(108)

“How you coming?” Trump eventually asked Dowd. “Can I see it?”

Dowd came to the White House residence on Saturday, January 27, 2018, around 1 p.m.

The president gave him a brief tour including the Lincoln Bedroom. “You and I fit in this bed,” he joked.

“We could see ourselves in the mirror,” Dowd joked back.

“If you win this case,” Trump said, “I’ll give you the A tour. Takes hours. In my opinion, this is the most beautiful mansion in the world. There’s nothing like it.”

Trump’s son, Barron, came in with a friend.

“Dad,” Barron said, “he wants his picture taken with you. Is that all right?”

Sure. The picture was snapped.

Trump and Dowd sat at a table with a view of the Washington and Jefferson Memorials.

“I would like to give you sort of a feel of what testimony could be like,” Dowd said. They would do a practice session. “And we’ll talk about a couple of these subjects. Maybe Comey and Flynn. Just lightly. You don’t have to do anything to prepare. Just come in cold.

“I want you to read our letter. I’m ready to sign it, but I will not sign it until you feel good about it. Because it is a major submission. This tells Bob where we are and where we think he is and why you should not—why he doesn’t deserve to ask you questions.

“If the questions seem harmless, don’t treat them that way. And I want you thoroughly focused on listening to the words. I’m not a windy examiner. I like the short, sweet questions. And I like to build it. I’m very patient. And I’ll give you the standard advice—just answer the question. Okay? Got it?”

Yes.

“When did you first learn that there was a problem with General Flynn?”

“I’m not sure. I think when McGahn had talked to Sally Yates. But John, I’m not sure.” Trump said that the acting attorney general had said that Flynn had told the vice president something that wasn’t correct.

“What’d you do about it?”

Trump said he didn’t think he had done anything. “I think Don took ahold of it. And they worked . . .”

“Did you call Flynn in?”

“No.”

“Did you talk to Flynn at all?”

“I don’t know. There’s something in my mind that . . . He and Priebus called me.”

“Well, Mr. President, did you ever ask him if he talked about sanctions with [Russian ambassador] Kislyak?”

“No.”

“Are you sure about that, Mr. President? We have some evidence that there may have been such a conversation. Are you sure about that?”

Dowd was aware that Priebus had given testimony favorable to the president. In one version with Priebus in the room Flynn had said in front of the president that he had never discussed his Kislyak conversations with the president.

Trump wandered off with a long answer that didn’t mean much.

“Look, let’s get back to brass tacks,” Dowd said.

“Oh.”

“Did there come a time when you had to let him go?” Dowd asked about Flynn.

“Yeah.”

“Do you remember how that happened?”

“No. I think he had a letter of resignation. I don’t mind telling you I felt very bad for him. He had his shortcomings, but he was a hell of a nice guy and I admired him. As you know, I love military guys. So that was the recommendation, and that’s what I did.” Priebus and McGahn had recommended that Flynn be fired.

“Did they ever tell you about an FBI interview?”

“I don’t know. I can’t remember.”

Dowd felt that Trump really couldn’t remember. As he asked more questions there was a lot that Trump said he couldn’t remember. He found this understandable, given the demands of the presidency.

So Dowd went back to December 2016, just after the election, and asked more about Flynn. “Well, was he making contact with diplomats, etcetera?”

“I assume he was.”

“Did he talk to Kislyak?”

“You know, I don’t know. I know there were a lot of conversations among the staff. I think I tweeted out some things.”

On March 31, Trump had tweeted, “Mike Flynn should ask for immunity in that this is a witch hunt (excuse for big election loss), by media & Dems, of historic proportion!”

“What was your position on the sanctions Obama approved?” Dowd asked. Obama had expelled 35 Russian diplomats, sanctioned several individuals and entities, and closed two Russian compounds in January 2017.

“Well, my position was it gave me leverage.”

“Oh!” Dowd said. “Because everybody thinks you would be against them, because you wanted good relations with Putin.”

“No, I looked at them as leverage,” Trump repeated.

Based on the testimony that Dowd had reviewed, this was accurate. Dowd figured he was cruising pretty well. The six-page memo the White House and Dowd had compiled on Flynn had much more information than Trump was now recalling. Dowd had given the day-by-day account of how the White House discovered that Flynn had lied to Mueller and Quarles, who had complimented the memo for its thoroughness.

“Well,” Dowd asked, “why did you tell Director Comey that—you kind of asked him to take it easy on Flynn. What was that all about?”